Nov 2007

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 17
Weather - Cool & Overcast, rain at night

Narrative:

I spent part of today revisiting some of the battlefield area's from yesterday, but included any appropriate information or photo's for those in yesterday's blog entry, so perhaps I can keep this blog entry a little shorter?

We stayed in the Gettysburg Hotel last night, the rates weren't too bad and it looked like a really historic place (the sign said it was built in 1797). It was also right on the central town square.

I found out later that while a hotel has been at that location since 1797, the buildings have burned down three times - so maybe it isn't as historic as I thought. But I thought it might be a nice way to give Mom a treat and both of us a little more space for the night. However, I think we both decided that since all our stuff was already organized in the RV, it was probably easier just to stay there. Some RV parks have cabins, maybe the next time we need a 'treat', I'll just use one of those - then the RV will be close by (with our stuff), but we'll also have the extra space. We'll see, most of the time we're doing pretty well considering how cramped this is.

Anyway this morning I signed up for a 90 minute walking tour of downtown Gettysburg. Having toured the battlefields, I thought it would be interesting to learn how such a major event impacted the local town folk. The tour guide said she could tailor the presentation so Mom could join us, but she prefered to sit in the (warm) RV and relax.

My tour guide was Joanne. We were joined by another lady, Sharon from VT. Joann was very well informed and also carried a book full of photographs and documents. I tried not to hold her up too much with my note taking, photography and questions, but our 90 minute tour took about two hours, so I must not have been holding back as much as I thought.

In 1863, the town had 2,400 residents and was the county seat. Today, it has about 10,000 people and is still the county seat. While the National Park brings in tourists, it also surrounds so much of the town that it also restricts growth to some extent.

The tour covered a lot of the early history of the town, but I'll focus on the civil war period. You can spot the buildings that existed during the battle since they have a special brass plaque by the door:

Gettysburg had free blacks and some even owned land and businesses in town. It also had no black codes (rules restricting blacks), although that doesn't mean there wasn't discrimination (it was a town in the 1800's afterall), but it was fairly progressive for it's time.

Most of the area was agricultural, the main industry in town was carriage making and it was also a crossroads for several important roads.

Since the town is only about 10 miles from the Mason-Dixon line, people had been concerned about rebel incursions for two years. When non had occured, they may have started to relax a bit. However, the town had rail and telegraph service as well as three newspapers, so was fairly well connected. When Gen. Lee started marching his army into the North, the town received a telegram warning them that they might be in danger .

On June 26th, confederates came through Gettysburg the first time. They demanded $200,000 worth of supplies from the town. The Mayor and Postmaster were both staunch republicans (e.g., not confederate sympathisers) as were most of the town folk. The mayor carefully wrote back that the town didn't have the resources Lee's army demanded, however, they were free to purchase supplies from the stores in town. The mayer and postmaster also left town, since as government officials they were most at risk for being taken captive. Many store owners locked up shop and hid, but the army was able to 'purchase' some things using the unpopular and worthless confederate currancy. After grabbing some supplies and causing some minor damage, the confederates moved on and the town thought they'd escaped relatively unharmed.

There was no military significance to the town - it just happened to be where the two army's came into contact in 1863. After the first brush with the Confederacy, the town had no reason to expect a major battle to break out in just a couple of days. The southerners had come through, taken a few supplies, then moved on.

Then on July 1st the fighting began NW of town (Lee's army was to the Northwest, when Union cavalry unit ran into. As the day progressed, wounded started pouring into the town. At first, they were put in the courthouse and the Lutheran Church. A Union chaplain was heading into the church to tend to their needs, when a confederate mistook him for a regular officer and shot him dead on the steps. His unit later erected a memorial to him on the steps where he died. (Sharon is on the left, Joanne on the right).

As they day wore on, the Union retreated through the town with the confederates in hot pursuit. The confederate army occupied the town until they withdrew on July 4th. The wounded continued to pour into town until they filled all public buildings as well as many private ones. As homes were turned into hospitals, people hung red scarves from the windows to let others know. With one minor exception, confederate and union wounded were housed without regard to which side they had been fighting on.

