Last night, I made a brief “trip report” to members of the Civil War Roundtable of the District of Columbia about a CWRDC-organized day trip to Richmond. About 10 of us boarded the train at Washington or Alexandria for what turned out to be a great day.

Here’s what we did:

• Walked about a mile along the James River and Kanawha Canal. The canal (like the C&O and Alexandria Canals further north) was built in an attempt to circumvent the falls on the James River. The railroad pretty much doomed the canal system.

• Visited Brown’s Island and its striking statuary. Used during the Civil War as a munitions site, it is now a recreational area with a huge Cinco de Mayo festival setting up when we were there.

• Took a wooden boardwalk across the river, which has quotations in its flooring with different perspectives on the Federal entry into Richmond in April 1865.

• Toured the American Civil War Museum on the grounds of the former Tredegar Iron Works, the largest such facility in the Confederacy.

• Learned more about how enslaved and free Blacks, immigrant Whites, and true-believing White secessionists experienced the period.

• Visited the “White House of the Confederacy” where Jefferson Davis and his family lived from 1861 to 1865.

• Walked about 10,000 steps in total (various people’s step-counters gave slightly different accounts) to return to Richmond’s Main Street station for a 4:57 P.M. train home.

  
  See below for a sampling of photos taken by me and other members of the group: