A recent trip took us from the Outer Banks of North Carolina up through some of Virginia. As I covered in my post Monuments, Memorials, and Blossoms, our journey began in Washington DC. Timing the visit at the end of the cherry blossom season proved ideal for photography. Our trip also afforded me an opportunity for my Space Stuff Junkie Pilgrimage, which I covered in my last post. We also took advantage of our route to visit a variety of other historical locations.
Among the more notable places of interest on our trip was Yorktown. This was the location of the final major battle of the Revolutionary War. It’s quite impactful to think how the pivotal attack on Redoubt 9 and 10 by a small handful of men … over such a tiny piece of land … could have so profound an impact on the birth of a nation. It seemed very appropriate that on that same week, we should attend the Broadway touring companies production of Hamilton in Norfolk. It was truly when “The World Turned Upside Down“.
As is often the case, I am often up very early in search of some interesting photography subjects. One particularly frosty morning, I found myself alone at dawn in a dark field amongst a forest of trees in Chancellorsville. This Civil War battlefield was described by one historian as “the most intense and concentrated few hours of fighting in the entire war,” In five hours of combat, more than 17,500 soldiers became casualties in this small area. A rather haunting experience.
During our trip, I took the opportunity to try to capture a few other images, including the USS Wisconsin, several lighthouses, an elusive “wild horse” of the Outer Banks, and some swamp creatures in North Carolina. I hope you enjoy them.
If you made it this far, you must have ample time on your hands. So here are a few special artifacts from a couple of museums in Washington DC. Can you name them all ?
