Field Trip! (Part 2)

There is a splendid stained glass window in the museum and we sat down in front of it and listened to Miss Stacey tell us more about the area and the battle that was fought there. Behind her are the names of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) cadets who lost their lives at this battle.

We split up into teams and did a scavenger hunt in the two story museum. It was a challenging hunt for answers and some were a little tricky. These two were on my team (or was I on theirs?)

This fellow helped save lives by providing water. Finding his name was part of the hunt.

There was also a rifle that had been bent by an artillery fragment. It had been loaded but never fired and was finally discovered in 1999 with powder and bullet. They removed the powder and bullet and it is on display, bent, in the museum. Another question was about the battle flag of the confederacy. Be careful, it's not the national flag but the battle flag.

Here we are reviewing the answers.

Then we got back to talking about life as a soldier and what you would have to do in Boot Camp. Miss Stacey said that the first thing a solder needed was a uniform so people would know which side you were on. In the beginning of the war the Union and the Confederacy both wore dark blue and gray so to make things clearer "they" decided that the Union would wear blue and the Confederacy wore gray. As the war wore on and supplies were more difficult to come by, the quality of the Confederate army went down. The war started with wool uniforms and ended with jean wool.

These were typical uniforms of the time. This looks like an impressive group of soldiers.

The girl on the right is wearing the VMI cadet uniform.