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2006 8th Grade Virigina Field Trip Last updated 05-13-06
Day 2
The first official day began with touring the New Market Battlefield. Despite sopping wet grass, we viewed a few cannons in position from the Civil War Period. Afterwards, we drove on to Virginia Military Institute. There (where everything seemed to be being renovated), we viewed the Statue of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in front of the hall named after him. Also near the statue were his four training cannons and Little Sorrel’s grave his horse). After this, we went to the VMI bookshop and bought souvenirs. We had a wonderful buffet lunch (where we stuffed our faces), and upon trekking back to the bus, we came to the same field, but it was covered with cadets! We watched an inspection ceremony of some sort and took many photos as they paraded. Then, we walked to Lee Chapel where General Robert E. Lee is buried along with his family. After tossing pennies alongside Traveller’s (Lee’s horse) grave, we took a long bus ride up the Appalachian Mountains to the Appomattox Court House. There, we traveled inside the court house, the jail, the tavern and the bookstore (which was the home for huge black bees!). We returned to the bus on our way to Williamsburg where we’ll stay for two more days! What wonders await us next? Check back tomorrow!
Today we went to Williamsburg, a living history museum in the 1770’s. There are eighty-eight original buildings in this town. We had a tour by a man named Gray Miller, who showed us the Capitol Building, the Magazine and the Governor’s Palace. The Capitol Building was the very first building to be built in Williamsburg. It was burned down in 1747, rebuilt in 1757, and in the 19th century, it was burned down again. Finally, in 1930, all of Williamsburg was rebuilt to be turned into a museum. In the Capitol Building, we learned about the "People House" and the "House of Burgesses". The People House is much like the House of Representatives today. The House of Burgesses is where the government business was done. The Magazine held all the military supplies for the town. They had original and replica guns on display. There were over 203,000 guns back in the 1700’s, but today there are 200 (100 of which are original). The Governor’s Palace was where the Governor of Virginia and his family lived. It is very big and grand and showed the Governor’s wealth to anyone lucky enough to enter. There is an amazing 10-acre garden in the back with a maze and a canal. After the tour, we had lunch and began to set out in groups of 4 or 5 to see the proprietors (ex: Wigmaker, Shoemaker &tc.). Afterwards we went to have dinner. Then, we came back to experience a Night Program. Three different people, dressed in colonial clothes, told us a ghost story. The second story was the scariest. It was about a preacher who was staying in a house and a woman with no eyes came out" It was very frightening. Tomorrow, we will go to Petersburg and Pamplin Park. Check back tomorrow to find out what happens!
Today, our class headed into Richmond, the former capitol of the Confederacy. While there, we visited the Museum of the Confederacy. The museum had three stories of historic artifacts, and information. Right outside the museum, was the Confederate White House, where Jefferson Davis and his family lived during the war. We took a tour of the entire building except the 3rd flour which is now office space. Our tour guide was very educated and pointed out things we would not have noticed ourselves, such as the many false surfaces in the house. Next, we went to St. John’s Church, one of the first buildings in Richmond. This is also the church where Patrick Henry made his famous "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech. Also, we saw the grave of the first signer of The Declaration of Independence, George Wythe. After St John’s, we went to Fredericksburg. This is where the Union army, under the command of Burnside, was completely massacred. Our class stood behind the exact same wall that the Confederate Soldiers stood behind as thousands of Union troops ran up the field towards them. After exploring the Battlefield, we went to a nearby civil war relic shop. We bought things such as artifacts, horseshoes, keys & locks, jewelry, and buttons. After a long day, we arrived back at the Super 8 motel in Fredericksburg, VA for a good night’s sleep.
On Saturday we toured the Spotsylvania and Chancellorsville battlefields. We got on the bus at 7:30 and started off to Spotsylvania. Mr. Habel was our tour guide, as he is for more battlefield hikes, and he took us along the same path that Union soldiers took to attack the Confederates. The wide-open field looked great in the morning sun, but it was pretty ugly up-close when we walked over the rugged plants and small bogs. It’s hard to imagine what the actual soldiers went through back then. They ran over the hills in the rain, through gun fire, and jumped into a ditch filled with corpses that was only a few feet away from the enemy trenches on the other side- survivors endured the trench for 16 hours. The bus took us to Chancellorsville battlefield next. This was where General Lee performed his masterpiece and defeated an army much larger than his. We got to see the house that the Union commander, Joseph Hooker, made his headquarters at, which was just the rubble and foundations of a small house. Then we walked and drove around, seeing the different markers and monuments. Chancellorsville battlefield is also, unfortunately, another example of the disrespect people show towards these historic sights of the Civil War. There is a subdivision built directly on the battlefield. Most Civil War battlefields are protected now, but we are losing more of them every day. Next, we drove up to Arlington to our first hotel (we’d been staying in motels). Then we lugged our dirty clothes to bus, which took us to the Laundromat, where we spent over an hour washing our clothes. After a healthy dinner at Burger King, we settled in at the hotel and went to bed looking forward to the next day.
Today was another day at Washington DC. We started the day off by going to Arlington Cemetery. Some examples of things we saw were the tombs of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Joe Luis, the members of the Challenger and Columbia, and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier; we were lucky enough to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We also went to the Arlington house which was Robert E. Lee’s house. Once we had walked the entire cemetery (at least it felt like it) we went to the Franklin D. Roosevelt monument where we saw lots of statues and fountains. We then headed off to see the Jefferson memorial and the World War Two Monument. The World War 2 monument was very big and impressive especially just as the sun was setting, when we happened to be there. Afterwards we went to the Vietnam wall where people had left flowers, letters, pictures, and more. We also visited the Vietnam service statue. To follow that up we went to the Lincoln memorial. He was much bigger than a lot of us predicted; on the walls were quotes from Lincoln. We ended the day by going to the Korean monument. There were statues of soldiers walking up the hills and valleys and through the wood and marshes. For dinner we all went into the teachers’ room and had some pizza (of course we were all very careful not to drop any crumbs on their beds).
