F@#$ North Anna. That is sincere and not just an amusing title

Where to start?

This may come out like a bitch-fest but I didn't start getting grouchy until about 3:30, after Sean and I finished the Cold Harbor hike.  We still had 5 hours ahead of us, so yeah not our best day.  We started snapping at each other.  Nothing that hurts feelings, just the kind of remarks that let both of us know that the day didn't go well.

There wasn't a single catastrophic mistake.  There were a dozen little ones that robbed us of a half hour here, an hour there.  Compounded together, those conspired/ensured that we didn't accomplish nearly as much on the day that we could have.  And you can't really even consider most of them mistakes (although I will label them as such).  They are more accurately portrayed as choices.

Mistake #1:  Not leaving till 9:00.  This one was more of a choice.  WE ARE ON VACATION.  We shouldn't need to worry about schedules.

Most of these are completely hindsight too.  But an hour less at the Best Western that morning would have really worked to our advantage.

Mistake #2:  The Scenic Route. 

The red circle is King's Dominion amusement park.  The directions for the North Anna battlefield marker actually start 5 miles north of here, but its a good landmark.  The blue scribble is our approximate path instead of I-95.

 This again is more of a choice, and not exactly wasted time.  The scenery is great and we stop for some Instagram Moments.


The first 3 are all at the same place.

 remind me to photoshop Murph out.

 I.
Don't.
Even.
Know.

 Grant slept near a church here for a night.  Got a really good stink eye from a lady pulling out of the parking lot.

So these are the signs I am constantly referencing and not posting pictures of.  Hopefully now you see why.





Mistake #3:

Not actually our mistake.  The interwebs lied to us.

So North Anna actually gets more than a sign, they get an exhibit.  NOT my photo.

and there's this cool website that lists a bunch of historical markers HMDB, and gives directions on how to find them.

Location. 37° 52.897′ N, 77° 29.947′ W. Marker is in Doswell, Virginia, in Hanover County. Marker can be reached from Doswell Road (Virginia Route 685), on the right when traveling west. Click for map. Marker is in the parking lot of North Anna Battlefield Park, near the trailhead. Marker is in this post office area: Doswell VA 23047, United States of America.

Clear as mud right?  Except that Doswell Road is Virginia 688.

 

685 is in the ballpark,

but clearly not Doswell Road.  We travel 688 back and forth, even going to the far side of I-95 without seeing the marker.  Then we look for 685, back over 688, find 685, drive that for 10 miles give up and turn around  back the way we came and headed back to Highway 1.  Four times on the same stretch of 688.  See that river marked by the red line?  Pretty sure that's the North Anna River, which we crossed 4 times.

Anyways battle of North Anna.  Grant split his forces across the river, and Lee had a chance to attack and defeat the larger army in detail.  Lee fell ill; varying sources describe wildly different maladies.  Anything from explosive diarrhea to a heart attack.  Doesn't matter, Lee's legacy has already been enshrined.  The important thing is that he was bedridden and unable to coordinate the attack and at this point had leadership problems with his corps commanders.  A.P. Hill was also sick.  Ewell was a disappointment, Longstreet was recovering from getting shot in the neck a month ago, and his replacement Gordon was too inexperienced.  By the time Lee recovered, Grant had consolidated the Army of the Potomac once again.

More Sunday mistakes to follow.