Historic Richmond-Part 2 The Confederacy

With 28 years of experience it's no wonder that service at the Tobacco Company runs like a well oiled machine. We arrived fifteen minutes before they open at 5:30pm and we had barely taken a sit at a table near the door when a cocktail waitress was asking us if we needed anything. The first floor hostess arranged for everyone waiting to have menus and sent us on our way to the third floor. There is a beautiful carved brass elevator that will whisk you to the second or third floor while you enjoy the beauty of the three story garden atrium.

Our waiter Christopher was as attentive as anyone could be. When we were first seated we were his only customers. By the time we left he had at least 15 others. The service never wavered. I would be remiss if I failed to mention Meghan whose job it seemed was to keep Al’s water glass filled. She even jokingly asked as we left if he wanted some to go.

Al decided to order the specialty of the house, the slow roasted prime rib. It is served with either baked or Yukon gold mashed and vegetables of the day, which today was green beans with bacon butter. I decided to be creative. We shared coconut shrimp and I had oyster stew and chevre fondue.

The shrimp arrived first, five very good size shrimp with three dipping sauces. We had the choice of cocktail sauce, honey mustard and strawberry horseradish. All three were very good.

My oyster stew was delivered next, with fresh pepper if I choose and some grated cheese which Christopher assured me was the way the staff prefers it. I tried it both with and without and I was hard pressed to prefer one over the other. What I did miss was tasting the butternut squash that the stew boasts. Don’t misunderstand, this was a decadently good soup, I just love butternut squash.

The prime rib and fondue arrived at the same time. Al was well occupied with his large slab of meat and I was delighted with my fondue, though it was like no fondue the world has ever seen. I called it make it yourself bruchetta. I had a chafing dish of chunky tomatoes, onions, peppers and black olives with melted chevre in pieces on top. Add crispy slices of sourdough bread and yes it is, make it yourself bruchetta. Delicious, creative, unique, but fondue, no.

When our plates were empty, Christopher was back to ask Al if he would like his second piece of prime rib, it is the tradition here. Not even Al could manage a second piece especially since we had the shrimp and he had eaten half his baked potato. We did however have enough room for coffee and a split dessert. We chose the Molten Chocolate Truffle cake. It was every bit as delicious as it sounds and it almost made us hope they offer seconds on dessert.

When we arrived at the Valentine House Museum the next guided tour was about 45 minutes off. Having done my homework I knew that there was a café located somewhere on the property. It is located in the back of the building. You can exit through the gift shop and enter through a walkway between buildings.

It is a small building with only a counter where you order your food. There is a glass case in front with desserts, cold drinks and salads (potato, fruit, coleslaw) in it. There is some seating inside in a bistro type setting with sweet little tables for two. There is also outdoor seating under a tent. We chose to eat outside since it was a beautiful day. The tables and chairs are wrought iron and there is a fountain and gardens to set the mood. There was also a lot of ongoing exterior work being done on the Wickham House. We watched several young men as they worked on the paint of the columned porch.

They have an interesting menu which includes daily specials and even boxed lunches that they will prepare for you to takeaway. The menu is heavy on sandwiches and salads with the like of Cuban roast pork loan and veggie and hummus. We passed up the many salads including the chicken salad and the Greek shrimp salad. Al chose a roast beef wrap and I opted for an apple and brie panini. They are served with your choice of side, we chose coleslaw. They have a tea bar inside where you can pick your flavor of tea and what you want in it. Since it was close to tea time we had cups of English breakfast tea with our sandwiches. They were very good sandwiches, mine grilled to perfection, Al’s wrapped in a pretty green tortilla.

They offer breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday. Their breakfast offerings include fresh fruit, muffins and bagels. Just sitting in the peaceful courtyard made for a very pleasant stop.

The garden and the café are both handicap accessible.

To fully understand the Confederacy and the impact of the War on Richmond I think a visit to Chimborazo Hospital is a must. Located in a park a five minute drive from Shockoe Bottom the Visitors Center is maintained by the National Park Department.

