resultant casualties
were horrendous, and a
precursor to WWI trench
warfare.
The area has reverted
to a forest and field
checkerboard overseen by
the National Park Service.
Ask a ranger to direct you
to the third turnout, a
series of Union earthworks
from where you can look
out at the most preserved
section of the fight: the
long, low field northern
soldiers charged across.
This landscape has
essentially not changed in
over 150 years.The Drive » From Cold
Harbor, head north on VA-156/
Cold Harbor Rd for about 3 miles
until it intersects Creighton Rd.
Turn left on Creighton and follow
it for 6 miles into Richmond.7 Richmond
There are two Civil War
museums in the former
capital of the Confederacy,TRIP HIGHLIGHTand they make for an
interesting study in
contrasts. The Museum
of the Confederacy (MOC;
%804-649-1861; http://www.moc.
org; 1201 E Clay St; admission
$8; h10am-5pm Mon-Sat,
from noon Sun) was once a
shrine to the Southern
‘Lost Cause,’ and still
attracts a fair degree of
neo-Confederate types.
But the MOC has also
graduated into a respected
educational institution,
and its collection of
Confederate artifacts is
probably the best in the
country. The optional tour
of the Confederate White
House is recommended
for its quirky insights (did
you know the second-
most powerful man in the
Confederacy may have
been a gay Jew?).
On the other hand,
the American Civil War
Center (%804-780-1865;
http://www.tredegar.org; 490
Tredegar St; adult/student/
child 7-12 $8/6/2; h9am-
5pm; c), located in the
old Tredegar ironworks
(the main armament
producer for the
Confederacy), presents
the war from threeperspectives: Northern,
Southern and African
American. Exhibits
are well presented and
insightful. The effect
is clearly powerful and
occasionally divisive,
a testament to the
conflict’s lasting impact.54 p286
The Drive » Take Rte 95
southbound for about 23 miles
and get on exit 52. Get onto 301
(Wythe St) and follow until it
becomes Washington St, and
eventually VA-35/Oaklawn Dr.
Look for signs to the battlefield
park from here.8 Petersburg
Petersburg, just south of
Richmond, is the blue-
collar sibling city to the
Virginia capital, its center
gutted by white flight
following desegregation.
Petersburg National
Battlefield Park (US 36;
vehicle/pedestrian $5/3;
h9am-5pm) marks the
spot where Northern
and Southern soldiers
spent almost a quarter of
the war in a protracted,
trench-induced stand-
off. The Battle of the
Crater, made well-known
in Charles Frazier’s
Cold Mountain, was
an attempt by Union
soldiers to break this
stalemate by tunneling
under the Confederate
lines and blowing up
their fortifications; the
end result was Union
soldiers caught in the
hole wrought by their
own sabotage, killed like
fish in a barrel.WHAT’S IN A NAME, PART 2?
One of the more annoying naming conventions of
the war goes thus: while the North preferred to name
battles for defining geographic terms (Bull Run,
Antietam), Southern officers named them for nearby
towns (Manassas, Sharpsburg). Although most
Americans refer to battles by their Northern names, in
some areas folks simply know Manassas as the Battle
Of, not as the strip mall with a good Waffle House.VIRGINIA.TRIPS23
(^) THE CIVIL W
AR TOUR