Practicing social distancing at Gaines Mill

Not so sure about Virginians and social distancing...Manassas was JAMMED yesterday...had to park on the drive way next to the highway cuz the rest of the 4-5 parking lots were packed...people with dogs everywhere...sadly..my son and I counted 17 doogie poop bags on the ground...guess folks think its ok to bring a dog, pick up their mess and then leave the plastic bags...ahh yes..Northern Virginia, spoiled arrogant and ugly part of Virginia (not the geography just the newly moved in people)

I rode by one of the trailheads for Pocahontas state park Sunday morning. The parking lot was jammed full of people coming to bike ride the trails
 
I spent a day at Gaines's Mill at the end of 2019 and thought I would pick up where the excellent photos by @Jamieva left off.

I had not been to Gaines's Mill for many years and was very impressed by all the progress made by the Civil War Trust in preserving new parts of the field. If you haven't been to the battlefield in a few years, it is definitely worth a trip. In addition to the trail over to the Texas monument, there is now a long trail to the west that leads to Powhite Creek and covers the ground of Longstreet's advance.

Here are some additional photos.

Trail over Boatswain Creek leading to Texas monument:
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Texas monument (view from access road to Civil War Trust property)
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Closer view of Texas monument
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Civil War Trust marker (with donor names) at start of new walking trail
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View along walking trail to Powhite Creek ravine
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Further along trail, turning towards Powhite Creek ravine

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Rest stop before trail descends to Powhite Creek

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Bottom of trail near Powhite Creek

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View coming out of Powhite Creek ravine
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Back to the access road to the Civil War Trust property (Texas monument just out of frame to the right, Mississippi monument and main battlefield road in the far distance)

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Mississippi monument and sign indicating some additional property preserved by the Civil War Trust

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Back along the Boatswain Creek trail, monument to Wilcox's brigade

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End of Boatswain Creek trail, marker for Whiting's advance

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Back to the Watt Farm road with the new fencing

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I'd like to hit Gaines Mill one day. Don't know why I'm going to hit it, it's not like it did anything to me.

Oh....I guess I'm the only one who found it funny. 🤷‍♂️

On a serious note, if I wasn't planning on doing a more thorough visit of Chancellorsville, Spotslyvania and so forth prior to Sharpsburg Muster (including hitting the Second Manassas Campaign battlefields), I may have visited Gaines Mill.

But sadly, one must make such sorrowful choices.
 
Thanks for sharing this awesome article and photos. Enjoyed reading this. Never been there! But now this place is in my over fall bucket lists. Maybe one day..
 
Thanks for all the pictures, especially the Powhite Creek trail! Makes me want to return to hike this battlefield again.

The new fence looks a bit strange; too yellowish IMO. I loved the old weathered one I encountered in June 2019.

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WOW, we just missed you! We were there Sunday morning. We did go back to the NC monument! Sorry we missed you.

Closer to home, we have someone who sits off the NCR trail and plays the fife in the afternoons. NCR trail as referenced by a CWT marker for Gilmor's raid. However, the NCR trail is packed with people now! Hard to practice social distancing on a packed trail 5 feet wide.

Sorry I missed you too! I live nearby, so Fox's Gap is my favorite place to practice outdoors--maybe we'll meet one day. The fellow on the NCR trail sounds like a kindred spirit! I'll have to get over that way sometime and play some tunes with him! I used to worry that I might be disturbing people who go up to the AT at Fox's Gap to hike through the wilderness in solitude, but a few years ago, someone left this note on the windshield of my car. (I have fife and drum stick figures on the back windshield, so it's pretty easy to find the fifer's car.)

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So after a long stressful week I was trying to figure out where I could go that didn't involve being around people and get my mind right. And it occured to me to go take a nice walk at my favorite area Civil War battlefield, which is Gaines Mill. Been there untold times, probably at least 10 in my lifetime. By far my favorite battlefield. I did take some pictures because some things have changed since I was last there and walked the trail 2 or 3 years ago.

It appears they recently rebuilt the fencing along the walkway that leads from the parking area to the overlook

Thank you for sharing your Gaines Mill trip and photos.

The following link


shows photos of the 11th​ Mississippi Infantry Regiment monument that was erected on the site in 2016. It marks the place where the 11th​ Mississippi formed before their now famous charge that broke the Union line, at the order from Stonewall Jackson to “press them with the bayonet”.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of the folks with the 11th​ Mississippi memorial association, who erected the monument. They invited me to come to Mississippi and during my trip there, I collected soil from Holmes, Madison, Carroll, Lafayette, Marshal, and Union counties, the town of Oxford and from the campus at Ole Miss. I placed a small sample of each of those places at the base of the monument at Gaines Mill in 2019.
 
So after a long stressful week I was trying to figure out where I could go that didn't involve being around people and get my mind right. And it occured to me to go take a nice walk at my favorite area Civil War battlefield, which is Gaines Mill. Been there untold times, probably at least 10 in my lifetime. By far my favorite battlefield. I did take some pictures because some things have changed since I was last there and walked the trail 2 or 3 years ago.
It has been a little over 4 years since I was there and I only had about an hour there. Hope to go back there next year. Good and bad thing about it is social distancing there is not a problem many days out of the year. My one visit was on a cold Monday morning in January. Had the place to myself. Wish I'd had more time.
 
Not so sure about Virginians and social distancing...Manassas was JAMMED yesterday...had to park on the drive way next to the highway cuz the rest of the 4-5 parking lots were packed...people with dogs everywhere...sadly..my son and I counted 17 doogie poop bags on the ground...guess folks think its ok to bring a dog, pick up their mess and then leave the plastic bags...ahh yes..Northern Virginia, spoiled arrogant and ugly part of Virginia (not the geography just the newly moved in people)
Sadly, northern Virginia has become a huge bedroom community for the politically GORGED Washington D.C. area. I've been alive in this great country for over 71 years. (13 months vacation to Vietnam with the Marines) and I've been a CW "nut" since my Grandparents took me to Gettysburg when I was 10.
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit MANY battlefields back in the late 60's and 70's, before "civilization" surrounded and choked them off.
When I came back from Nam I was sent to the Pentagon as a "security guard / courier" for the JCS. My new wife and I got an apartment in Alexandria, and Virginia became my playground when I was off. Manassas was just a short drive away and we went there often.
In those days there were very few people to compete with for breathing space and most of the people I spoke to were fellow CW enthusiasts. BONUS is there were few dogs, poop bags, and overflowing trash cans.
 
Sadly, northern Virginia has become a huge bedroom community for the politically GORGED Washington D.C. area. I've been alive in this great country for over 71 years. (13 months vacation to Vietnam with the Marines) and I've been a CW "nut" since my Grandparents took me to Gettysburg when I was 10.
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit MANY battlefields back in the late 60's and 70's, before "civilization" surrounded and choked them off.
When I came back from Nam I was sent to the Pentagon as a "security guard / courier" for the JCS. My new wife and I got an apartment in Alexandria, and Virginia became my playground when I was off. Manassas was just a short drive away and we went there often.
In those days there were very few people to compete with for breathing space and most of the people I spoke to were fellow CW enthusiasts. BONUS is there were few dogs, poop bags, and overflowing trash cans.
Thank you for your service to this country and I am sorry we have let you down as a Nam Vet. I am 65 and I hate the changes and once my son finishes HS we are out and leave this cesspool behind.
 
If you had been at Fox's Gap Sunday around 2:00...you would have seen me there playing my fife at the NC monument...I guess most people were hiking on the AT because only a few stopped by the monument--either that or my playing scared them away!...

We period banjo players get that all the time, it's just coincidence.
 
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