Richmond, Day 3

I’ve now been here for 48 hours. It’s been quite eventful.

Yesterday, I had a busload of 60 people that I took around the battlefield at Trevilians. It was a good day and a good group. We covered the entire field, with a particular focus on Custer and his role in the battle. We also had an excellent presentation by the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation folks. It as 95 degrees and about 90% humidity, so it was pretty beastly out there. By the time we got done at the first stop, I was drenched in sweat. Fortunately, the night was free. I had dinner and got to relax.

Today was an incredibly busy day. Today was a lecture day. There were talks for most of the day, with me as the closer. There are about 160 attending here–yesterday’s tour was an optional pre-conference tour–so they had me talk about Trevilians. I was genuinely surprised to see a lot of the people who attended the tour at the talk. I guess they hadn’t had enough.

Frankly, most of the talks weren’t of much interest to me, so I went off on my own. My first stop was Hollywood Cemetery. I got to see pretty much all of the cool graves (although I couldn’t find Henry Heth’s), and photographed most of them (although I got the rope for the camera in front of the lens while shooting Archer’s grave). I will post most of them when I get home.

I left there and went to the visitor center at the Tredegar Works, and visited the bookstore. From there, I went to the west side of town where Dahlgren and his raiders were repulsed by Confederate home guards. It’s at the intersection of the Three-Chopt Road and Cary Street in the high-rent district of Richmond (most of the battlefield is part of the Country Club of Virginia today).

I then did my talk, sold some books, and then this evening, there was a reception at the Museum of the Confederacy and White House of the Confederacy. Of course, the air conditioning at the MoC went out this afternoon and it was 95 here again today, so it was just ghastly in there.

The highlight was finally getting to meet JEB Stuart, IV. I’d spoken to him on the phone and corresponded with him at length via e-mail, but I’d never met him. Jeb was there to help raise money for the MoC (which is in dire straits financially, by the way), so it was really a pleasure to meet him. Put a bushy beard on him and he would look just like his famous ancestor. I’m going to try to get together with him to show him Trevilians in October–he’s never been there.

Jeb IV spent 27 years in the Army and retired as a colonel. He’s now a stockbroker. Jeb V is an orthopedic surgeon who spent 12 years as an Army doctor. Jeb VI is 15 years old. What a great legacy.

Tomorrow, I have another all-day bus tour. I’ve got one bus and Bobby Krick has the other. Stops include Hanovertown Ferry, Haw’s Shop, Yellow Tavern, Cold Harbor, and a couple of other places. It’s going to be another beastly hot day.

I hope to post more tomorrow night