We started our trip to FL by stopping at the Club at Gaston Lake Resort in Gasburg, VA on 11/02/2011. On 11/06/2011 we drove to Lawrenceville, Va to visit Fort Christanna Historical Site, Brunswick County Museum, and 100th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Confederate Monument. Fort Christanna was at one time the westernmost frontier of European influence in the Virginia Colony. Found by Governor Spotswood in 1714, Fort Christanna offered protection for white settlers and friendly tribes. In addition the fort was meant to be a center of trade and to offer education to the resident native peoples. The site consists of 26 acres that encompass the site of the fort and runs to the scenic Meherrin River. The original outline of the fort has been cleared and marked and can be walked by visitors. The area that is now Brunswick County was then at the frontier of European expansion with settlers looking for new land. In 1714 Governor Spotswood, concerned with the protection of those pioneers as well as to the profits to be gained in the fur trade, received a charter from the General Assembly to build a fort in the wilderness on the Meherrin River. He established the Virginia Indian Company to do so. In addition, Spotswood gathered the remnants of the Saponie tribes in a place of safety, as they had been driven from their homeland by settlers and badly harassed by Iroquoian tribes. Life was busy at the fort. Rangers rode out dads on circuits of the territory. Native Americans came in to trade their pelts, and for a while a school operated within the fort for Indian children. This activity slowed when the charter for the Indian Company was rescinded. By 1718 the school was closed and the funding for the rangers ended. Trade continued until 1722, and although some of the Saponie joined other tribes, some remained at the fort years afterward. The picture is of Fort Christanna Monument.
The Picture shows Abigail on a cannon mounted on the monument.
The Brunswick County Museum is located in the historic Courthouse Square in Lawrenceville. Come and see a variety of exhibits documenting the county’s history. The County of Brunswick was created in 1720 and stretched from the fall lines in the rivers east of Emporia to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The county was bounded on the south by a surveyor’s line which separated the Virginia and North Carolina colonies and on the north by the Nottoway River. This vast area has been separated into ten (10) counties. The museum houses three distinct display rooms: the Indian Relics, Governor Albertis Harrison Room and the Mrs. Alice Samford Room. There is an exhibit of Fort Christanna and some items from an archeologist’s “dig” made there in 1979-1981. The picture is of the Brunswick County Museum building
While we visited the Brunswick County Museum, we were told that there was a 100th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Confederate Monument to be held at 2:00pm that day. We stayed and enjoyed the activities of the event. The picture is of the Confederate Monument.
The picture is of honor guard firing.
On 11/09/2011 we continue our travels and stop at Bass Lake RV Park in Dillon, SC. We drove up to Dunn, NC on 11/13/2011 to see Averasboro Battlefield. The Battle of Averasborough or The Battle of Averasboro, fought March 16, 1865, in Harnett and Cumberland counties, North Carolina, as part of the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War, was a prelude to the climactic Battle of Bentonville, which began three days later. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was moving his army north towards Goldsboro in two columns. The right column (Army of the Tennessee) was under the command of Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard and the left column (Army of Georgia) was under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum. Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston sent Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s corps to attack Slocum’s left wing while it was separated from the rest of Sherman’s forces. Slocum’s troops crossed the Cape Fear River near Averasborough, where they encountered Hardee’s corps. On the morning of the March 16, troops of the Union XX Corps under Maj. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams were driven back by a Confederate assault. When reinforcements arrived, the Union forces counterattacked and drove back two lines of Confederates but were repulsed by a third line. By this time, units from Maj. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis’s XIV Corps began to arrive on the field. Outnumbered and in danger of being flanked, Hardee’s troops withdrew. The picture shows the Confederate Monument at the first line of defense.
While we were there, they had a WWII Re-enactment going on. The picture is of a German Half-track which had a 20mm cannon on it. During a mock battle they did fire the 20mm cannon.
The picture shows a 1938 Plymouth they had on display.
