Small Country Campground, Louisa, Virginia – June 6-12, 2016

We left Pipestem Resort State Park on Sunday morning about 10:20. It had rained all night, with heavy thunderstorms early on, but by the morning the rain had stopped we were able to pack up without much problem. It was a relatively short drive to our next destination in Louisa, VA, just 198 miles away, to Small Country Campground. Our drive from the Pipestem campground to I-64 took us along Rt. 20 through the mountain town of Hinton, WV. Through town the road turned out to be a 1-way street through windy and hilly terrain—interesting. However, there was a bright spot: as we were driving along the Rt. 20 a golden eagle flew parallel to our truck for quite a while. Really cool! And, it was HUGE! So sorry we weren’t able to get photos.

Traffic was relatively light on I-64 until it merged with I-81 for a bit.

We arrived to Small Country Campground at 2:30 Sunday afternoon. The sites are quite expensive, and ours was definitely not level! The roads and sites are gravel, no concrete pads. We got set up quickly, and about 6:30 there was a thunderstorm and deluge for about ½ hour. Glad we weren’t setting up then!

Monday we took a day to recoup and decide what we wanted to do during our week of exploring this historical area. There’s so much history around here, as you can well imagine. We also walked around the park, which includes quite a few activity areas, such as miniature golf, an oversized chess set, a “jumping pillow”, horseshoes, and a water trampoline and “Rock It” water fun. (The campground is located adjacent to Lake Ruth Ann, so there are lots of water activities available.) Then, it was off to do a bit of grocery shopping and fuel the truck. Oh, and the WiFi screams!

Our first history stop was to Monticello, which we did on Tuesday. Monticello is located about ½ hour from our campground. We opted to purchase what’s called a “neighborhood pass,” which gives you access to Jefferson’s Monticello, The Michie Tavern, and Monroe’s Highland—all located within a few miles of one another.

Monticello:

Monticello is called the “autobiographical masterpiece” of Thomas Jefferson. Over the course of 40 years, Monticello was designed, redesigned and built and rebuilt. The surrounding 5,000 acre agricultural enterprise included gardens, orchards and vineyards that were not only a source of food, but also Jefferson’s experimental laboratory of useful and ornamental plants from around the world.

As Jefferson began his plan and design for Monticello, the first brick building completed on the property was the South Pavilion. In 1772, Jefferson and his new wife Martha lived in the small plastered 2nd story room of the 2-story structure built into a hillside, until the main house was complete enough to inhabit. Later that year, their eldest daughter Martha was born here. Its lower level originally contained a kitchen that opened into a yard that extended down to Mulberry Row, the center of work and domestic life for the dozens of free, indentured and enslaved people under Jefferson’s employ. Mulberry Row was residence to more than 20 cabins, workshops, and storehouses between 1770 and 1831, when Monticello was sold.

During his lifetime, Jefferson owned more than 600 enslaved people, hiring more than 100 white craftsmen to work on his plantations. (To date, historians have identified only 87 individuals who lived and worked on Mullberry Row.)

Our tour of Monticello, led by docent Carrie, took us through only a few rooms on the main floor of the mansion, including the main entrance (NW Portico), parlor, dining room, tea room, library (which at one time held over 6,700 volumes), Jefferson’s  cabinet (office) and bed chamber, south square room and adjacent “Madison” room. (Today, there are a total of 33 rooms in the house itself.) No photos were allowed inside the mansion, due to copyrights, but you can see the rooms (and more!) at www.monticello.org.

These are just a few of the things we were amazed at. I have to mention his ingenious calendar, which not only told the day of the week, but also told the time of day; it’s located in the main entrance. Because he was known to use “every available space,” his bed was built into an alcove which opened on both sides: one side to his personal bedroom, and the other to his “cabinet” or office where he would spend time reading, writing, doing research, and studying. He was quite ingenious, in that he designed a 4-sided pivoting “desk” so he could have 4 books open at one time, similar to our version of the computer where we can have multiple “windows” open at one time, I guess. He also had his polygraph machine, a copying machine with 2 pens, so when he wrote with one pen, the other made an exact copy. He wrote approximately 19,000 letters in his lifetime, and he saved copies of almost all of them. 

