Day 19 Week 3

Great day today. I started out at the Museum of the Confederacy at Appomattox. This has an excellent collection of genuine Confederate artefacts including such things as Robert E Lee’s uniform and original Confederate battle flags captured at Gettysburg etc.

From there I moved on to Appomattox Court House which was the location of  the signing of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia by Robert E Lee to U.S Grant.

Where the surrender was signed

After that I pushed on further into Northern Virginia to Manassas, just outside Washington DC. This was the scene of the two battles of Bull Run. The first battle was the first major battle in the Civil War.

'Stonewall' Jackson'

From there I continued on into Maryland and visited the Antietam Battlefield. Antietam holds the record for the bloodiest single day battle in American history with approximately 23,000 casualties.

 'Burnsides Bridge'

I arrived late in the afternoon and didn’t get to finish the battlefield so I decided to camp there and finish with Antietam in the morning before moving on to Gettysburg. I camped in the car in the car park opposite ‘The Sunken Road’. Forever after referred to as ‘Bloody Lane’. Combined, both sides suffered 5600 casualties in that stretch of road 700m long.