April 2, 1014
This past weekend I made a whirlwind trip to Richmond, Virginia for a planning meeting for a Civil War reenacting event in September. With me was good friend and Colonel of the Army of the Ohio, Bob Minton. First, I have to admit to another friend, Dan Aichele that I violated his rule about travel. Dan’s philosophy is that travel time should not exceed the time spent at the destination. Total travel time for this trip was 18 hours. Total time spent in Richmond, 15 hours. But, sometimes it is less about the time spent and more about the impact of that time.
With some time to kill Saturday morning before our meeting, Bob and I set out to explore nearby battlefields. On our list was Fort Harrison. Fort Harrison is just Southeast of Richmond and was the site of a fierce battle in September, 1864 as Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee faced each other in their epic confrontation that would last 11 months. We were especially interested in visiting the remnants of this earthen fort because we are recreating the fort for the reenactment. As we pulled up to park, we were immediately taken in by the site. Before us were a series of earthen walls, still as impressive as they were 150 years ago. The photo here doesn’t do justice to the size of the fort or the sense of impossibility in scaling those walls. But that is exactly what happened on September 29, 1864 when Union troops fought their way up and over the walls of Fort Harrison. And then, we read on one of the panels that the walls, due to erosion over the years are only half as high as they were during the battle! That made our appreciation of the men who built, defended and attacked them even more profound.
As we walked around and through the fort, you could sense the presences of the soldiers who had called this place home for so long. Confederates had occupied the fort for some time before the attack. Then Union forces held it for some months before moving on. Condensed within these earthen walls were the stories of so many men living through an incredible time in our nation’s history. We approached another interpretive panel and received a most pleasant surprise. It seems that General Ulysses Grant had entered this fort shortly after its capture and had sat down at the very spot we were now standing to write orders to his various commanders. It is not often you can stand in an exact spot on a battlefield and know someone stood there. As a fan of this humble man from Southern Ohio, I was awed and blessed to have this privilege. We went on to our meeting and received another surprise. The historic home we met in was Robert E. Lee’s first headquarters in 1862 as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. So, our trip was quite worth the hours of driving, even the tedious hours traveling back home through the storm that included rain, fog, wind and snow. Come September when I return to the Richmond area and gather with a few thousand reenactors to commemorate the battles there, my mind will go back to the now quiet fort sitting in the countryside east of Richmond. I will think about the thousands who gathered 150 years ago and will mourn those lost, honor those who fought and realize that, but for the foresight of people in Eastern Virginia many years ago, Fort Harrison would now be a distant memory instead of a real place we can still visit and experience.
To learn more about Fort Harrison or to plan a visit, go to the Battlefield Park web site at http://www.nps.gov/rich/historyculture/fort-harrison.htm.
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