There are 13 skylights in the mansion (a bit ahead of its time!); the walls varied in thickness from 13.5” at the northeast front to 27” in the parlor side walls; excluding the pavilions or rooms beneath the terraces, the mansion covers about 11,000 square feet; there are 5 “privies” in and adjoining the main house (Jefferson called them “air-closets.”) There were also dumbwaiters installed to the dining room which provided wine directly from the cellar.

One of the most unique aspects of Jefferson’s design for Monticello was his incorporation of the service rooms beneath the raised L-shaped terraces extending from either side of the mansion. They ‘re located next to the house without having them visible from the level of the primary residence, thus allowing the slaves and servants to enter the mansion by all-weather passageways. These service rooms (or what were termed dependencies) included the kitchen, wine cellar, beer cellar, storage cellars, ware rooms, etc.

Jefferson’s wife, Martha, died in 1782. He spent most of the following decade away from Monticello, first as U.S. minister to France, and then as secretary of state under President Washington in New York and Philadelphia. He returned to Monticello in 1793 marking the beginning of another period of transformation for the Monticello plantation.

Although tobacco had been the main crop grown on the plantation, Jefferson began to move away from that crop to growing grain. This affected how Jefferson managed his fields, and also the lives of the many slaves living and working at Monticello in 1794. Grain required less labor, but greater organization and more specialized skills.

He also returned to Monticello with plans to redesign his house, based on ideas he had seen in Europe. In 1796 Jefferson began to enlarge his house from 8 rooms to 21. Work on the house continued throughout his return to politics first as vice president of the U.S. (1797-1801) under John Adams, and then as president (1801-1809).

Jefferson retired from presidency of the U.S. in 1809, returning to Monticello and turning his attention to some of the things he loved best: family, books, and his farm. This didn’t preclude the number of visitors he had during this time. He was constantly among relatives (his daughter Martha lived at Monticello with her husband and family), and an unrelenting stream of visitors. This included political and philosophical discussions with James Madison and James Monroe, and renewed friendship and unparalleled correspondence with John Adams (his former political adversary). He also was busy with building Poplar Forest (his retreat home about 70 miles from Monticello), and establishing the University of Virginia.

Jefferson died more than $107,000 in debt. (During the War of 1812, the British burned the U.S. Capitol and the Congessional library; in 1815, Jefferson, by then greatly in debt, sold his library to the nation, and it became the nucleus of the present Library of Congress.) As a result, his daughter Martha and her son found it necessary to sell nearly all of the contents of Monticello, and then to sell the plantation itself. Between 1831 and 1879 Monticello was sold numerous times, but finally, in 1879, Monticello was sold to Jefferson Monroe Levy, who along with his uncle Uriah P. Levy (who had earlier purchased the home in 1834) worked to preserve Monticello as a memorial to Jefferson. In 1923 the property was sold to the newly created Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns Monticello today.

Before moving on, I need to mention just a few facts about Jefferson’s abilities as a scientist and a gardener. 

Jefferson owned over 10,000 acres in adjacent counties, as well as 5 satellite working farms surrounding Monticello. His “Garden Kalendar,” a part his famous Garden Book, records the daily activities of all things farming, including sowing seeds, manuring asparagus, and harvesting peas. He recorded that his Hotspur peas were “killed by frost,” or that his yellow squash “came to nothing.” He could also record remarkable details, as in 1811 when he noted that “2/3 pint sow a large square, rows 2½ feet apart and 1 f. and 18 I. apart in the row, one half at each distance.”

The vegetable garden was his “laboratory” where he experimented with imported vegetables, fruits and seeds from as far away as Italy, France and Mexico, as well as those from Lewis and Clark expeditions. He grew as many as 20 varieties of beans and 15 types of English peas, selectively eliminating inferior types.  Only the strong survive! Jefferson also considered other ornamental features and contrasting plant textures, such as planting arbors of different flowering shades of plants, arranging adjacent rows of purple, white, and green sprouting broccoli, or even white and purple eggplant. Vegetables were an important part of his diet; Jefferson preferred a plate of vegetables rather than meat.