The cemetary keeper had gone off to fight for the Union, but his wife, Elizabeth Thorne continued to reside in the Cemetary gate house with her children and elderly parents. When the Union army arrived, she was employed to show them the lay of the land, roads, etc., then told to evacuate. When she returned to town on July 7th, she had to go to work digging graves even though she was six months pregnant . In all, she dug about 100 graves with some help from her elderly father.

While neither side targeted the town itself, there were just too many bullets and artillery shells being fired for the town to escape unscathed. One civilian was killed, 20 year old Jenny (or Ginnie) Wade, who remained behind to assist her sister who had just given birth. She was baking bread in the kitchen when a bullet hit her in the head. There are also nine buildings in town that still have a confederate artillery shell embedded in the building. One was the "Young Ladie's Seminary". Look carefully to the top left of the window above the right porch.

This is what the spot looks like up close. Fortunately no harm was done. When the fighting broke out the head mistress told her students to "run home as quickly as you can". It didn't need to be repeated. (Many of the families who hadn't evacuated waited out the fighting in their basements.)

With 170,000 men in and around the town for four days, there was very little food or water left. Most of the crops had been destroyed. The two armies left behind between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties, including dead, wounded and missing. In addition there were large number of horses killed in the battle as both sides used horses to pull cannon and supply wagons as well as for cavalry. The dead horses were burned, the dead buried temporarily in shallow graves (and sometimes retrieved by loved one s to be buried at home). The wounded placed in whatever building could be make into a temporary or makeshift hospital.

The town was overwhelmed, but within a week supplies and aide started coming in from around the country. The town store was converted to collect and distribute the aide that came in.

A few months later, an army hospital was set up east of town in Camp Letterman and a new National Cemetary was set up to rebury the dead properly. President Lincoln was invited to give 'a few appropriate remarks' after the featured speaker. The last wounded were not finally removed to the military hospital until a couple of days before the Cemetary dedication on Nov. 19th. President LIncoln was only in the town for one day, some were concerned about even inviting him to such a solemn occasion, since he was just a little country lawyer, but he was the President of course. Of course, I rarely remember who the featured speaker was that day, but I do remember Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

By the way, the above statue is the exact height and dimensions of President Lincoln (a little taller then myself?). He particularly liked wearing this model Brooks Brothers suit, after he was assassinated, they stopped making it. The face on this statue is based on a life mask, so this is about as close as I can get to the real thing. The other statue represents everyman. (I, of course, am not a statue, so should need no introduction...)

Before Abe left Gettysburg, he attended this church, which also later claimed President Eisenhower as a member when he bought property nearby.

Later tonight, we decided to stay in a local RV park. It rained hard all night, but we woke up to clear skies and a very nice day Tuesday and finally left Gettysburg.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 90
Weather - Sunny & Temperate (low 60's), Very Nice (Cool in Evening)
Stayed at Gettysburg Hotel, on the town square

Narrative:

We don't have a lot of "must see's " on this trip, for me however, Gettysburg was one of them. Of course, before we could make it to Gettysburg, we had to get lost once (a minor theme at times). While this one didn't result in any incredible finds, we thought the Susquehanna River by Harrisburg was interesting - I don't know if it always looks like this or if it is just incredibly low this year - but all those rocks or mounds were odd.

So anyway, after we figured out where we were, we turned around and again headed in the right direction to Gettysburg. At first, it was a little difficult figuring out which exit to take from the highway. The signs said that the next 3 exits were for the Battlefield. Please, be kind and just tell me one exit!

We finally found the Visitors Center. It is immediately across the street from the National Cemetary. It has an OK museum, an 'Electronic Battlefield Map', which was informative, and an awesome gift shop (in terms of book selection mostly). We had also heard that there were tour guides available who would drive your car for you through the park and show you the most important sites.

I decided to hire the tour guide, but the next available one wasn't for another two hours, so first we explored the museum and cemetary. Actually Mom gave the museum a short walk through and bought some books in the gift shop about women in the civil war, then decided to wait in the car, which was fine. She is a self professed pacifist and really didn't want to have much to do with this place, so I will try to keep most of this narrative in the first person. We both try to tolerate our differences, usually with some degree of success.

