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From what I have read over the internet, Pamplin Park looks very interesting. I seek the wise words of wisdom from my fellow CW fans as to if this is the place to take a vacation.
From what I have read over the internet, Pamplin Park looks very interesting. I seek the wise words of wisdom from my fellow CW fans as to if this is the place to take a vacation.
I was there on a tour just as it opened, many years ago. Very worthwhile then, but the museum was pretty sparse at the time.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
Only vaguely remember someone having mentioned it BBF. Would be interested in knowing what I'm missing.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The museum wasn't sparse when I last visited Pamplin Park. At the beginning, you pick a soldier guide from a selection of Yankee and Johnny soldiers. They used actual soldiers and draw from their letters or diaries to tell you his story as you go through each gallery. The galleries were filled with exhibits displaying the life, trial, tribulations of the Civil War soldier. Think of it as a visual version of Irving Bell Wiley's two books, The Life of Billy Yank, and The Life of Johnny Reb. You'll see how they lived, trained, armed (and they're not shy about showing plenty of guns), trained, fought, fed, cared for (or not cared for). The material culture (uniforms, equipment) is shown in all its splendor and anyone interested would enjoy the exhibit of real uniforms (and even a "bulletproof" iron shirt or two). One of my favorite was a tent with barrels & planks for seating. There was a TV screen with a video preacher in uniform preaching how good soldiers should be brave and do god's duty. I sat through the entire sermon thinking yeah, I'll run the first chance I git. As you near the end, you'll find out what happened to your soldier guide (mine died).
When you're finished with the museum, there's a plantation house that is worth seeing. A woman guide will explain plantation life to you and how things were done in the 19th century. The house itself was the HQ for McGowan's Brigade (South C'lina). Nearby the house is a partial recreation of a field fortification. A huge protective moat ringed with abatis serves to protect the breastwork which has two embrasures for field guns (on wood platforms). It really gives you an idea of how tough it was for an assaulting column to storm a fort (think Fort Saunders at Knoxville). A small theater is further down the trail and has uniform and flag exhibits (when I was there). The theatre itself is concrete but is sculpted to look like trenchwork. One of the best thing about the land itself is that the land is where McGowan's Brigade was encamped. It is also a site where the Union army broke through the Confederate lines (McGowan had been redeployed by then). There's an interpretive trail that guides you from the Confederate side, through the Union line and back to the Confederate held area.
Is it worth the ducats? Yes! The Hardtack Cafe isn't bad either (but I didn't try the hardtack) and the giftshop has a good selection of books. I bought at a very good price some hardback books that were discarded from their curatorial library.
Finally, the bronze sculpture in the parking lot fits my criteria for art. It's not that nonsensical twisted metals that can only be understood when under the influence of illegal hallucinogenic drugs.
You should also visit Petersburg National Battlefield Park (slightly north of it), Petersburg (see the Siege Museum, have coffee and dessert at Java Mio around the corner), visit the Chapel at the graveyard as it has about 13 Tiffany stained glass, City Point (where Grant had his HQ).
I visited the Park many years ago, but was very impressed with what they had. From what I have read and heard, it has only gotten better.
I would say go visit, as I think you would enjoy yourself.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
The Hardtack Cafe isn't bad either (but I didn't try the hardtack) and the giftshop has a good selection of books.
I had occasion to figure that the bisquits and sausage gravy in a hole-in-the-wall cafe in Corinth just had to have some good stuff. The best thing about that place was the thoroughly delightful but somewhat aged waitress. I was not given a knife with which to cut the ham and, when I asked for one, was looked at with some wonderment. Finally, it came down to hand signals and making cutting motions. "Oh. You want a nahf?" Some of the best times I've had.
Now. Perhaps someone will explain to me the significance of Pamplin Park?
ole (a hopeless Yank)
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
From what I have read over the internet, Pamplin Park looks very interesting. I seek the wise words of wisdom from my fellow CW fans as to if this is the place to take a vacation.
It's been several years since I've been there, but I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there. A lot of interactive stuff, including a walk through a video battlefield where puffs of air simulate minie balls whizzing past your head. I went through that display several times. Also, any number of living history demonstrations. When the museum opened, it was definitely state of the art stuff.
Gary about nailed it on the head with his description of the place. I suspect there might have been some additions since I've been, but it's worth our while, in my opinion.
Also, you're not far from Petersburg, and also Richmond. Take in the Old Blandford Church, for sure, with its Tiffany glass windows:
Ole, it's been a while since I've been, so memory may fail me here, but I think the Pamplin family was instrumental in the preservation of this part of the field, which is in private hands, and where there is a lot of mention of the breakthrough. Good preservation of the earthworks there, too:
Thanks for the link! Petersburg! A front about which I have minimal familiarity. Thanks, Pvt. Aren't you supposed to salute an officer?
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Thanks for the link! Petersburg! A front about which I have minimal familiarity. Thanks, Pvt. Aren't you supposed to salute an officer?
I was there just as it was opening, as I said. It was great, and obviously going to be better. I had the good fortune to be in a group of very knowledgable Civil War people -- the late Brian Pohanka told me the park contained some of the best preserved examples of Civil War entrenchments he'd seen. Tour guide was very good; museum looked like it was going to be good but wasn't completely open yet. PvtClewell's description sounds like what we all expected this place to grow into.
Two points from my visit:
1) The Mr. Pamplin the park is named after grew up in Virginia; I think the family was from over by Appomattox. When he graduated school back in the Depression, his roommate told him his Dad back in Georgia needed a salesman for the lumberyard, and since a job was a hard thing to come by, Pamplin took it. Over the years, Mr. Pamplin turned that into a company called Georgia Pacific, which spun off another little company called Louisiana Pacific. The Pamplin family, coming from an entrepaneurial background, funded Pamplin Park with challenge grants. The better the management made it, the more goals set by the Pamplins they achieved, the more money the Pamplins gave them. The park had just made the Phase I goals when I was there.
The second thing is that, just as we pulled into the parking lot, we passed a car with Vermont plates. The guy I was sitting next to lives in Vermont, and I joked with him that it was probably someone he knew -- and he said, seriously, maybe it was. Turned out to be true. As we were going in, the man was coming out, about 85, in a wheelchair, pushed by a granddaughter, and my friend went over to talk to him. It was his favorite high school teacher.
When he came back, he told me that the man was there because his grandfather had been awarded the Medal of Honor for an action that was here, at Pamplin Park, and he figured he shouldn't waste any time about coming to see the spot. Maybe 20 minutes later my friend asks the guide if he knows where that was, and the guide says "Sure. Right over there." and points to a place about 20 feet away.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
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Has anyone visited Pamplin Park? 
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