Jefferson’s garden is 1,000 feet long and 80 feet wide, containing about 2 acres. In order to preserve a rare variety, plants were often left to seed, collected and saved for the next season. Herbs were cut for drying, and consisted of 16 medicinal, fragrant, and culinary herbs. As we walked through the gardens we noticed plant stakes with, along with the plant name, the initials “TJ” or “L&C”. These indicated that the plants date back to the seeds originally planted by Thomas Jefferson, and may have come from samples brought back to him from Lewis and Clark on their expeditions. So in essence, these plants are the offspring of those originally planted by Jefferson. How cool is that!

Monticello also had an 8-acre fruit garden, including a 400-tree south orchard, and 2 small vineyards, in addition to what he called “berry squares” of currants, gooseberries, and raspberries. He propagated fruit trees and special garden plants, planting beds of figs and strawberries where they could take advantage of the warm climate created by the 1,000 foot stone retaining wall. Jefferson experimented with over 150 varieties of 31 of the finest species of fruit, including apricots and almonds. The fruit trees grown in the north orchard averaged 200 trees and consisted of only apple or peach trees, which were harvested for cider, brandy, or as livestock feed.

Along with his fruits and vegetables, Jefferson had numerous flower gardens, many were winding flower borders, including  plans for 4 large oval-shaped areas that were to be planted with flowering shrubs. By 1812, Jefferson systematically organized the flower borders and divided the beds into 10 foot sections, each compartment numbered and planted with a different flower. These winding flower-lined walkways reflect Jefferson’s interest in the latest, informal style of landscape design he admired during his visit to English gardens in 1786. Flower gardening piqued the interest of Jefferson’s daughters and granddaughters, who cared for the many flowers along the walkways and in the flower beds Jefferson so carefully planted, rather than a professional gardener.

Whew! There was a lot we saw and took in during our 3½ hours we spent there at Monticello!

Wednesday it was back to Charlottesville to see The Michie (pronounced Mickie) Tavern, and James Monroe’s Highland.

Michie Tavern:

The original Michie Tavern was built in 1777 in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 17 miles from its current location. It was built by a William Michie, whose father had died, and who inherited a large parcel of land in Albemarle County, Virginia. The property was fed by a natural spring, and was highly populated with deer, thus called Buck Mountain. It was here William began building his tavern, starting a new chapter in his life after serving in the army at Valley Forge. 

In 1784 William petitioned to operate an “Ordinary.” Because of the new government a license was now required, where under the previous British rule such a license was never deemed necessary. By this time the tavern was a popular stopping place, especially during time of elections at the nearby courthouse. William was politically active and wasn’t shy about expressing his views, especially over a tankard of ale or spiced rum. 

William’s tavern rivaled the most elaborate accommodations in town. The 2-story inn, along with the public sleeping room, and keeping room on the first floor, featured an upstairs assembly room, which served as the social center of the area. It was used for political meetings, dances, and for worship services. Traveling musicians, guest doctors and dentists would share their profits with the innkeeper for use of this space. Over time it would also serve as a makeshift post office and school.

The tavern continued operation until the mid-1800s. Around the time of the Civil War, stagecoach travel had diminished causing lost revenue. It then became Michie’s private home. In 1910 the tavern was sold out of the Michie family at an estate auction, and for nearly 20 years it remained a home for the new owner.

In 1927 a local businesswoman expressed interest in purchasing Michie Tavern to house and display her vast collection of antiques, and to open a museum, even though the tavern was remote and in a state of deterioration. She had paid close attention to the economic situation of America, and the development of tourism. She also took interest in the preservation activities becoming vogue. She knew Monticello had been open for several years and was drawing thousands of visitors per year, so she followed the principles of her preservation peers when she moved the Michie Tavern to a more accessible location, 17 miles away, and just ½ mile from Monticello, where she could take advantage of those visitors. 

Within 3 months the old inn had been painstakingly numbered, dismantled and moved by horse and wagon, and by truck to its new location. This move became a historic event, and would ultimately lead to the tavern’s designation as a Virginia historic landmark.

Michie Tavern opened as a museum in 1928. Once again Michie Tavern was located on a busy thoroughfare, welcoming strangers at its door. Today, the tavern recreates 18^th century tavern life, offering food and drink in the Ordinary, and a unique shopping experience.