Today we woke up in the Comfort Inn Pentagon located in Arlington, Virginia. We got on the bus and drove to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in Potomac, Maryland. We saw the great falls there and we learned how the locks and canal worked. We learned that it took 22 years to build, and there is a 605 foot elevation difference from the bottom of the canal to the top. There are also a total of 74 locks up the whole river. After we got done sketching our pictures on how the canal works, we drove back to Washington D.C. where we arrived at the Holocaust Museum. Before we went into the museum we went into the Holocaust Café located in the back of the building. Even to get into the café we had to go through security checks. While in the museum we went into a permanent exhibit they have there, which displays artifacts, stories, and tells about life in the concentration camps. Not all of us went into the Holocaust Museum; some people went to the Natural History Museum to see the Hope Diamond and the Air & Space Museum. After those museums we went to the American History Museum for a couple of hours. There displayed were many historical events and objects. The red shoes Dorothy wore from Wizard of Oz is one of the examples. There were different sections for different events; music, movies, and pop culture are some of them. Two of our classmates went to the Air & Space Museum and the Art Museum. We left the Smithsonian museums and found a vender on the corner of a street. Most of us bought Washington D.C. sweaters or FBI shirts. Then we went to the Capitol Building and the White House. We saw a news crew shooting one of their show. We did a lot of walking today so everyone was starving. We went to Quiznos for dinner and left Washington D.C. Then we went to the last monument for today, the Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington. We went back to the hotel for our last night in Washington D.C. oHoHHHHHHhhhhhh
Today we visited Harper’s Ferry and Antietam. When we went to Harper’s Ferry we went to the fire house where John Brown was captured. We went through the Harper’s Ferry Cemetery in order to get to the highest point of Harper’s Ferry. We went to an old style hotel that served us a buffet lunch that was so amazing! We had chicken, potatoes, corn chowder, beans, salad, ice cream, and some different types of cake. At Antietam we went to the cornfields where we learned that there was three phases of the battle, the cornfield being the first phase. The second phase of the battle was Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) where the Confederates had to retreat from their position due to loss of lives (Union took the Sunken Road). The third phase of the battle was at the Lower Bridge at Antietam Creek, where Burnside’s brigade was unable to get across the bridge until some soldiers found a shallower part of the creek and got through. However some soldiers were able to get across the bridge because they were told they would get their share of whiskey. Today was fun; we learned so much!
Today was our first day in Gettysburg. There were a ton of different school groups there, because Gettysburg is the most popular battlefield. The first place we went to was the Gettysburg museum. There were tons of different artifacts including muskets, cannons, bullets, pistols, bayonets, drums, trumpets, and tons of pictures. There was also an exhibit that had boxes full of things a farmer found on his own property. The students in the class also had to choose an artifact to sketch and give a brief description of it. After that we walked across the street to a monument. The monument was of Lincoln reading his speech which was called the Gettysburg Address. The principal of Harvard University quoted, "Lincoln said what I couldn’t say in two hours." The monument isn’t on the actual spot he made the speech but it was pretty close. Then, we boarded the bus and got ready to be dropped off at our hike spots. On the hikes you had to find certain monuments and answer questions about them. Some hikes took you through trees and up towers and hills while others took you through the town of Gettysburg. They were a lot of fun but really confusing. After the hikes we basically had free time. During that time you could eat lunch, go shopping, do homework, or just hang around at the hotel. Most people went relics shopping and bought a lot of really cool artifacts. Other people caught up on their journaling and other homework. Then we rode up to Little Round Top. On Little Round Top a commander by the name of Chamberlain was controlling the 20th Maine. His army was quickly running out of ammunition and men, plus the Confederates were coming up the hill ready to attack. Chamberlain, quickly thinking, thought of an idea which was to attack the Confederates in a swinging door motion. His idea worked, and for that Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor. After we got back to the hotel, we went swimming which was quite refreshing after a hot day. Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed themselves. Then we went to Gettysburg battlefield that night and did sentry duty. During the civil war at night the army’s had to have guards known as sentry on the outsides of the camps incase of the enemy doing a counter attack. When the class went out for sentry duty they didn’t have a clue ware they where at except that they were in the middle of the woods.
First we went to the Gettysburg battlefield, then we went on a battlefield hike. Every group had a different hike that they went on and they stretched all over the battlefield. Most of the groups ended up at Little Round Top, a key point in the battle of Gettysburg. After we rounded everyone in the class up at different locations we went back to the hotel and had a couple hours to eat lunch, shop, and do our homework for the day. At 5:00 p.m. we went to a performance of a timeline of former President, Abe Lincoln, this performance was a very good learning experience for us. After the performance Mr. Habel dropped us off at different spots at Confederate Avenue, we got to read the letters our parents gave us, and have time to do some homework. After we were out there for about an hour we got picked up by our amazing bus driver, Bob. Then when we got back to our America’s Best Inn hotel we finished our homework. During the trip Mr. Habel would asks us questions that we could win ice cream. So he took us out to Friendly’s, the local restaurant, and we had our ice cream. This concluded the 11th day of our trip.
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