The Park Service has done a nice job of keeping the Cemetary both respectful of the fallen soldiers buried there as well as representative of the battle positions on the ridge and of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which he delivered there.

On July 1, 2, and 3 of 1873 the Confederate Army led by Robert E. Lee confronted the Army of the Potamic in what may have been the decisive battle of the Civil War. Until this point, the south had been winning most of the battles, they were on the offensive and had begun taking the war to the north. Three days before the battle, President Lincoln had replaced an ineffective Gen. Hooker with Gen. Meade as commander of the Army of the Potamic. Gettysburg wasn't a significant military target for the south, it just happened to be where the two army's came into contact.

There is a lot of information readily available on the Battle of Gettysburg so I will try not to write a book here, but it was really a priviledge to see the location in person. I learned more about the battle as well, for example there were many instances of incredible bravery - yes, Joshua Chamberlain's defense of Little Roundtop was as shown in the Turner movie, but there were similar actions by other units as well. Both sides had hero's and goats, regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on.

When my time came up for the tour, I met the tour guide, Gar. He did indeed agree to drive the RV and also had a large binder full of maps and pictures he used during the tour to help explain things. He knew his subject very well and seemed to be able to tolerate my interruptions. (I tried hard not to slow him down too much with picture taking and such, but probably did more than he's used to. I'll cheat a little here, I drove through some of the route again Monday 11.12.07 and will post pictures from both days on this entry - so I didn't make Gar sit through all of my picture taking!)

The tour followed the chronology of the battle, we started NW of town where the first clashes occured on July 1st. I am trying to avoid repeating the whole text of what happened - but should at least explain the pictures? This is a view of the Lutheran Seminary (the white tower is on top). It was used by both sides at various points as a lookout. The town is just on the other side, and Culps Hill, the right end of the Union Line, is just beyond that.

On July 1, 1863 the Union held off the Confederates on this side of town for most of the day, but were overrun late in the afternoon and retreated to Cemetary Ridge on the other side. Confederate troops occupied the town of Gettysburg. Here is another view from the first day's battlefields looking towards the town and Cemetary Ridge (to the right of Culps Hill above).

On the second day, Lee's troups attacked both ends of the Union Line, Culps Hill on the far left and Little Roundtop on the far right (I'm greatly simplifying here - if you want me to expand this, please let me know). In front of Little Roundtop were troops under Gen. Sickles who had taken up positions in front of most of the Union lines. Terrible fighting occured at several of these locations. At the Wheatfield, charges and counter charges moved across the field as many as five or six times, leaving as many as 4,000 casualties on this small field.

Although the Confederates were successful in taking the "Devils Den" (shown from Little Roundtop below), the cost was high:

When Gen. Longstreet's men first started their attack on the right end of the Union line on Day 2, Little Roundtop was undefended. While this hill is quite small and unimpressive, Gar explained that if the Confederates had been able to place their artillery on it - they could have shelled the entire Union position. Union Gen. Warren discovered this early during the action and the Union was able to quickly bring 1,400 men to defend this. (Second shot is a view from the top).

The far end of Little Roundtop was the far end of the Union line, if the Confederates had been able to break through, it could have been devastating to the Union. This was defended by about 350 men forming the 20th Maine, commanded by Col. Joshua Chamberlain who, with ammunition running out - commanded his men to 'Fix Bayonettes' and charged the attacking Alabama troups, effectively ending the threat. This action was dramatically portrayed in the Turner movie and Chamberlain was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor after the war. The 20th Maine lost about 130 men in the action. About 600 Alabama troops attacked them 5 times, loosing about 300 men over the course of an hour.

This is a view from the forward position of teh 20th Maine towards the direction from which the Alabama troops were attacking.

Gar, the tour guide, also pointed out many other heroic actions that didn't make it into the movie (I guess Turner would have had to make the movie three days long!). Also on Little Roundtop were the 83rd Pennsylvania and the 44th New York. Some confederate troups from Texas almost took the hill farther up from the 20th Maine but were finally driven back by NY troops.

This is Gar & I at the top of Little Roundtop.

