Address: PO Box 608, Woodstock, VA 22664; tel. 540-459-8000; fax: 540-459-8001.
Accommodations: Thirteen rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, parking onsite, room phones, fishing and hiking, conference facilities.
Rates: $$-$$$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, restricted smoking.
Ashton Country House
Staunton, Virginia
Although Civil War artifacts have been unearthed near this inn, the town’s main link to the war was musical. It was the home of the Fifth Virginia Regimental Band, which Stonewall Jackson appropriated and rechristened the Stonewall Brigade Band. At Appomattox, Grant allowed the musicians to take home their instruments, and they serenaded him when he passed through town after the war.
This inn, an 1860 Victorian house, is a good place to relax, and Staunton (pronounced Stanton by the natives) is near a number of Civil War-related sites in the lower Shenandoah Valley, including the New Market Battlefield, the Lee Chapel, and Stonewall Jackson’s home in Lexington. The spacious house, furnished in the Empire style, has a forty-foot-long hall, high ceilings, and heart-of-pine floors. It is on twenty-five acres with goats and cows for neighbors. A secluded porch beckons those who just want to relax with a book. Hosts Vince and Dorie DiStefano greet guests with tea and home-baked goodies, and sherry and candy are placed in the guest rooms.
Address: 1205 Middlebrook Ave., Staunton, VA 24401; tel: 540-885-7819 or 800-296-7819.
Accommodations: Four double rooms, one suite, all with private baths.
Amenities: Central air-conditioning, off-street parking; TV, VCR, and fireplace in suite, fireplaces in three of the other rooms.
Rates: $$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: Children accepted with notice, no pets, no smoking.
Stonewall Jackson House
Lexington, Virginia
Stonewall Jackson lived in Lexington and taught at the Virginia Military Institute during the 1850s. He and his second wife, Mary Anna Morrison, moved into this house in 1859, the only house he ever owned. After the war, the house was used as a hospital for a number of years before being opened to visitors. Now a National Historic Landmark, the house and garden have been restored to their appearance of 1859-61. A number of Jackson’s personal effects are on display in the house.
Jackson and hundreds of his compatriots are buried in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, on South Main St. The great general’s grave is marked by a full-length statue by Edward V. Valentine.
The Stonewall Jackson House, 8 E. Washington St., Lexington, VA 24450, is open Monday-Saturday, 9:00-5:00, to 6:00 in July and August, Sunday 1:00-5:00. Admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for children six to twelve, free for children under six. Interpretive audiovisual program. Guided tours. For information phone 540-463-2552.
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, Virginia
Next door to Washington and Lee University is the Virginia Military Institute, founded in 1839, the first state military college in the country. The school contributed a host of officers and men to the Confederate cause, including Lee’s most trusted lieutenant, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, who taught physics and artillery tactics here before the war. His statue now stands at the center of the campus, overlooking the parade ground, with the four cannons he named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. On the east side of the parade ground is Sir Moses Ezekiel’s seated statue of Virginia Mourning Her Dead, a monument to the ten VMI cadets who were killed in the 1864 Battle of New Market. Mementos of Jackson are on display in the campus museum, including the raincoat he was wearing when he was fatally shot at Chancellorsville. The bullet hole is clearly visible.
The Virginia Military Institute campus and museum are open daily except Thanksgiving and December 20-January 10. Admission is free. Dress parades are held Friday afternoons, September through May, weather permitting. For information phone 540-464-7000.
Llewellyn Lodge
Lexington, Virginia
Civil War buffs have a lot to see in Lexington—the Lee Chapel and the house Stonewall Jackson lived in when he taught at the Virginia Military Institute. And there are many antique shops to explore.
This handsome Colonial revival house has been a bed-and-breakfast since the early 1940s; in fact, it’s the oldest such establishment in town. Guests receive a warm welcome from hosts John and Ellen Roberts. In the summer expect lemonade or iced tea on the porch; in the winter it’s John’s “killer” hot chocolate or hot spiced cider by the fire and, of course, cookies. Ellen’s breakfasts are a local legend and John can lead you to the best trout streams and hiking trails in the area.