Then, it was off to Highland, the home of James Monroe and his wife Elizabeth for over 25 years.

Highland:

James Monroe was born the 2^nd of 5 children, to parents who were “small” planters, raising tobacco on their farm of approximately 500 acres. Initially educated at Parson Campbell’s school in Westmoreland County, Virginia, James studied at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia from 1774 to 1776, when he enlisted in the Continental Army’s Third Virginia Infantry Regiment. At just 18 years of age, Lieutenant Monroe crossed the Delaware River during General George Washington’s December 1776 campaign; he was wounded at the Battle of Trenton. He camped at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, and participated in the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. He left the army in 1779, but continued to serve in the Virginia Militia, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Monroe returned to Williamsburg, meeting then Governor Thomas Jefferson, with whom he began to study law in Richmond in 1780, the two becoming lifelong friends. Six years later James married Elizabeth Kortright of New York City, and soon after moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia where he practiced law for 3 years before moving to Highland, in Albemarle County, Virginia on property adjacent to Monticello. They had 3 children, 2 girls and a boy. (The boy died at just 1 year of age.)

Monroe was in public service for 50 years, starting with his election to the Virginia General Assembly, subsequently serving in the Confederation Congress and in the first U.S. Senate. He was minister to France twice, and later minister to England and to Spain. Monroe was elected to 4 one-year terms as Governor of Virginia, becoming Secretary of State for the remainder of President James Madison’s 2 terms. He also served as Secretary of War during the War of 1812. All this said his greatest achievement as a diplomat was his negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

James Monroe was elected President of the U.S. in 1816 and in 1820, resolving longstanding grievances with the British, acquiring Florida from Spain in 1819, and proclaimed the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823. Labeled the “Era of Good Feelings,” Monroe’s administration was hampered by economic depression and debates over the Missouri Compromise. He supported the American Colonization Society, which established the west-Africa nation of Liberia for freed blacks (its capital was named Monrovia in his honor), but he was torn between his belief that slavery was an evil institution, and his fear of the consequences of immediate abolition. (It’s interesting to note that his home, Highland, was home to enslaved African Americans who built and ran the plantation, affording Monroe the ability to dedicate himself to politics and law. Some slaves, however, risked punishment and even their lives to escape enslavement. Once a slave, after running away numerous times, was sold in New Orleans where conditions were harsh for enslaved people. Monroe sent a stark message of power and authority, demonstrating the potentially brutal consequences of running away.)

Monroe's  relationships with slaves continued throughout his time in public office. He never supported equal rights for slaves, but he did work toward an end to slavery even though he continued to own slaves through his lifetime. He did allow certain slaves freedom in work assignments, sought medical treatment for ill or injured slaves, and made sure his slaves had access to the basics of food, clothing and shelter.

Monroe, a nationalist in diplomacy and defense, supported the notion that the needs of the public should override personal greed and party ambition, supporting a limited executive branch of the federal government, distrusting a strong central government in domestic matters, extolling the advantages of industrious farmers and craftspeople, and advocating republican virtue. As president, James Monroe achieved distinction as a successful diplomat and administrator, furthering our country's strong national identity.
 
Monroe died in New York City, at the home of his younger daughter, on July 4, 1831.
 
The original Monroe home, Highland, burned to the ground after the house and core property was sold in 1826 due to financial difficulties. This protected Monroe’s long-term stability, but led to the dispersal of many enslaved field hands who were sold to a cotton farmer in Florida. The rest of the property was transferred to the Bank of the United States in July 1828.
 

Therefore, we were able to tour only the guest house originally built by Monroe. And, here again, we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the homes. By accessing www.highland.org you’ll see photos.
 

The guest house, built in 1818, originally had 4 rooms, with a stone kitchen cellar below. From the kitchen and its adjoining wine cellar, stairs offered easy access to the home above. An additional room was built some time later.

We viewed James Monroe’s study, which houses a Louis XVI desk, almost identical to the “Monroe Doctrine Desk” which now resides in the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Then, we were able to see the children’s room, added in 1816, which contains a king’s crown canopy bed and bedsteps, a beautiful sampler stitched by the younger daughter when she was just 11 years old.

