School on a Bus (a.k.a. Radical Sabbatical)

Caleb: Today we went to Appomattox Court House, the town where General Lee surrendered to General Grant. The court house and the surrounding town have never had any other significance other than being the site of the surrender. The interesting thing about it is that the surrender occurred in the parlor of Wilmer McLean; the first Battle of the Bull Run had occurred in his farm in Virginia. He had moved to Appomattox Court House to escape the war and it had ended up coming back to him full circle! The date of the surrender was April 9th, 1865.

Kevin: Today we went to another national park called Appomattox Court House, where the whole civil war started ending. Generals Grant and Lee had been having a roundabout fight, going throughout Virginia. This ended when Lee finally surrendered. This took place at William McLean’s house. Lee went back to his troops, a beaten and defeated man. Yet the war went on, because the rest of the southern troops continued to fight. But the northern celebrations fell silent on April 14th , because Lincoln was shot on that day. The war officially ended at Durham Station, North Carolina, when Sherman accepted the last Confederate army’s surrender.

I really liked the county jail, where Caleb and I pretended to lock each other up in the jail, and took turns being prisoner and jailer. It was all so amazing. The Junior Ranger program was so long, that I couldn’t even finish all of the site’s buildings.

During the civil war, Richmond was the most important strategic site – serving as the capital for the Confederacy. Not being an Easterner, I was surprised to find that Richmond was separated from Washington D.C by only 100 miles. Yet, the Union was never able to reach Richmond for the first part of the war. This was in large part due to the bold strategies of Robert E. Lee and the apparent incompetence of the Northern Generals.

This museum gives a great overview of the Civil War. It focuses on Lincoln, the abolition of slavery, and the changing attitudes on each side. There is also information on the availability of resources on each side which of course was a big factor for the South. I most enjoyed the perspectives of the states – Southern, Northern and the Border states. The Confederates were at a disadvantage from the start. They not only had to create a new army and prepare for a Union invasion, but also to create a new national government while seeking recognition and aid from Europe.

Lincoln’s political dexterity is apparent as he moved from his original election platform of limiting slavery in the territories to the Emancipation Proclamation – while protecting the right to own slaves in the Border States. It is also important to understand how the issue was resolved following the end of the war before the southern states could regain their full rights. For a good overview of the Civil War, if that’s possible – this museum is excellent.

After the Civil War, many of the cotton plantations were abandoned. The South’s economy had been devastated. Many Confederates returned without any money or resources. However, Union soldiers who had gotten a taste of sweet southern tobacco went home with a desire that could only be met by tobacco that was southern grown and cured. Tobacco was to quickly become the new cash crop and contributed to the South’s rebuilding.

Over the years acceptance of tobacco has swung from one extreme to the other. During WWII the army ensured all soldiers had an abundance of American tobacco to help them deal with battlefield hardships. When American soldiers returned home, the demand, and acceptance, for cigarettes hit an all time high. This vice continued to provide southern states with strong economies. Over time, health concerns and lawsuits have diminished America’s craving.

Sarah: The first tobacco smokers were discovered in 1492 when Columbus and his crew observed that the Native American Indians in Florida smoked tobacco leaves from pipes. The first European smoker was a member of Columbus’ crew.

Smoking did not grow very popular until during the Civil War and then in World War II, especially the latter. After the Civil War, Washington Duke, a farmer and Confederate soldier, returned to his farm with only 50 cents, 2 blind mules, and a wagonload of tobacco. He decided to try to grow tobacco, working with his four children and converting one of his old barns into a curing barn.

Within several years Dukes had to build a new building just for tobacco – so quickly had their fame risen. Soon they outgrew that and moved to the city, becoming the largest cigarette/tobacco company in the world. They also needed cotton sacks for the tobacco, and had to make a factory for that. Overall they raised the economy of the surrounding area, providing thousands of jobs.

We were able to walk around Duke’s homestead. A curing house and pack house had been moved nearby the original factory, to show how tobacco had been cured and aged. The tobacco was first cured. There were many techniques to do this, but the one shown was called ‘fire curing’. A fire burned low in a pit on the floor of the shack, while the tobacco hung on rods above. It would take 5-7 days to cure a barn-load of tobacco. It was then moved to a packing house, where it was dried and cooled. It was sorted according to size and quality, and taken to a market held annually. In the Duke’s time tobacco would have sold for around 8-10 cents a pound. Today it would be sold for about $1.00-$1.70 a pound. Considering the annual income, tobacco prices have stayed pretty much the same.

Tobacco seeds are very, very small, so it’s hard to plant them in a straight line. To solve this problem the seeds were scattered in a ‘seed bed’, then once they grew to a good size, they would be transplanted to the field.

