my journey as a civil war novel writer

  The holiday was over too soon. That last saturday I decided to just rest and lay on bed at Koen's aunt and uncle. We were going to leave for the airport after lunch and I was dreading the long journey. I never sleep on planes and I did not expect to sleep this time so any rest I could get now would help. Boarding in Philadelphia was smooth and we were lucky this time. The plane was nearly sold out but we had an empty chair in between. We had eaten something at the airport. It was not very big so it was hard to find something that was not absolutely crowded. If I was the airline I would do things differently on a flight like this. It is only a 7 hour flight to London. and it took nearly two hours before they served us a meal. So by the time that was finished it was nearly 3 hours into the journey and very little time go get some sleep. I don't think many people managed it. An hour before landing they wake you up already. I would not serve a full meal, because I know the staff...

  A very early start this morning as we had to drive all the way down to the end of the Shendandoah valley for the nearest car rental spot in the direction we were going today. It was at a very small regional airport. The people already expected us and it was no trouble getting another car. Same make and model just another colour. and within half an hour we were on our way again. Two days earlier we had seen there was another civil war musuem in New Market and we decided to just have a look at it.  This turned out to be an absolute find and the kind of museum I love. Basically it was one person's collection and as many objects as possible we crammed into display cases. There was so much to look at! It ranged from, the revolution, civil war, Native american artifacts, WW II and asian art. It was astounding that one person was able to collect all this and had the money to collect it all. It must have been in a time before collectors paid the real big bucks and some of the stuff ...

  You can't do Gettysburg well in one day at least I can't. And I also wanted to spend some time in the town itself, so today we had an early start for a second day in and around Gettysburg. We spent most of the morning on the battlefield doing the bits we had missed out on the first day. Cemetery hill and the remainder of confederate avenue. I just love being amongst the statues and other memorials of the past. In fact I think I could spend weeks or months here just exploring or sitting quietly. Most of my friends do not understand this. I already often get the same questions. Are you going to do those battlefields again? You have seen them by now.  We took a break for lunch. A holiday around Gettysburg is not complete for me without at least one meal at the Dobbin house. I love the atmosphere and they serve great food. It is one of the few times I splash out on food. But going into town was a bit of a dissapointment for me. A lot of my favorite shops were just gone. The...

We almost made it a day without doing anything civil war related. 😉 Koen is much more into nature than I am and he loves photography, so we decided to do the Skyline drive today through the Shenandoah Valley. So today I am going to use his photos. Again not something I had never done before, my first time here was October 1993. Maybe that spoilt it for me for coming back in any other time of year as however beautiful it is, I was underwhelmed. I remembered the spectacular fall colours of that first visit. And I have to admit that I am someone who usually likes my nature only if it is combined with history. Except for the polders and the beach.  The skyline drive is driving at a slow pace over the tops of the Shenandoah mountains. Koen was really hoping we would spot some wild animals and we were lucky although it was not the bears he had wanted. Secretly I did not mind that so much. We saw many birds and on the last stretch a wild deer crossing the road. Around here they are not ...

  One of the longest drives of the holiday today. And it would prove to be another very warm day as well.  We had no problems driving to Fredricksburg and parking at the visitors centre. This is a small one with really no more than a small shop attached. From here you are right at the edge of Longstreet's lines. It is such a pity that the fields in front of the earth works are full of houses. It does not give you an idea of how difficult it must have been for the Union troops to cover that ground. I do find it a little surprising as well. Like imagine if there was a whole section of houses on the fields of Pickett's charge. And honestly I don't think I would ever buy a house on ground that so many people died on. Call me superstitious but it would not sit well with me. It is still nice to walk around and to see the statue of St. Kirkland which signifies that even in battle there can be kindness. Next we drove to Chatham manor. It is worth a visit if only for the views. This...

For the Sunday we were looking for something that was at least in the right direction when Jeremy would have to drive the nearly 5 hours back to New York state. So Antietam was an obvious choice. And only 20 minutes to drive from our appartment. It's a nice drive coming through Shepardstown as well. I really love these old towns with the wooden houses that you see in this part of the country. Sharpsburg is like this as well. It always strikes me what a difference there is between Sharpsburg and Gettysburg as Sharpsburg is not touristy at all. There is hardly even a place to get lunch there. And no or nearly no souvenir shops at all. They were renovating the visitor centre at the battlefield and had built a temporary one. To our surprise you now have to pay for the battlefield. This is the first time ever I have come across it and I do wonder what would have happened if we did not as nobody checked us and some of the battlefield is on open roads. Antietam was the bloodiest one day ...

  The first friday took us to Frederick in Maryland, a town I passed by many times but had never taken the time to visit. We were going to meet our friend Jeremy here who was coming down from New York state to spend the weekend with us.  As Frederick was on his way down it made sense to spend some time there. Frederick houses the national museum of civil war medicine so yes another day with a civil war link. We spend few hours there and the volunteer staff were very knowledgeable and willing to share their knowledge of civil war medicine which made for a very enjoyable experience there. For once we came home early and had time to play some games in the evening. Saturday was a day of longer driving heading back in the direction of Washington. It was going to be the hottest day of our holiday, our area was expecting some rain and Washington was not which made it the choice of the day. Google maps must have been feeling the heat as well as it took us on a very interesting dr...

Thursday was another lovely sunny day and another day we would do a lot of miles. Going all the way to the outskirts of Washington D.C. to Manassas. One of the battlefields I have visited more than once in the past. I usually flew in to Dulles and Manassas is right on the doorstep so this was usually our last stop for half a day. First Manassas [or first Bull run] is one of the smaller battefields. One of the few that you can actually walk. We started with the ranger talk outside which consists of Henry Hill and the Henry house with some general information about the start of the war and this battle. In those early days they thought that this would be the battle to end the war from both sides spectators had come to watch the ultimate battle. That day in July 1861 would change expectations on the war forever. It is always good to walk the actual ground of a battle. The many hills mentioned in books give it away, it is not flat. But neither are this high hills. The terrain kind of meande...