The battle at Culps Hill was also difficult and intense, it was defended by only 1,400 Union troops as well. The confederates were able to take the lower positions, but not the hill due to the difficult terrain and also darkness - the confederate Gen. Ewell hadn't started his attack until late in the day. (I don't have any pictures of the Culps Hill battlefield, I took too long at the other sites I'm afraid).

Throughout this area were farms and farm houses as well as the town itself. The National Park Service (NPS) has done a wonderful job of restoring the area to closely resemble how it was in 1863 (with the addition of about 1,300 monuments various units have placed around the battlefield to show where they fought). Here is one of those farmhoses

Also, the monuments are all placed facing the direction of their opponents. This one is from the July 1st fighting for the 150th PA:

You can sigh a little bit, I did not attempt to photograph all 1,300 monuments on the battlefields. Neither will I try to post all of the pictures I did take! It was interesting to learn that while Union veterens started gathering regularly as early as the 1880's and placing grand monuments to their units and fallen comrades, southern units did not do so until more recently. There are two reasons for this; the south was economically wasted by the end of the civil war and had little money for monuments, and perhaps more important was that Gettysburg was a terrible defeat for the south, the beginning of the end according to many experts. There was more interest in assigning blame for the defeat then there was placing monuments to the fallen. However, in the 1900's some southern states have placed grand monuments to their unitss as well.

On July 3rd, Gen. Lee decided on a major attack on the center of the Union line (simplyfing here again, let me know if I need to expand). The ends had almost broken on the previous day, some southern troops had almost broken through the middle on the 2nd, so Lee felt the Union was probably weak in the center. It probably was, but Gen. Meade anticipated an attack on the center and had reinforced it during the night.

The final battle on July 3rd only lasted about 45 minutes. After a 2 hour artillery dual, 12,500 men from Gen. Longstreet's command emerged from the woods on Semintary Ridge and advanced towards the Union lines in what is known as "Pickett's Charge". Here is a view of the tree line from which they emerged (keep in mind that this was taken in November, the battle was actually in July of course.)

This is what the Confederate troops would have been looking at across the fields. The Union line is about even with the small "Copse" of tree's on the right (just follow the line of monuments, busses, etc. in the distant haze).

The two hour artillery barrage was not very effective, but the Union artillery tore gaping holes in the confederate lines. By the time the confederates made it to the road a couple hundred yards from the Union lines, there were probably only about 3,000 left. By the time they made it to the low, rock wall, maybe a couple of hundred.

This is a view of across the field of Picketts charge from the Union position.

The faint white spot at the treeline is the Virginia Memorial, from where Gen. Lee watched the battle. The cars are on the road where the last 3,000 or so confederates began their final, desperate charge. At this point, they came under Union rifle & musket fire as well as artillery fire. The marker behind the yellow rope is where Confederate Gen. Amistead fell. While a few confederate troops actually broke through the Union line at this point, they were soon defeated and either killed or captured in fierce, hand to hand combat. Only about 6,000 of the troops who began the attack made it back to their lines.

Here is a shot of the Virginia Memorial on Seminary Ridge at the center of the confederate attack, where Gen. Lee was watching the battle from.

The war dragged on for two more years, but the confederate army never fully recovered from their defeat at Gettysburg. The battle was the largest and deadliest of any contest on American soil. About 160,000 troops fought, resulting in about 51,000 casualties (killed, wounded, or missing).

The battlefields were more extensive then I'd thought, the hills smaller, the fields more deadly. I have developed a deeper respect for the men who fought here those three days and what the whole thing means. I've tried to share with you only a very small portion of what I saw and learned, but would encourage you to learn more.