Address: 603 S. Main St., Lexington, VA 24450; tel: 540-463-3235 or 800-882-1145; fax: 540-464-3122; E-mail: [email protected].
Accommodations: Six double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, public golf and tennis a mile away, fly-fishing nearby, concierge service.
Rates: $$. Senior discount, Monday-Thursday. All major credit cards and personál checks.
Restrictions: No children under ten, no pets, no smoking.
Lee Chapel
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia
Robert E. Lee was president of what now is Washington and Lee University. He assumed the position shortly after the war and served until his death five years later at the age of sixty-three. He was not simply a figurehead. He worked hard to lift the academic standards and increase the enrollment of the little college. His unpretentious office in the basement of the Lee Chapel on the campus remains intact, chairs still drawn up around a small conference table. Down the hall from the office Lee’s remains are entombed in a family crypt, and family mementos are displayed in a small museum. In the Chapel, upstairs, are hung the Pine portrait of Lee and the Peale portrait of the young George Washington, as well as the famous recumbent statue of Lee sculpted by Edward V. Valentine. Lee lies with one hand on his chest, his face tranquil but ravaged by the years of war. The remains of his beloved horse, Traveller, are buried outside the chapel. A few steps away from the chapel is the house where the Lees lived in those years.
The Lee Chapel is open Monday-Saturday, 9:00-4:00, Sunday, 2:00-5:00, except New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and the following Friday. Admission is free. For information phone 540-463-8400.
Red Shutter Farmhouse
New Market, Virginia
On May 15, 1864, a desperate General John Breckinridge ordered 247 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute to join the battle against the forces of Federal general Franz Sigel. The boys entered the fray fearlessly, and their heroism inspired the victory of the Confederate troops.
Five miles south of the battlefield, next to the Endless Caverns, is this friendly bed-and-breakfast on twenty acres, owned and hosted by George and Juanita Miller. The main house was built in 1790 and enlarged in 1870, 1920, and 1930. Guests are offered a variety of large rooms, all furnished in the Virginia country style.
Address: Rte. 1, PO Box 376, New Market, VA 22844; tel: 540-740-4281; fax: 540-740-4661.
Accommodations: Five double rooms, three with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, afternoon tea, TV and game room, hiking, nearby golf, horseback riding, antique and craft shops.
Rates: $$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, restricted smoking.
New Market Battlefield
New Market, Virginia
On May 15, 1864, a large Federal force on its way to plunder the supply depot at Staunton was met by General John Breckinridge leading five thousand hastily assembled troops, including 247 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. The outcome was in doubt until Breckinridge reluctantly ordered the cadets into battle. The boys charged the Federal line, making possible a Confederate victory.
The Hall of Valor here has ex
hibits tracing the events of the war, and audiovisual presentations on Jackson’s 1862 campaign and the VMI heroes. The New Market Battlefield Park and Hall of Valor are open daily. From I-81 take Exit 264 (New Market), go west on Rte. 211, then right on Collins Dr. (Rte. 305). Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $2 for children six to fifteen. For information phone 540-740-3101.
The New Market Battlefield Military Museum is on Manor’s Hill, where the fiercest fighting took place. Each side held a position on the hill until the Federals were forced to retreat north. The victory here was the last Confederate victory in the Shenandoah Valley. The museum has over three thousand artifacts ranging from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War, with a focus on the Civil War. From I-81 take Exit 264 at New Market, turn west; turn right at next road (Collins Dr.). Travel a quarter of a mile. Museum entrance is on left at top of hill. A thirty-five-minute film on the war is shown hourly. Visitors can take a self-guided walking tour of the battlefield, following historical markers. Open March 15 through December 1, daily 9:00-5:00. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $2 for children. For information phone 540-740-8065.
