Petersburg

Madison loves history, which is exciting to me, as I do too. With my dad as a history teacher, we spent many summers touring battlefields. One that I had not been to is Petersburg, and it's right off I-95 in Petersburg, VA.  Madison has been begging to start visiting battlefields for awhile, and I told her that when we drove by Petersburg on the way to D.C., we would stop on the way back. So, yesterday, we stopped, and it was a great day to do so. It was a beautiful day, but extremely hot and humid.  The park wasn't busy, which was really nice.  We loved visiting the battlefield, and the kids all asked if we could visit more.  Edward may have to go to Ft. Lee, which backs up to Petersburg for a course next year for several months, so this would be a great place to visit when we visit him.

 

 Here we are at the Visitor's Center. The kids were very interested in the different cannons. We also enjoyed reading the plaques to figure out how far each cannon could shoot.

Visitor's Center 

 Kids' area in Visitor Center with Civil War coloring sheets.  We also purchased two books:  "You would not Want to have been a Nurse during the Civil War" and "You would not want to have been a Soldier during the Civil War" while there.

 There was a very nice .6 mile loop behind the center we walked. Cannons were placed all along the walkway, and it had an open grassy area, fortified area, and wooded area.

 Starting out on the walk

 Wooded part of the walk...Luke caught a frog just down the trail from this.  It made his day.

 After we left the Visitor's Center, we started on a four-mile drive through part of the battlefield.  This was one of the stopping points, a campsite setup.

 

 

It was really great we were the only people at this spot.  We saw a few other cars, but it wasn't busy at all.  We wanted to get out and do more, but it was 96 degrees with close to 99% humidity at this point.  We decided it would be better to come back when it was cooler.  There is another 29 miles of the battlefield tour we didn't do, as we were told it could take most of the day to complete.  Great place to stop!