Today began with a treat!  Since it’s Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the beginning of the month in the Jewish calendar that contains Chanukah, Trish made latkes, fried potato pancakes traditionally eaten on Chanukah, for breakfast:

Our first stop of the day was Richmond National Battlefield Park, a collection of civil war sites from both the 1862 and 1864 campaigns.  We visited the main visitor center, which is located at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.  It was at Tredegar that most of the cannons used by the confederacy were made, as well as many other iron-based implements of war:

Remnants of the old iron works:

A model of a Confederate ironclad ship:

A piece of armor plate made here at Tredegar for the first Confederate ironclad, the CSS Virginia, also known as the Merrimac:

The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbook for the Tredegar Iron Works unit of Richmond National Battlefield Park, and received their patches:

They also completed a Junior Ranger workbook for Richmond National Battlefield Park as a whole, and received their badges and patches:

We left the RV at Tredegar and drove the truck to downtown Richmond, where we visited Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site:

Mrs. Walker is best known for joining and ultimately saving and leading the Independent Order of Saint Luke, which under her leadership established a store and a bank for African Americans.  She was the first African American female bank president, beginning her tenure over ten years before women even had the right to vote:

This room contained a mockup of the teller window at the bank:

A coin bank for children, to be used to open a savings account at the bank when it was filled to capacity with 100 pennies:

Our next stop was Mrs. Walker’s home:

We were inspired by Mrs. Walker’s ability to overcome both personal and cultural adversity to accomplish great things.  The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges: 

We went back to the RV, hitched up and drove south towards Petersburg, buying a new wheel to replace the wheel damaged in Tuesday’s blowout as well as refilling a propane cylinder along the way.  We eventually arrived at Petersburg National Battlefield, which preserves the history of the nearly year-long siege of Petersburg by Union troops.  The siege ended with the capture of Petersburg, which in turned forced the Confederacy to abandon its capital city, Richmond.  Days later, Lee would surrender to Grant at Appomattox, essentially ending the Civil War:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger badges and received their patches:

Tonight we are overnighting at a Walmart near Petersburg.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

After a rather noisy night at Walmart, we drove north a few miles to visit Prince William Forest Park.  Like Catoctin Mountain Park, which we visited on Day 810, Prince William Forest Park started out as a Recreational Demonstration Area.  The area was later used for military training, and was eventually given to the NPS to operate as a park:

While the kids were working on their Junior Ranger workbooks, I reattached one of the truck mudflaps that had stripped out of the sheet metal it was screwed into by using a fragment of one of our leveling blocks to stop the screw from pulling out of the sheet metal:

We did a letterboxing activity on the Piedmont Forest Trail:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

Our next stop was the National Museum of the Marine Corps:

A Harrier hangs from the ceiling in the atrium:

An early American UAV, created after the Israeli Military’s success with UAVs in Lebanon in 1981:

A Vought F4U Corsair:

We walked through all of the galleries in the museum, each dedicated to a period of Marine history from the birth of the nation through Vietnam.  A second section of the museum is being built to contain galleries dedicated to the post-Vietnam history of the Marines:

“Is that a Blunderbuss?” you might be asking.  Yes, indeed it is:

A sledgehammer head used by marines to attempt to break down the doors of the firehouse in which John Brown was holed up (see Day 811):

Ready for duty:

Back in day, pilots would pick up messages by flying low over a pair of soldiers holding poles with a rope across the pole tops holding a small bag.  A hook on the plane would grab the bag:

Galleries had immersive experience areas which used lighting and sound effects to simulate combat situations:

The flag raised over Iwo Jima:

Our last stop of the day was the Fredericksburg unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, site of the Battle of Fredericksburg:

Confederate troops crouched behind this wall four men deep and slaughtered Union troops trying to charge across the open field to the left of the wall. The Union suffered nearly 13,000 casualties, never reaching the wall:

Bullet holes in the interior wall of this building caught between the two armies:

A monument to Richard Rowland Kirkland:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their patches:

We continued south to overnight at a Walmart in the northern suburbs of Richmond, Virginia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.