The Museum of the American Cavalry, 298 W. Old Crossroads, has an extensive collection of cavalry-related items: guns, sabers, and uniforms, with special emphasis on the Civil War. From I-81 take Exit 264 and turn west on Rte. 211, then make an immediate right onto Collins Dr. Museum is on the left. Open April through November, daily, 9:00-5:00. Admission is $4.50 for adults, $2.50 for children. For information phone 540-740-3959.
Chester
Scottsville, Virginia
Late in the war, during Sheridan’s devastating Shenandoah Valley campaign, Major James Hill was wounded while commanding the local Confederate forces. While recuperating here at Chester, he was visited by General Sheridan and his aide, Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Believing Hill was a dying man, they decided not to arrest him. Hill fooled them, however, and lived to become a general and editor of the local newspaper after the war.
This beautiful house was built in 1847 by a retired landscape architect from Chester, England. Chester’s eight acres contain a lily pond, stands of English boxwood, and upward of fifty different varieties of shrubs and flowers.
Innkeepers Craig and Jean Stratton have given Chester an elegant charm that befits an English inn. Convenient to Jefferson’s Monticello, Monroe’s Ash Lawn, Michie Tavern, and the other attractions in the Charlottesville area, Chester provides an intimate setting for comfort and relaxation.
Address: 243 James River Rd., Scottsville, VA 24590; tel: 804-286-3960.
Accommodations: Five double rooms, all with private baths and fireplaces.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, bicycles on request, dinner at extra charge with advance notice for groups of six or more, fishing and canoeing available nearby.
Rates: $$$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under eight, no pets, restricted smoking.
Appomattox Manor Plantation
Hopewell, Virginia
From June 1864 until the end of the war, General Grant made his headquarters in this cabin on the lawn of Appomattox Manor Plantation, near the junction of the James and Appomattox Rivers. City Point became the center of the Union war effort during the Petersburg Campaign, and tents and cabins occupied nearly every available square foot of the plantation grounds. While Lee and his army suffered in the trenches before Petersburg, shiploads of food and supplies arrived daily for the Union forces. A special twenty-one-mile railroad was built and eighteen supply trains sped supplies to the front. The matériel pouring into City Point were a symbol of the Union’s great advantage in the war—it simply had more than enough of everything. President Lincoln visited City Point on two occasions, using the drawing room of Appomattox Manor as his office. He was here for two of the last three weeks of his life. His ship, the River Queen, was moored just offshore. A day after Lincoln left, Grant moved closer to the Petersburg front and began his final offensive.
Appomattox Manor Plantation, at the intersection of Cedar Lane and Pecan Ave., is now the City Point Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield (see this page). Two rooms at the Manor are open to the public, and General Grant’s cabin still stands on the grounds. A fifteen-minute video is available, and visitors can take a self-guided walking tour. Open daily, 8:30-4:30, except for federal holidays. Admission is free. For information phone 804-458-9504.
Lynchburg Mansion Inn
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lee’s tattered army was headed for the railroad here at Lynchburg when it was cut off by Grant and forced to surrender at Appomattox, a half-hour’s drive away.
For a time before the war, Lynchburg was the second wealthiest city in America, and while the city has more than its share of grand mansions, none is grander than this one, once the home of self-made multimillionaire James R. Gilliam.
The beautiful columned house blends Spanish and Georgian elements, and each of its many rooms is a showcase. A large grand hall, with high ceilings and paneled wainscoting, opens onto a parlor furnished with Victorian antiques.
Innkeepers Bob and Mauranna Sherman have made sure that the guest rooms and suites are equally splendid. One of the suites opens onto a circular balcony. Morning begins with coffee and juice and a newspaper on a silver tray by your guest room door, a prelude to a gourmet breakfast that will see you through a morning of sightseeing.
Address: 405 Madison St., Lynchburg, VA 24504; tel: 804-528-5400 or 800-352-1195.
Accommodations: Five guest rooms, two of which are suites, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, fireplaces, hot tub on porch, library, garden with gazebo.
Rates: $$-$$$. All credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, no smoking.