Begin your visit by watching the seventeen minute video ‘Under the Yellow Flag”, it will explain the Confederate Hospital System. After the First Battle of Manassas the city was flooded with wounded. It became apparent that the existing hospitals were woefully inadequate to handle the number of wounded who would be generated in the War. The wounded had to be treated in hotels and private homes. Five hospitals were ordered to be built in Richmond the most famous of which was “Chimborazo” the hospital on the hill. Local legend ascribes the name to a resident who had visited Ecuador and likened the hospital to a volcano located there and the name stuck. At its peak Chimborazo had 150 buildings. 76,000 people passed though its wards and 8,000 died here, which is about five a day. None of the original buildings has survived.

What you will get out of your visit here is the magnitude of Civil War. This was not some romantic, idealistic conflict over slavery. Well maybe it was but it was also horrifying slaughter. And it wasn’t just the gunshot wounds, it was the dysentery that killed many men. Before the war most surgeons had never treated a gunshot wound. The only cure for a shattered limb was amputation and without sterilization, many didn’t survive the operation. Just being transported to the hospital in wagons without springs killed many wounded. A visit here will quickly shatter any illusions you may have about war. It is an ugly business, that’s for sure.

Along with the surgeons, women, children and freed slaves worked in the hospitals. The confederacy didn’t have a Clara Barton, it never developed any nurses training. Nurses learned on the job. The nuns of St Francis ran a hospital in Richmond. They treated soldiers on both sides and were allowed to travel between the lines.

Before the War there were 100 medical schools in the United States, only 19 of them were in the South. You will learn a lot about the way the patients were treated and the instruments that were used. Some of it seems barbaric and some of it seems hardly different from today. This is a very educational museum on a variety of levels. I was grossed out by some of the stuff, fascinated by others and inspired by the people who had to do so much, for so many with so little. Allow about 45 minutes for your visit. There is no charge.

No visit to Richmond would be complete without a stop at the Hollywood Cemetery. For a person who has a great sense of direction and even better instincts I had a heck of a time finding the entrance to this cemetery. There are almost no signs and there are several cemeteries, don’t say I didn’t warn you

Once you find the entrance you will want to stop at the cemetery office and purchase a map. This is a big cemetery and without the map you could spend the whole day driving around. Not that this would necessarily be a bad thing but since we were on somewhat of a time schedule, we did my usual thing. Okay go past the office and take your first right onto Confederate Ave.

The first grave we located was that of Major General George E. Pickett. He was a graduate of West Point in the same class as Thomas Jackson and George McClellan. He had the distinction of finishing in 59th place in a class of 59. He fought on the side of the Confederacy and was a major player in the battle of Gettysburg giving his name to "Pickett’s Charge". The monument that stands over his grave was intended for Gettysburg National Military Park but when it was not allowed to be placed there, Hollywood Cemetery became it’s home.

Our next stop was the grave of JEB Stuart. I have always been fascinated by this son of the South. He was a graduate of West Point and also chose to fight for the Confederacy. There is something jaunty about him and his plumed hat that has always seemed special. He was a close friend of Stonewall Jackson and took over for him when he was mortally wounded. He was killed himself outside of Richmond in 1864 and buried here. You can see some of his finery at the Museum of the Confederacy.

Three Presidents call Hollywood Cemetery their final resting place. Two of them James Monroe and John Tyler are Presidents of the United States. Jefferson Davis was the only President of the Confederacy. In keeping with their separation in life they are quite far apart in death as well. I was especially interested in seeing the Monroe’s monuments. James and his wife Elizabeth are both here and John Tyler is close by. The Monroe graves are covered by a cast iron monument. Nicknamed "The Birdcage" it is beautiful and certainly unique.

Jefferson Davis gets the primo spot here and it isn’t hard to find because there is a large statue of the man right near his grave.

Several other things to look for are the cast iron dog, the Confederate pyramid, in honor of the over 18,000 Confederate dead buried here and the Ginter tomb. There is also a very nice view of Greater Richmond and the James River. By the way this is an active cemetery and you can buy yourself a place in history.