For myself, I am deeply moved.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 33 (Round trip from RV Campground to Hershey and back)
Weather - Overcast & Cold
Camped - Thousand Trails, Hershey PA

Narrative:

Mom was not in the best of spirits today. I think the cold weather is starting to bother her and she'd just like to head south. Also we didn't get to the campground until after 7 PM last night, which didn't help. Anyway, I resolved to take her to church as she generally likes to attend services when she can and hadn't been able to do so for a couple of weeks. The internet connection at the RV park was terrible, but I managed to use it enough locate an SDA church in Hershey and checked it on the map. Saturday morning, we started out early since we weren't sure how long it would take us. It turned out that we were about 10 miles from town, so it took some time to get to Hershey. Then I turned left on Chocolate Avenue and followed the road I thought correct based on the map. Some distance out of town, I decided I must have taken a wrong turn, so looked it up on the internet again and this time, plugged it into the GPS software. They took me right down the street I'd gone before and said "You have reached your destination" - but no church. Finally I looked up the church again (I had a great internet signal in town) and called them. They tried to give me directions, but of course I had no idea what they were talking about. Finally I asked for a cross street and looked it up on on Mapquest again - it was right about where we were. I decided it had to be on the next street over and we were just not seeing it. So around we went again, and this time it was right there. We had driven by it three times and never saw it!

So Mom got to church and I spent some time on the internet and phone trying to figure out the best way to visit Philadelphia (RV, Hotel, or ???) I'd still like to visit Philly, but will visit Gettysburg first since we're almost there now.

Today however we were in downtown Hershey so once church was out we decided to go visit the Hershey Museum. (The Chocolate Factory tour sounded more like an amusement park ride, so we decided to skip it. We didn't really check it out however, so can't judge it objectively). Anyway, after driving around a gigantic circle, we finally got to the museum.

I believe the town is building a new one, which is probably a good idea as this was hardly the best one we've seen. There were also hundreds of brownies visiting that day (they had special tables & activities set up at various places) - fun but noisy & crowded.

We did learn that this is a factory town established by Milton S. Hershey for workers in his Chocolate Factory in 1903. He was from this area of Pennsylvania, so wanted to build his factory here rather than other existing cities that might have been more logical places. He also cared a lot for his workers and tried to make this a model factory town - refusing to allow dull row houses for example. The main streets are named Chocolate Ave and Cocoa Ave, hmm - are you feeling fatter yet? If you still need tempting, the street lights downtown are shaped like Hershey Kisses.

Inside the museum was a fair amount of history about Milton Hershey, about making milk chocolate (his big breakthrough) and about the many ways of packaging Hershey's Kisses. However, there is also a nice wing with Native American items he collected during his life and other various collections - most of which I failed to take any pictures in for some reason (I do have some pictures, but they didn't seem worth uploading).

There is a large 'Apostloc Clock', which is something like a grandfather clock on steriods - but the music box isn't yet in the clock (after restoration?). It was built by a young man who thought he could make money by building a giant, impressive clock and charging admission for people to see it. He did travel with it for some 20 years or so, but there is no record as to what sort of income it provided. At a quarter to the hour, the doors open and figures of the twelve apostles come out to be blessed by Jesus Christ. The Devil makes four appearances and other figures move to more or less illustrate the biblical stories.

After spending a fortune in the gift shop (where else can you buy chocolate pasta?), we headed out. The amusement park was closed, but I managed a shot of one of several giant, wooden roller coasters.

It was quite cold and starting to get a bit late, so we headed back to camp. I should be fair to the RV campground - they do have wi-fi, but only in the rec building. Mom was too tired and just not feeling like doing much more of anything, so I skipped the rec center and just set up the RV at our spot again - no internet. So Mom went to bed early, I read one of the books I'd purchased at Valley Forge, and we called it a night.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 120
Weather - Overcast, Cold (mid 50's), Rained after dark

Narrative:

We got up fairly early and tried to get the RV serviced at two different places. However neither one could fit the rig through their service doors (and one was a Toyota dealership!) so I'll have to try again later.

We drove across the Ben Franklin Bridge, which was interesting. This is a toll bridge - so I carefully navigated to one of the "Cash" lanes and waited for the attendant to tell me what the toll was. He just sat there. So I asked, "Is it a dollar?" This is what a sign said the toll was for cars, some states have been charging us the same rates as cars, others more. Finally he said, "I don't know, it could be more, but that's what I'm going to charge you." I guess they don't have a lot of RV's come through here.

