Fall is a season of transition in the National Park System, from long, hot days with crowded roads and trails, to cooler, crisper weather that beckons you to make a few more trips before winter sets in. Here is the second of four suggestions to jump on now, or to add to your to-do list.
With the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg being marked this month, the staff at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park has lined up some special events.
As commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg take place, the Civil War Trust has launched a pair of multimedia phone apps available to the public at no cost.
It was just about a year ago that the Civil War Trust embarked on the first year of the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War. During that year, the Trust was able to save more than 2,000 acres of hallowed ground.
Another vital piece of the Wilderness Battlefield -- the site of the daytime field headquarters of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant -- has been preserved near Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park thanks to the efforts of the Civil War Trust.
The Innis House was built about 1861 on property
owned by Martha Stephens. In 1861 it was lived in by John Innis, one of
Martha's common law husbands.
The Innis House was lived in until the 1970s.
After the house was sold to the park, restoration work returned the
house to its 1862 appearance. Work crews removed modern layers of wood
and wall paper revealing hundreds of bullet holes.
Through the course of the next five years the National Park Service will be rolling out a series of programs to both help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and highlight its impact on the Civil Rights movement in this country.