ECW Weekender: Spring at Spotsylvania
Last weekend I did some hiking at Spotsylvania National Battlefield and since it’s been one of my few historic site visits in the last weeks, I took along a camera and snapped some photos of spring at this Virginia battlefield. Wanna take a “virtual hike”?
We’ll park at the entrance to Upton’s Trail and start through the woods toward the Mule Shoe earthworks.
After completing Upton’s Trail, we’ll swing left toward the angle and take the long way around to reach the Union side of the attack fields. Looking back toward Bloody Angle, we notice the dogwood trees blooming in the middle of the open ground.
The chimney bases are the remaining evidence of the Landram House. On May 12, 1864, Union II Corps generals gathered here and on the nearby ridge, overseeing the attacks on the Mule Shoe in the distance. Today, the Lamdram House site is quiet and a little haven of spring with new grass sprouting and blooming trees in the background.
Returning across the fields, we pause to examine the marker cannon in the Mule Shoe and then get the idea to try a photo with dogwood and cannon for an artistic view.
Catching a trail from Bloody Angle to the McCoull House Site, we continue seeing signs of spring. Including sticky mud covering the trail. (Not pictured!) Near the McCoull Spring, tiny flowers bloom at the base of a tree…
Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed lots of deer grazing around the McCoull House site, but I’m not seeing any today. There is another pretty tree…so selfie time!
Thanks for “joining” me for a springtime hike at Spotsylvania Battlefield. Stay safe, stay healthy, and I’m counting the days and weeks until it’s safe for interstate travel. I’ve got a growing list of sites and archives I need to visit and I know many other ECW authors are feeling the same way and weekenders will become “traditional” again as soon as possible!
We had visited Spotsylvania last August. We walked the Upton trail and just as we came to the end with the monuments, my husband looked to the right and along the treeline was a doe with her two fawns. Mama was munching on grass and the others were nursing. It was such a sweet moment and we took as many pictures as we could. It’s odd to find such beauty in a place that was the site of so much death and tragedy. That seems to be the eternal irony of battlefields these days.
Thank you! Just what I needed during isolation
Thanks. Just making sure you know you don’t need a face mask if you are outside away from people — especially on some remote part of a battlefield. Masks are meant to prevent you from spreading the virus to OTHERS. And you aren’t going to catch COVID-19 from a Dogwood tree!
Spotsylvania’s Laurel Hill trail is also worth trekking.
Thank you, Sarah. Up here in Maine, we cannot even drive or walk in Acadia National Park, except for where public roads run through it.