I took the first exit right into the heart of downtown Philadelphia. Once again, I could navigate through the streets OK - but they do not have any on street parking. All signs point to parking garages, which of course the RV won't fit into. Obviously big cities don't want RV's driving (or at least parking) in them. I am considering a 'Plan B' (maybe renting a car), but haven't decided yet. In the meantime, I didn't have much choice but to get back on the freeway and head out of town. About 20 miles west of Philadelphia, we saw several signs for Valley Forge. I'd never thought about going there but after seeing so many signs I thought maybe it was a bigger deal then I'd realized and decided to take the exit (maybe we were a little disappointed in not seeing downtown Philadelphia?)

Valley Forge is a National Historic Park (I didn't know that!). I actually managed to see the sign for the Handicapped access to the visitors center for a change, so we parked and went on inside.

The visitors center had a pretty nice gift shop (not cheap, but well provisioned) and also a fairly good interpretive display of the events leading up to the Continental Army's winter encampment there in 1777-1778. There were a few artifacts under glass. These had plastic cards on the sides of the cabinets you could pull out and read more details about the artifacts. The displays were grouped in sections by topic, recreation, drill, housing, etc. There was also an 18 minute video we watched that was a bit heavy on drama, but very informative.

The most important thing we learned was that Valley Forge wasn't just about hunger and difficulties, although there was plenty of that for a time - the main thing is that during the Army's encampment there, the men really learned how to be soldiers and became a much more professional and seasoned army. General Washington and the Continental Congress developed more trust for each other. And overall the table was set so the next spring, the Army could take the fight to the British more effectively.

The British had taken Philadelphia, the capital of the recently declared republic, and the Continental Congress had fled to York. Washington selected Valley Forge for the Army to winter in since it was only 20 miles from Philadelphia - far enough to protect from surprise attacks from the British, but close enough to keep an eye on them. It was also high ground, defensible, with plentiful water and timber to build huts with. On the outer edge of the camp, defensive positions and earthworks were built. Some of the original earthworks survive, but some are replica's (the Valley Forge encampment was over 200 years ago!)

Inside of this line, George Washington ordered the men to build huts. Each 12 man squad built a hut for themselves. Gen. Washington's orders were very detailed about how the huts were to be constructed, but since the men were from different area's and few were experienced woodworkers, the huts did vary. Each unit was sited in it's own area, it was all very organized and laid out, not at all haphazard. There was plenty of forest for timber, but few tools, so building was very difficult. Since the army had about 12,000 men, at 12 to a hut there would have been quite a small town in the area that winter!

The National Park Service has built some replica's, although they are few compared to how the area would have looked in 1777-8. Instead, there are granite markers showing where each brigade was located, who the commander was, and what larger unit they were part of.

Of course, by this point we had left the visitors center and were on the driving tour. One of the major stops is a large memorial gate that was built in 1917 to honor all the men who suffered through the winter here.

There are a few statues around the park, but not many. This one is of Gen. Anthony Wayne. His statue is located so he is facing his home, which wasn't too far in the distance.

Sometimes the park tour is it's own, private road and sometimes it joins busy county roads with lots of local traffic. It was all very confusing, but Mom managed to navigate and keep us on the right road. We turned a corner that was marked on our park map as Pott's house. We weren't sure, but it looked like it might be where Gen. Washington stayed during the winter. However, there was no place to park or stop across from it. We pulled over a little past it and rechecked the map. It looked like there was a side road a little ahead of where we were that might have parking. I pulled into this area and decided to check it out. Sure enough, this was the major site in the park. There were actually two Pott's houses. The first one we had seen from the main road had nothing to do with the Continental Army. The second house was owned by Isaac Potts, a brother, and was rented by George Washington for six months for 100 Pennsylvania Pounds (the NPS doesn't know what that equates to in todays dollars).

While large in relation to the soldiers huts, this was the headquarters of the entire Continental Army, as Gen. Washington was the Commander In Chief of the Army. There were often as many as 20 - 25 people in the house during the day, officers, aides, guests, servents and slaves. The aides probably worked in the front room of the house. They took their furnishings and materials with them of course (they were trying to fight a war, not preserve materials for a museum), but the NPS has set up the house with period appropriate furnishings that are as accurate as they can make it. A letter mentions a longcase clock, so they have one here. Also, burlap (?) tablecloths would have been used to make writing with quill pens easier. Each letter or order that went out had to be copied (manually, using quill pens) three times - once for the recipient, once for the continental congress overseeing the war effort, and once for Gen. Washington's files. One of the young aides who worked in this room was Alexander Hamilton - who later became President of the United States.