The bedroom features Monroe’s high-post bed with canopy and a trundle. The bureau in this room with its green marble top was made for Monroe during his first term as president. The centerpiece in the dining room is the Hepplewhite dining table purchased in 1786, shortly after the Monroe's were married. The combination of American furniture and European style tableware illustrates the contributions Monroe made in building relationships between the U.S. and European nations.
 

The drawing room features a French mantel clock, and the drawing room chairs (made in Paris around 1800) are just a few of the distinctive and elegant furnishings found here. The reproduction carpet and antique 19^th century wallpaper recreates the feeling of French decorative tapestries owned by the Monroe’s. The room is dominated by a bust of Napoleon Bonaparte, presented to Monroe by the Napoleon himself.
 

Highland was opened to the public in 1931 by the then owner philanthropist Jay Winston Johns and his wife Helen. When he died in 1974, Johns bequeathed Highland to the College of William and Mary, where Monroe studied from 1774 to 1776. This property is operated as a historic shrine for the education of the general public.
 

Recent excavations, combined with tree-ring dating, shows that a newly discovered foundation was Monroe’s original house, not the home still standing on the property. The well-preserved remains lie just below the ground surface in the front yard of the 1870s home attached to the guest house. In the front yard of the new home, boasting a circumference of 20 feet, stands a white oak tree that dates back to before the time Monroe and his family lived here.
 

What is called the kitchen yard still contains the original smokehouse, used for curing meats and fish, and the overseer’s cottage, what historians believe may be the oldest outbuilding on the plantation. Between those structures stands a reconstructed 3-room dwelling that originally housed enslaved workers.
 

We did see 2 rooms of the current main house, that hold a collection of objects from the War of 1812, a drop-leaf Honduran mahogany table (sent to Monroe from the people of what is now the Dominican Republic, in gratitude for Monroe’s famous “Monroe Doctrine,” protecting the Western Hemisphere from European political and military intervention. Also on display are 2 dresses, reproductions of those worn by Mrs. Monroe, and a copy of the famous painting of “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” Directly behind Washington, gripping the American flag is 18-year old Lieutenant James Monroe.
 

Monroe, like Jefferson, experimented with a variety of agricultural techniques, including a technique of boosting soil productivity by plowing gypsum into the soil. He estimated that his plantation could produce 20,000 pounds of tobacco, but eventually he replaced tobacco with grain products. With his gristmill and sawmill he had the ability to grind the plantation’s corn and wheat, and process timber from Highland’s 2,000 wooded acres. Another of his feats was to cross-breed imported Spanish Merino sheep with his domestic animals, thus providing wool for spinning and weaving in order to save money on costly imported foreign cloth.
 

Monroe’s property hosted both ornamental and utility gardens. Elizabeth Monroe, a most cultured lady, required fresh and dried flowers for bouquets. Her staff required a variety of herbs for cooking, medicinal purposes, dyeing fabrics, repelling moths, and for scenting linens. The vegetable garden yielded cabbage, beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, and numerous varieties of greens.

We weren’t done with our historic tours yet, as Thursday morning we went back to the Charlottesville area, to famed Montpelier, James Madison’s home.

Montpelier:

Madison was born March 16, 1751, the oldest of 12 children, in Port Conway, Virginia. He spent his early years at Mount Pleasant, the first house built on the Montpelier plantation. At age 12 he was sent to Donald Robertson’s school in King and Queen County where he studied arithmetic and geography, learned Latin and Greek, acquired a reading knowledge of French, and began to study algebra and geometry. After a private tutor provided further study at Montpelier, Madison enrolled at the College of New Jersey (today known as Princeton University), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1771. Continuing his education, he studied Hebrew and ethics, and completed 2 years of coursework in 1 year. He really worked himself into poor health, after which he returned to Montpelier to continue reading on a variety of topics, specifically law.

Madison entered the world of politics in 1774 when he was appointed to the Orange County Committee of Safety, and was elected to represent Orange in the 1776 Virginia Convention. He lost the 1777 election for the Virginia Assembly, but was appointed to the Council of State (1777-1779); he served as Virginia’s representative to the Continental Congress from 1780 to 1783, and as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1787. He returned to Congress in 1787.

