A week in Richmond a day at Hollywood

[Susan Sweet]

I was lucky enough to join friends for a week in Richmond two weeks ago. This is the second time I have been there so I tried to cover areas I had not been before.

First stop was Hollywood Cemetery . When you go stop at the visitors center right inside the gate and get two things. First a fine map of the cemetery that shows where many of the best know people are buried . Second get the booklet Civil War Generals . This booklet has a short biography , location of the grave and a picture of the grave.

It really helps to know what you are looking for . We drove up and down one of the roads looking for Pegram's grave . He is the general that was married and buried within three weeks time . Both services in the same Richmond Church. When I checked back with the office I realized we had driven by the grave site at least four times remarking each time about the restoration work being made on this one gravesite. When we returned to Pegram's grave , the worker said I saw you driving back and forth and wondered who you were looking for !!!

Jefferson Davis and family are way in the back. Facing Jefferson 's statue is a very large grave marker with the name GRANT on it in large letters. Not THE Grant but does make for interesting conversation.

The Last Cavalier , Jeb Stuart and wife are buried next to a modern author Ellen Glasgow who won a Pulitzer . She wrote about the false sentimentality of the South .

The huge stone Confederate Burial pyramid is awesome to see . 90 feet tall made of Richmond Granite with no morter. It is said a prisoner placed the capstone and was given his freedom in doing so. Built in 1869 it is surrounded by the Confederate Dead 18,000 of them. There is a section for those from Gettysburg with George Pickett and his wife buried next to them. There is also a section of Seven Pines soldiers and a memorial .

Another section of the cemetery is the Confederate officers section. Here is where many other officers are buried and their families. The most moving gravestone here is a small single headstone that has three parts to it. It is the grave of Longstreets three children.

If you want to see the monuments and graves of Monroe and Tyler you have to park and walk up the hill. They had had so many people park in the area around their graves , then leave their cars there and walk around the cemetery that they have now placed chains on the roads that lead up to the graves. Not being able to walk long distances due to some knee problems I did not get to see these two graves.
Fitzhugh Lee is buried near Davis. His children's headstones are stone crosses in the ground . I had never seen a heastone quite like theirs.

If you go to Richmond , take the time to wander here and see the final resting place of the famous , and the not so famous Civil War soldiers and others . Not Civil War but don't forget to see the Iron Dog guarding the grave of a young girl. It's on the way to the Confederate pyramid. People leave small toys on a shelf in the tombstone of the girl.
Susan Sweet

[Dred]

Ya know... I lived in Virginia for 5 years and I never once visited Richmond! I may have to rectify that soon!

[Susan Sweet]

Dred , You should go right away. The Museum of the Confederacy is wonderful. I didn't go this time as I went the last time.

Tredegar Iron works is amazing . This is the National Park Headquarters for all the battlefields around Richmond. They have amazing displays. One of which is a series of pictures that light up as voices speak about the events leading to the fall of Richmond. Sort of an indoors sound and lights show. They have two of them. One civilian , one military.

Next to Tredegar is the new Museum of the American Civil War, a very modern musuem with relics but also many multimedia displays and banners everywhere with photos. The relics are changing exhbits as they are on loan from other museums. When I was there they had a chamber pot with Ben Butler's imagne in the bottom and the bridle that belonged to Patrick Cleburne .
Chimborazo has a great movie, and a nice display of medical relics from Civil War. Really nice friendly staff too.
Then are all the battlefields around Richmond . Oh my.

Go and Go soon.

Then there is the Poe Museum, St.John's where Patrick Henry gave his Give Me liberty Speech. John Marshalls home .

Only negative was trying to see and photograph the Monuments on Monument Blvd. Traffic is terrible, there is no parking so unless you hike over from a distance and then try to cross the street to the middle of intersections , they are hard to see.

Petersburg is just down the road also.
Susan