It is also probable that Gen. Washington's office would have been on the first floor, in the back room.

Upstairs are three bedrooms. Gen. Washington had one bedroom, his wife Martha joined him at some point since they know she was there by February when she mentions cooking him a birthday cake. Gen. Washington also procured a canopy bed so she would be more comfortable. Another very small bedroom was probably used for special guests. This third bedroom was probably shared by the aides.

One thing I found interesting is that probably 85% of this house is original (not the furnishings, but the house itself) - still quite a feat for a late 1700's building. (I think the house was built about 1770). One of the National Park Rangers working in the house, Kimberly, especially pointed out the original banister to me. (I made sure to touch an under portion that maybe George W touched - but not all 500 Million tourists since?)

Another lady, Beth, was also working in the house to provide information and history to tourists. However, she was in period costume and I failed to ask her if she was a ranger or docent. In any case, she was also very helpful (& the costume really helped set the atmosphere).

The kitched would have mostly been used by the servents and slaves. The officers brought their own servents and/or slaves with them to the encampment. No mention was made as to where they slept, but there were many more temporary huts built around the house during the encampment, so they probably had one of those.

Finally, in front of the house a bit flows Valley Creek. An iron forge had been located along this creek, giving the area it's name. However, the British had destroyed it earlier since the patriots used it to store provisions, so was no longer there at the time of the encampment. (There is a nice informative display and some artifacts in the Carriage House however.) Valley Creek had been the power source to run the forge.

For an unplanned stop, Valley Forge turned out to be well worth the time. We didn't leave it until almost 5 PM when it was starting to get dark. It took almost an hour to go a few hundred yards (and several nasty merges) to the PA Turnpike (I-76). I had made reservations at a Thousand Trails campground in Hershey, PA - so we headed for that. Fortunately, once we got past the toll booth, the traffic flowed normally and we got to the campground just fine.

It did start raining, but not until we were warm and comfy and tucked in for the night - not a bad day's touring afterall!

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 70 (We will have to pick up the pace a bit!)
Weather - Sunny and Cold, but no wind
Camped - Wal-mart in Turnerville (near Camden, NJ & Philadelphia, PA)

Narrative:

This morning, we drove south again to Millville, where we had learned a place called "Wheaton Arts & Crafts Center"was located. This was the region where the first successful glass factory was started in America and it seemed like the kind of place that would be right up our alley. The Center opened at 10 AM and we got there at 10:05 AM so there were no cars at all out front and we parked about 20 feet from the gate. (It also helped that this is the off season I'm sure). You can check them out at their web site, or by following us:

http://www.wheatonarts.org/

The cold snap that started a couple of days ago was still in force, but without the wind - so it really wasn't too bad. Mom and I both enjoyed walking around the grounds, especially since we were both dressed for it. We went through the Museum first. Unfortunately, neither of my pictures of the building exterior came out very well so I'll just take you right inside. First, there was a piece of art - I'm not a huge artsy kind of person, so was going to just walk right by it, but it was kind of interesting. The hands are casts from the artists grandparents, parents then himself. The dripping glass represents passing the art of glass down from generation to generation.

Once past the entrance, the Museum is organized by era. It starts with a nice story board showing significant dates in the history of glass:

(Sorry about the angle, I had to take this from the side to reduce the glare, but the information was too interesting to pass up.) The key date for the Museum is that the first successful glass factory in America was in 1739. The British had outlawed glass making in America, as they did all manufacturing. They wanted to Colonists to produce only raw materials, then buy all finished goods from England. We had learned earlier that there was an iron ore mine (also in NJ I think) very early on (1600's I think), but they had to ship the ore to England to be smelted. After a couple of ore carrying ships were lost at sea, the owners shut down the mine since it was too expensive to operate that way, by shipping the ore to England instead of processing it themselves.

