ECW Weekender: “Stop Here” in the Shenandoah Valley
ECW’s managing editor, Sarah Kay Bierle, has been building a virtual road trip on her personal blog. The series is called “Stop Here! Historic Places To Visit” and has been focusing on unique places to visit in the Shenandoah Valley. Some of the sites would make a great weekend trip (or you might want to add all of them to your travel list), and we thought it would be fun to share the links to the articles.
Here are some of her favorites from Winchester to Edinburg:
George Washington’s Office Museum
Abram’s Delight Historic Home Museum
Stonewall Jackson’s Headquarters
Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum
If you’re considering a journey through the Shenandoah Valley, Dan Davis and Phill Greenwalt’s book Bloody Autumn: The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 includes wonderful tour suggestions for battlefields to visit in the area.
We’d love to hear if you’ve visited some of these sites or plan to stop on your next journey to The Valley!
Peter Cozzens also wrote an excellent book on the 1862 Valley Campaign, particularly strong in my opinion on the First Battle of Kernstown.
That’s a great book.
If you’re running the valley, you absolutely need to stop at the Kernstown Battlefield. Much of it was saved from development by a local charity. (http://www.kernstownbattle.org) They have a nice little museum, although it was robbed of some loaned artifacts last year. Perhaps because it’s largely staffed by volunteers, it’s only open in the summer. New Market is another excellent one. VMI runs a museum there and has preserved as much of the battlefield as it could…basically those portions not eradicated by I-81.
I’ve been to all of them and highly recommend! Also, I’d recommend the Waynesboro Heritage Museum in Waynesboro, VA. (Full disclousure: I serve on the board, but would recommend nonetheless.) The Battle of Waynesboro was the final blow to Early’s Army.