In 1890 the Ladies Hollywood Memorial Association rescued the White House of the Confederacy from destruction. They formed the Confederate Literary Society and in 1896 opened the House up as a Museum. Thus began the Confederate Museum. The name was changed to The Museum of the Confederacy in 1969 and in 1976 the Museum moved to its new building next door. Now it was time to restore the Mansion.

Built in 1818 by Doctor John Brockenbrough, President of the Bank of Virginia the house had passes through several owners before it was purchased by the city of Richmond to house the Jefferson Davis family in 1861. Beyond its role as the White House, it was also a family home to the Davis family. Mrs. Davis gave birth to two children while they lived in the house and in 1864 five year old Joseph Davis fell to his death from the porch on the east side of the house. These and many other facts we learned from our guide Cara as we took our 45 minute tour of the house.

The tour begins in the lobby of the Museum of the Confederacy and moves over to the basement of the house. The house we see today today was created by Lewis Crenshaw who purchased it in 1857 and added the third floor and gas lighting, he also added a flush toilet. It was Lewis who sold the house to the Commission in 1861 with its furnishings for $43,000. He was paid in installments in Confederate currency. After the War everything was sold even the wallpaper and rugs and it was turned into a school.

Today after a twelve-year restoration about 60% of the original furnishings have been restored to the house. What isn’t original is from the period. One good thing is that when the Union Army came into Richmond they didn’t sack the house. On April 4, 1865, Union Officers entertained President Abraham Lincoln in the parlors of the house. Jefferson Davis had fled from Richmond on April 2, 1865.

What I got from my visit here was not more knowledge about the Confederacy. That I got at the Museum of the Confederacy. Here it was more about the President of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis was quite an amazing man, blind in one eye, never very well (he had chronic insomnia), he still managed to serve first the United States as a hero in the Mexican War and then as a senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a graduate of West Point and these qualifications made him the ideal choice to lead the Confederacy.

You need to be able to climb stairs to visit here. We moved from the basement to the first and second floors. We visit the public and private quarters as well as Mr. Davis’s office. Most of the main figures of the Confederacy visited here, Stonewall Jackson, Robert E Lee, Joseph Johnston and James Longstreet.

The Museum of the Confederacy is next door to the White House of the Confederacy. You will want to buy a combination ticket for $10. Be sure to check on the times of the White House Tour. What we did was tour the museum, go on the tour of the White House and then return to finish the museum.

What a different perspective on the War between the States you get here. Being from the North, the Confederates are usually regarded as traitors . At this museum, the Southerners are Patriots doing what their forefathers did before them, leading a second revolution to protect their rights and liberties. In the South, 900,000 men served the glorious cause, that is three out of four white males of the age to serve.

I found the display of tintypes and ambrotypes particularly poignant, it puts a face on the war and the face is very young. It is jut wrenching. Another exhibit shows the jacket of a young man killed in the conflict. The hole is quite visible where the bullet went through the material and into his body.

Having visited the Stonewall Jackson Shrine in Fredericksburg, I was touched to see the exhibit of his personal effects. They have his cap, his scabbard, his field officer sword and even a handkerchief with bloodstains that was used to bind his wound. They do a great job of making all the exhibits easy to follow and visually appealing.

The entry level floor introduces you to some of the main players in the War. There is an excellent display of Robert E. Lee memorabilia. Everything in the display is original. We see the sword of general Johnston that was worn by his father during the Revolutionary War. We also see the epitaph written by a young soldier and hung on his tomb as well as that soldiers jacket.

As a fan of JEB Stuart I especially enjoyed seeing his boots, his gauntlets his saddle and that jauntily rakish hat. I think I would have really enjoyed meeting him.

The exhibits are spread over three floors. The upper floor has a lot of maritime information. This was a sea war as well as a land war.

On the lower floor there is a short video about flag conservation. You will understand the importance of this work when you see how many flags they have been able to preserve. On this lower level we meet the average soldier. There are letters written to mothers and sweethearts back home from the battlefield. These offer an insight into what was going on in their heads and what was going on in the battlefield. They are sad, touching and occasionally humorous.

There is a lot to see and read here. Depending on what your interest level is allow about three hours for the visit of both the Museum and the White House of the Confederacy. There is a small gift shop on the lobby level.