Glass manufacturing was the same way, it was outlawed in the colonies. The New Jersey operation got started by bringing over glass blowers from Germany and basically operating outside the law. Of course, the early colonists had all sorts of demand and need for glass and there was plenty of sand and wood to fuel the furnaces, so south New Jersey became quite a center for early American glass production. The New Jersey sand, while plentiful, also had iron oxide impurities which gave the glass a greenish tint.

Their products improved over time of course, but the glass retained it's aqua/green tint as long as they used New Jersey sand - so their products became known as "South Jersey Green".

One exhibit that surprised me was the Nursing Bottles. There was apparently a lot of demand for Nursing Bottles fairly early on. Milk bottles, wine & beer bottles, medicine vials, dishware I would have expected (and the Museum had many fine examples of these), but Nursing Bottles?

There were also many displays of the different types and colors of glass developed as the craft evolved. One of my favorites is the Cranberry glass, created by using gold oxide for color:

Mom's favorite is the Milk Glass. Her mother had a milk glass cat dish for many, many years. Mom inherited this and it was one of her most cherished possessions. She still remembers this fondly, but the dish had an unfortunate accident with a vacuum cleaner, so Mom was excited to see one quite similar on display at the Museum (Mom's didn't have colored eyes however).

She also liked the display of the Worlds Largest Bottle:

Glass is used for many purposes, of course, not just for bottles and jugs. Here is a replica of the first, practical light bulb. Glass was so critical to the development of the light bulb (as well as other uses), that Thomas Edison built a glass blowing studio as part of his Menlo Park complex.

In addition to colors, different techniques were developed to shape glass. In addition to just displaying different objects for a particular type or period of glass, the Museum has done an excellant job to creating signs or story boards to explain what your are looking at, such as this one for Pressed Glass:

Of course I took pictures of as many of these signs and exhibits as I could, but it probably would have taken me several days to capture half of what was on display at this Museum. For the sake of your sanity, and my upload allowance, most of these will stay only on my hard drive. However here is one other example that is rather interesting. It shows the different steps in making cut glass - the last stage that creates the look we are used to seeing is the Polishing:

In addition to regular museum style exhibits (Glass on shelves behind glass cases), there are two rooms set up to display how glass was used in day to day life. This one is an 1800's victorian home:

Finally, there was a fairly extensive collection of various forms of glass art. One form of paperweight was invented by an artist at Wheaton Village, Tony DePalma, called "Millville Rose". These were very beautiful, but the one in the gift shop was $250, so I don't think I'll be bringing one home.

Another artist making unusual forms is Paul Stankard, who makes very detailed "Botanicals" entirely out of glass.

Finally, we saw a most unusual Chess Set. Gianni Toso had a Jewish father and Catholic mother. His chess set reflects the conflects these religions. This set isn't designed to actually be used however, it's much too delicate:

Believe it or not, the Museum is only one part of Wheaton Arts & Crafts Center! Behind this are buildings where you can watch artists at work. In the Arts & Crafts building, we watched Terry Plasket paint pottery (I don't normally use last names on the blog, but as an artist, he can use any advertising he can get). He was very comfortable answering questions and explaining his craft.

Down the hall a bit was a glass maker using 'flameworking' to make glass objects out of colored glass rods and a gas flame. Her name was Nancy and she actually majored in "Scientific Glass Making". (There is only one place teaching this in the US, in Salem Community College, MA.) I also took video's of her working, but will need to edit them before I can post them so it may take a few more days (I'll change the title to "Video's Added" when I get this done).

Finally the big show was in the Glass Blowing building, also behind the Museum. They give a narrated talk while some of the artists create bowls, vases or bottles using the large furnaces. I also took quite a bit of video of this, but will have to edit it, so again may not get it updated for a few days. I'll try to post both of these at the same time.

In the meantime, the glass blowing building also contained an example of a basic recipe for making glass...

...and many, many examples of glass presses and molds - this is just a sample of which:

[img=http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/106532/Day_68_-_W..s_Molds.jpg

Once again, a very educational and interesting day! This one took us a little longer than average, so we didn't try to do much else today. We drove up towards Camden and I decided to find a place to stay relatively close to Philidelphia, which we'll visit in the morning. 'Till then...