Civil War & Emancipation Day

On Saturday, April 12, Richmond celebrated Civil War & Emancipation Day! What is exciting about this is they had lots of sites that normally cost money that were free! They also had lots of reenactors at the different sites.

We started the day at Historic Tredegar as this site had the most activities. We visited the American Civil War Museum (normally would cost us $28) which is to the right.

This museum is unique in that they looked at the Civil War from the perspectives of the Union, the Confederacy & the slaves.

I loved the timeline the museum has. It runs throughout the museum & highlights any event during the wartime with facts, maps & pictures.

Here David is talking with one of the singers. This man did an awesome version of Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho. David really liked him.

Mary Ryan puts Jessica & David to work rolling cartridges for the Confederate Soldiers. She was one of the best re-enactors I've seen. She never broke character. The kids didn't quite know how to take that.

This man was giving a demonstration on rifles from cleaning to firing!

Here David is standing in front of a "window" overlooking the water wheel. It was one of the best places to stand on a warm day. A nice cool breeze came through & cooled us off.

Here the kids were getting recruited into the army.

Next they were drilled on how to march & shoot their weapons. This was the first recruitment/drilling exercise we've attended that had guns for the kids to use.

We almost skipped this as we were tired but David really wanted to go. The white building in the center of the picture is the White House of the Confederacy.

First we visited the museum. They had a neat timeline map that showed all the major events during each year of the Civil War.

Every major battle of the Civil War had a display case filled with artifacts from the battlefield & items from soldiers who fought there.

The last exhibit talked about the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Then we went on a tour of the Confederate Whitehouse! I wish I could show you pictures, but photography was not allowed. If ever in Richmond, you should visit it. After the Civil War, the local women's group helped acquire the building & then went to work finding all the furnishings that had been auctioned off. They used auction records to locate the buyers then convinced a lot of them that it was their patriotic duty to help preserve the memory of the Confederacy by donating what they had bought to the museum. Thanks to their hard work, over 50% of the furnishings during the Whitehouse days where found. Mrs. Davis returned to the Whitehouse several times to help them set the rooms up as they were during the Confederacy!

Here is the back of the Whitehouse. This is the part that actually faces the road.

 

I love historic markers! I love that the time was taken to mark the history of different places! When I see those signs, I know we are going to be learning something new!!

 

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