As the morning marched I, I could see that I was going to waste the day moping. I decided that I was in Petersburg and surely there had to be a Civil War battlefield or monument or something where I could go spend a few hours. I went on Trip Advisor to look up the area attractions and the first thing that came up made me giddy. In less than 20 minutes, I was on my way to the Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, site of the last big battle of the American Civil War, The Breakthrough.
This major battle of April 2nd, 1865, isn’t well known, but it was the death knell for the Confederate Army. The war ended just a week later with the surrender of Confederate soldiers, including General Lee.
The words to describe this incredible facility almost escape me. There is the museum, but also a plantation, a second museum about the Breakthrough battle, and finally there is a walk through the battlefield. I arrived at noon and the park closes at 5:00. I was the last guest off the property and got back so close to 5:00 that they were literally about to send a search party for me. And after five whole hours there, I didn’t see and do everything!
Regular admission to the facility is $12. This includes an audio tour of the entire facility. This gadget is what made the visit so memorable and ensured I spent as much time there as I did. Photography is only allowed outside, not in the two museums.
The first thing to do is tour The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier. You are asked to pick a soldier out of a group and the tour will be personalized with his perspective. I was amused that my randomly selected ‘comrade’, Sergeant Peter Welsh, was originally from Canada! His letters were read by an interpreter, adding a personal touch to the exhibits.
This museum was really, really well done, with lots of artifacts and the audio track being a combination of narration and reading of period documents. One exhibit had three men playing poker and the audio track was of their conversation, a clever way to show the drudgery of daily life in camp.
My favourite exhibit in this museum was one that is optional because it is so intense. You are sent into a battlefield. I shut my eyes for most of it and was completely transported. The ground shakes and bursts of air brush by you, simulating a volley of bullets. By the end of it, I actually ducked and cowered when a shell went off right beside me!
After this museum, I headed outside to tour the Tudor Plantation, a fairly typical tobacco plantation that was occupied by the army. You can tour the house itself, restored to period looks, the kitchen, the tobacco barn, the kitchen garden, and the slave quarters. The slave quarters have a really good movie showing the perspective of six (fictional) people from the 1850s who share their ideas about slavery.
By the time I was doing with the plantation, I had already been on site for three hours! I ate my picnic lunch (bring food!) then continued to the Battlefield Center. On the way there, you can see a reproduction of the trenches used to fight in the area, the sight of which will remind you of World War One.
There are just a couple of exhibits at the Battlefield Center as well as a few movies. It was 3:30 by the time I was done with the exhibits and I had to make the choice between watching a movie or walking through the battlefield. I decided that I wanted to spend some time outdoors.
Before getting to the battlefield, you have to cross a military winter camp. I was disappointed that I’d missed the period reinactors, but they finish for the day around 3:00.
I decided to do the big loop through the battlefield, including the detour to see the Hart farm and the site of a modern camp where people can go recreate the days of the Civil War. But I was too short on time to do the Heartland Trail.
It was amazing to see the Civil War-era ‘works’, the dirt berms built as fortifications. I found it very difficult to believe that at that time, there was nothing in the area but barren ground and mud. While the area is filled with trees today, there was no place to hide except behind the berms during the Civil War.
I had an amazing day at Pamplin Historical Park and am almost grateful that the circumstances have been such lately to have brought me to this memorable facility. I would have really missed out on something special had I been on schedule today.
The pictures below have more information.
map of this impressive facility (it’s HUGE)
walking out of the first museum towards the plantation
that’s the tobacco barn, where the tobacco leaves were cured over a fire
first glimpse of Tudor house
the tobacco barn
the tobacco barn
Tudor house, a fairly typical plantation house
lambs
inside the laundry/kitchen building; house slaves slept upstairs
the stairs from hell
the kitchen (in an outbuilding to keep heat and odors out of the main house)
family cemetery
the laundry/kitchen outbuilding
Tudor house (home of the Boisseau family, pronounced not Bwa-so but Bo-saw)
Tudor house
the outbuildings
work shed
the parlour as it might have looked under army occupation
a box that once held breakfast cocoa
interesting wallpaper
I liked the wallpaper in this less formal parlour/dining room
staircase to the second level
Love this bed, but imagine the dust!
dressing table
closeup of 19th century toothbrush
the trim was a bright aqua colour
a bedroom imagined as an officer’s quarters
a bedroom imagined as an officer’s quarters
the children’s bedroom as barracks
the children’s bedroom as barracks
the kitchen garden
herbs
onions
I was leaving this area when the audio invited me to in and see what was growing. Here, it’s radishes and onions.
cayenne peppers!
these cabbage are coming up nicely
the watermelons are starting
a ball and chain serve as a reminder to keep the gate shut
the lambs liked the shade provided by the fense
heading to the slave quarters
approximate walking times to the various areas (very generous; I must be a fast walker)
the field slave quarters weren’t as luxurious as those of the house slaves
approaching the slave quarters
an interesting lock; if you try to open the door, the chain goes through the whole until it gets blocked by the padlock
this rooster was very chatty
entrance to the museum about slavery
the movied showed the perspective of a wealthy slave owner, an abolitionist minister, a freed slave, a slave cook, a farmer, and yeoman (all but the rich lady felt slavery was wrong, but the white except for the minister felt that blacks are inferior and should be segregated)
inside slave quarters
inside slave quarters
children slept up in the rafters
slaves ate what their masters provided and what they could forage
field slaves had one set of clothes for the year while house slaves had new clothes more often
day pass for a slave to serve at a wedding
the end of the American Civil War started here
the end of the American Civil War started here
walking towards the Battlefield Center
trench
the Battlefield Center was built to look like the pointy wooden structures (not the fence in the foreground) called ‘abatis’, the Civil War equivalent of barbed wire
canon
looking towards the winter camp
the Battlefield Center
walking towards the winter camp
winter camp quarters were given funny names
map of the Breakthrough Trail
the site of the battle is now a National Historic Landmark
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
map of the trail including the optional detour to the Hart farm
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
the Hart farm
site of a camp where recreationists can live the days of the Civil War
the Hart farm (the area around it was occupied by soldiers, but not the house itself, inhabited by a widow who hid in the cellar when there was shelling)
the Hart house is a gothic cottage complete with gingerbread
it’s really rather lovely!
description of the army camp set up in the Hart orchard
another view of the modern camp for recreationists
canon
starting on the main loop path
this small ravine was the setting for the events that gave the Union the edge it needed to win the war
part of the strategy involved the building of a dam; you can see a break in it here
the battle came to a head here
the neat little audio gadget; when you got to a placard with a number on it, you could enter the number and get a few minutes of audio about the area
looking up a berm at a canon (really)
can you see the canon now?
many minutes later, I’m up the berm by the canon
the Breakthrough Battle was fought on April 2nd, 1865 (entrance to the Battlefield Center)