When we explored the museum, although disgusting, it was also encouraging. It sounds like tobacco is getting harder to grow and more expensive. Although bad news for the smokers, it is good news for us. Just to clarify, I’m not against smoking, I’m just against the health problems it produces.

The railroad transformed America in the early 1800’s by allowing westward expansion and enabling interstate commerce.  The Wilmington Railroad Museum does a good job of covering the history and impact of the railroad – including the technology, economy, and culture. 

As in many wars, the Civil War was partly decided by the disparities in technological capabilities.  This included the railroad infrastructure.  The South had a piecemeal network with many different track types and gauges.  They also did not have the ability to produce more track or cars.  This was amplified in an account where General Longstreet needed to transport 6900 men by rail from Richmond, VA to Chattanooga, TN 400 miles away.  The troops traveled 900 miles on 16 different railroads in ten days.  When tracks needed repair, it was necessary to salvage good tracks from elsewhere – a task made more difficult by the lack of a common rail gauge.  The North on the other hand was able to transport large troop numbers in an expedient manner.  They were also able to repair rails subject to sabotage.

Caleb: Today we visited the Wilmington Railroad Museum - it has some life size trains, a history of trains and some LARGE elaborate electric train displays. For the historic record, Dad is really obsessed with trains in the civil war and so I have to talk about that if I want this to go up on the blog. So I learned that one of the deciding factors in the war was that the Federals had a large railroad transport system and utilized it fully, however the Confederates did not have a very large railroad system and they did not make a concentrated effort to seize what they had. Also the Confederates entire stock of iron had to be used for military use so they could not use it to build new railroads when old ones were destroyed.

Civil War buffs know the date April 12, 1861 when the first shots were fired by South Carolina confederates on U.S. Fort Sumter.  The U.S. Army had transferred its minimal troops to this fortified island as southern sympathies became more aggressive with the secession of South Carolina.  The siege lasted 34 hours and Fort Sumter was surrendered without serious injury to a single soldier.  The carnage was yet to come.  It was four years later to the day when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Northern Virginia army to General Grant.

Caleb: Fort Sumter was built for assault by sea. So when it was fired upon during the beginning of the civil war by Confederate owned Fort Moultrie from the land the shells and resulting fires were very close to the gunpowder stores (facing the land) which was one of the main reasons that the fort surrendered. When South Carolina seceded from the U.S. all of Charleston turned Confederate except for then Federal controlled Fort Sumter. The fort covers 2.4 acres of land. Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie were built to protect Charleston harbor. Abraham Lincoln was elected despite the fact that nobody in the southern states voted for him! Both Sumter and Moultrie were outfitted with a large concrete bunker in WW I. They both also had “disappearing rifles” which would swing up on steel beams, shoot, and then be knocked back into cover by the recoil. They could shoot up to 9 and ¾ths of a mile.

Kevin: Today we went out onto the harbor, for what I thought was going to be a leisurely stroll along the countryside. But instead of just walking along and then returning back to the bus, we bought a few tickets onto a boat! We boarded the boat, which was a beautiful craft with three decks. Two of whom where restaurants, although not in use on this trip. The trip took around an hour to an hour and an half to reach our destination. The fort would have been a heavily armed base in its day. Each of its walls, which finally met up to form a pentagon, was armed with ten cannons apiece. We had a time limit of exactly an hour before the boat would come to pick us up. The boat dropped us off and since we had a short time limit I went to get a Junior Ranger program. The museum was incredibly detailed about how the fort fought and fell. Fort Johnson across the way had asked for unconditional surrender, and, upon being refused, decided to open fire on Sumter. They opened fire at four thirty a.m. on April 12th, 1861. The battle raged on for at least thirty-four hours, almost two days.

Adam: Today we went to Fort Sumter (by boat because Fort Sumter was on an island) There was a museum that we went to and there was a gift shop. There were cannons. And I walked around Fort Sumter with mom. And then we went back to the bus and on the way I read Eldest.

During the 1800’s, Savannah was an important port for shipping cotton and receiving needed supplies. As such is was a natural target as well. Fort McAllister was positioned to defend the waterway into Savannah ports. The lesson at Fort McAllister was that sometimes high dirt mounds are a better defense than more elaborate constructions. The mud and sand walls were inexpensive to build and could withstand shelling. Union ships would bombard the fort but the Confederates were able to rebuild the walls and repair the damage each night.

Caleb:Today we went to Fort McAllister. It’s a fort nearby the town of Savannah. It was made of sand, dirt, lumber, and mud. Yet this proved it’s greatest defense since (like Coquina) it absorbed shells and the dislodged supplies were easily put back into place (unlike forts of stone and brick.) The fort was primarily a river defense. It was attacked seven times from the river but only fell to a later attack from the land.