When, in 1787, the Continental Congress called for revisions to the Articles of Confederation, Madison made specific proposals for devising a new constitution which became known as the Virginia Plan. Many of its elements were incorporated into the Constitution in its final form. He wrote 29 of the 85 anonymous essays comprising the Federalist. Madison was elected to Congress under the new Constitution, where he served from 1789 until 1797.

It was during this time, after a brief courtship, that Madison married the widowed Dolley Payne Todd in the fall of 1794. (She lost her first husband and youngest child to yellow fever in 1793, but met and married Madison in 1794.) Not to be in the background, Dolley served as a dynamic political partner, national hostess serving as hostess for both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison during their presidential terms and, although there were wives of presidents in the White House before her, she is considered the real “first lady.”  It was during her tenure in Washington that she set political and social precedents that shaped the culture of the new republic, followed to this day.

Dolley had received little formal education as a child, but she was a quick learner, educated in the social and political spheres of Philadelphia and Washington, and was very prepared for the historical role she assumed in 1809, as the first president’s wife to preside over the emerging Washington, D.C. society. “Dolley never forgot a name she had once heard, nor a face she had once seen, nor the personal circumstances connected with every individual of her acquaintance,” said Margaret Bayard Smith, Dolley’s close friend. Dolley’s animation complemented her husband’s reserved personality.

By this time Madison tired of public life, and longed for the quiet life at Montpelier, enjoying life with “a partner who favoured these views, and added every happiness to his life which female merit could impart.”

His quiet life was short lived, as Madison returned to politics in 1799 when he was elected to the Virginia Assembly. He served in the House of Delegates during the 1799-1800 session, and was appointed to the Electoral College for the election of 1800, an election famously thrown to the House of Representatives when the Electoral College vote was tied between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House selected Madison’s longtime friend and neighbor, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson subsequently appointed Madison as secretary of state (1801-1809), during which Madison oversaw the Barbary Wars, a major embargo, the Lewis and Clark expeditions, and the Louisiana Purchase. At the end of Jefferson’s 2^nd term as President, Madison was inaugurated as the 4^th president of the U.S. (1809-1817), inheriting the unresolved issues stemming from the war between France and Great Britain.
 

During the War of 1812, the low point came in the summer of 1814 when invasion by the British was imminent. Dolley remained at the White House packing state papers, silverware, and other valuables. It was with the help of Madison’s manservant Paul Jennings, chef, and gardener that Dolley facilitated the removal of Stuart’s portrait of George Washington crossing the Delaware, thus saving it and many other significant items before the White House was burned to the ground.

Madison took part in one final political event following his retirement: the 1829 Virginia Convention that revised the state constitution. After this it was retirement to Montpelier, where he and his wife Dolley managed a large plantation, entertained visitors by the hundreds, and jointly edited Madison’s significant political papers, including his notes on the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Dolley even stepped in as Madison’s secretary when rheumatism kept him from writing.

Unlike other couples during this era, James and Dolley rarely spent time apart. Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836, predeceasing Dolley by 13 years. After his death, life at Montpelier became quite challenging, as she was charged with publishing Madison’s papers, and they didn’t bring in the money she had hoped would sustain her through the end of her life. Financial hardship caused the sale of Montpelier; Dolley sold or gave away the contents of the home before making Washington, D.C. her permanent residence in 1844.

Dolley died on July 12, 1849 at the age of 81. Her remains rest alongside her husband’s in the Madison Family Cemetery at Montpelier.

Today, the search for original items is underway, based on the oral history, inventories, diaries, journal entries, memoirs, probate and tax records. Details about furnishings and rooms provide detailed information. When possible, rooms have been furnished and restored to replicate the 1820s Montpelier.
 
As in the other presidential homes, no photos were allowed inside, but check out www.Montpelier.org for more information. We were able to see a few of the rooms in the mansion, which have been restored. We saw the old dining room (converted to a parlor for their 100-year old grandmother), the newer dining room complete with table settings from the Madison’s time at Montpelier, the drawing room, Madison’s bedroom (where he died), Dolly’s bedroom, Madison’s library which is filled with books and maps that reveal his brilliant mind, and a few other rooms converted for exhibits.

Outdoors we witnessed the archeological digs going on, which continually reveal the lives of the slaves who lived at Montpelier and served the Madison’s. While we were there, there was a magnificent find: a whole and complete knife was found, which was the basis for much rejoicing among the archeologists!
 