NORTH CAROLINA
Bennett Place
Durham, North Carolina
Two old battle-weary adversaries, Joseph E.Johnston and William T. Sherman, met under a flag of truce midway between their lines on the Hillsborough Road, seven miles from Durham Station. Needing a place to confer, Johnston suggested a simple farmhouse a short distance away, the home of James and Nancy Bennett. The generals would meet here three times, struggling to achieve equitable terms of surrender. On April 26, 1865, the farmhouse became the site of the largest troop surrender of the war.
Striving to avoid capture in Virginia, President Jefferson Davis arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 11 and summoned Johnston to assess the strength of his army. Davis believed the South could and should continue the war, but the news of Lee’s surrender prompted him to allow Johnston to confer with Sherman.
At their first meeting, Sherman showed Johnston a telegram announcing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sherman explained that he was prepared to offer terms similar to those Grant gave Lee. Johnston demurred, saying he wanted “to arrange the terms of a permanent peace,” political as well as military.
At the second meeting, on April 18, now knowing that Johnston’s surrender wasn’t a military necessity, Sherman gave Johnston a “memorandum or a basis of agreement.” Johnston accepted the terms. This liberal document provided for an armistice that could be terminated on forty-eight hours’ notice, and its provisions included the disbanding of Confederate armies following the deposit of arms in state arsenals, recognition of state government, establishment of federal courts, restoration of political and civil rights, and the promise of a general amnesty.
Davis, unhappy with the terms, ordered Johnston to disband his infantry and make an escape with the cavalry. Johnston, realizing the devastation a prolonged war would bring, disobeyed his president. He met with Sherman again at the farmhouse on April 26.
As it turned out, the final agreement was simply a military surrender ending the war in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, affecting 89,270 Confederate soldiers. The mustering out of Johnston’s troops and the issuing of pardons took place in
nearby Greensboro.
Two more surrenders would follow. Richard Taylor surrendered his army in Alabama on May 4, and E. Kirby Smith surrendered his at Galveston on June 2. This meant that Confederate forces now were completely disbanded.
Bennett Place State Historic Site, 4409 Bennett Memorial Rd., Durham, NC 27705, is six miles west of Durham, then a half-mile south of I-85 on U.S. 70. From I-85 north, take Exit 170 onto U.S. 70, then, after approximately a half mile, turn right onto Bennett Memorial Rd. The site is a half mile farther on the right. From I-85 south, take Exit 173 and follow the signs.
The original buildings, destroyed by fire in 1921, have been reconstructed from wartime photographs and sketches. An audiovisual program tells of the Bennett family and the events that happened here.
Open April through October, daily, 9:00-5:00; November through March, daily except Monday, 10:00-4:00. Closed Thanksgiving and December 14-26. The surrender is reenacted the first Sunday in December. Admission is free. For information phone 919-383-4345.
Bentonville Battleground
Newton Grove, North Carolina
It was the Confederacy’s last chance to prevent General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army, marching north from Georgia, from linking up with Grant, who had Lee’s army pinned down at Petersburg. As Sherman’s army entered North Carolina, hundreds of North Carolinians deserted Lee’s army to protect their homesteads. General Joseph E. Johnston’s small force had attempted to stem the tide at Aversboro on March 16, 1865, but the big battle, the biggest ever fought in the state, was here, three miles east of Newton Grove, on March 19, 20, and 21. It was the last battle in which a Confederate army was able to mount even a minor offensive.
With fewer than thirty thousand men, Johnston waited until miserable road conditions forced Sherman, who was headed for Goldsboro, to divide his sixty-thousand-man command into two wings. Discovering that the Union wings had become separated by a half-day’s march, Johnston saw an opportunity to destroy first one wing, then the other. On the evening of March 18, Johnston organized his forces into a sickle-shaped line along the Goldsboro Road near the village of Bentonville and waited. Sherman’s left wing stumbled into the trap. Initial attacks overran large sections of the Union lines. But one division managed to hold on, despite being attacked on both sides, and it saved the day. Failing to crush the Union lines, Johnston pulled back to his original position.
Chuck Lawliss Page 7