Montpelier offers 2,650 acres of rolling hills, spacious horse pastures, and spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We loved just looking out at the magnificent vistas before us, as a cooling breeze did its best to refresh us in the 88° weather.

From the house we walked to the formal gardens renovated by Annie DuPont in the early 1900s. Originally, the Madison’s enjoyed a garden of nearly 4-acres, including the present 2-acre formal garden. It contained vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamental shrubs. A number of slaves were trained as assistant gardeners and one of the slaves eventually became the head gardener when the French garden designer returned to France. Today, the gardens are surrounded by a brick wall with ornamental gates, and feature formal walkways, sweeping perennial flower beds, an herb garden, trees, and stately formal statuary.
 

From there we walked the short distance from the mansion to the Madison Family Cemetery, where both James and Dolley Madison lie, along with almost 100 family members.
 

We certainly enjoyed our journey back a few hundred years to these magnificent, historical homes of our country’s founding fathers! That evening we had dinner in Louisa at the Mexican restaurant, Los Tres Potrillos (the three foals). Good stuff!

Friday delivered another sterling weather day in central Virginia so we decided on a driving tour of the historic Civil War Battle of Trevilian Station.

Confederate General Wade Hampton’s victory over Union General Phillip H. Sheridan at Trevilian Station on June 11-12, 1864, prevented Sheridan from joining General David Hunter and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad at Charlottesville. General Jubal A. Early’s Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia then used the railroad to reach Lynchburg in time to repulse Hunter on July 17-18. Trevilian Station was largest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. “The Battle of Trevilians”, wrote Hampton’s chief of artillery, was important “because, if lost, General Robert E. Lee and his entire army would have been without supplies. Trevilians was so important to General Lee that he was able to stay in Petersburg for nearly a year longer.” A month after the battle, Lee requested that Hampton be promoted to permanent commander of the cavalry corps because of his victory here. (Refer to http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/trevilian-station.html for more information)

We started our trek at the Sargeant Museum in Louisa, Virginia, where we found information on and relics from the Battle of Trevilian Station (and lots of other memorabilia from the area covering many years).

 From there we drove a few blocks to the Louisa Courthouse, site close to the route of the Virginia Central Railroad, one of the Union targets to disrupt Confederate supplies, which passed through this county seat.

Here stands a statue in memorial to the hundreds of Confederate soldiers who gave their lives during the Civil War.

From the Courthouse we embarked on a tour of significant sites of the battle.  The sites were marked with signs describing what happened at that particular location. Most of the locations were open fields or on modern business properties with the buildings of historical significance long since gone but two of our stops were of particular interest.

The first was the reconstructed Netherland Tavern and outbuildings, constructed in the 1790’s to serve travelers along the Fredericksburg Stage Road. Major General Wade Hampton of South Carolina, commander of the Southern forces made the Netherland Tavern his headquarters to make battle preparations with his generals.

The other was the Oakland Cemetery where some of the Confederate battle dead are buried. Most were never identified but the grave of Lt Col. Joseph A. McAllister, commander of the 7th Georgia Calvary was clearly marked. On the afternoon of June 11, 1864 while heroically defending and refusing to surrender Trevilian Station was killed in action.

Saturday we woke to a sunny and warm day: temps in the high 80s with humidity just reaching the mid-50s. Nice. We decided to go into Louisa to do our laundry even though there was a laundry here at the campground. That way we could also enjoy a breakfast out! To save time, Dick went to McDonalds and brought back coffee and sausage-egg-'n'-cheese McMuffins. Yum-yum! We were done with laundry within about an hour and a half. Then it was off to wash the black truck.

Dick was itching to hit the road on the motorcycle, so that's what he did. He rode about 70 miles through the lush green countryside of Virginia, loving every minute of it! He discovered Lake Anna, a beautiful, large, recreational lake northeast of the campground. He even stopped at the local Food Lion grocery store to pick up a few items. What a guy!

Sunday was packing up and moving day for us, as we headed to Williamsburg, Virginia for more history.

More on next week. Until then, stay safe, stay well.

Hugs,
RJ and Gail