Pointless Prize: Civil War History

[BicycleBeth]

Civil War History Pointless Prize

I am sponsoring a Civil War History pointless prize. We have so much Civil War history in the DC Metro area, and I’d love for us to explore more of our nation’s heritage. I’ve had a great time cycling to Civil War sites this year including circle forts, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Maryland Campaign of 1862. I’ve even designed and rode bicycle routes to follow troop movements leading up to the Battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg.

The Rules

For this contest, there are two ways to earn points, each of which will have a hashtag on Strava. You can earn a maximum of 7 points per day. That is, your ride can have both hashtags: #CivilWarMarker #CivilWarStreet. If you have multiple rides in one day and both rides are hashtagged for this prize, only the first ride of the day counts.

1. #CivilWarMarker +5 points
-Find Civil War Markers like monuments, historic signs with descriptions, circle forts, battle sites, and similar. Take a photo of the historic marker with your bicycle. Write a short description of the marker on Strava. This could be as simple as retyping the text of the marker or talking about where you found the marker or why it caught your eye.
-Hashtag the ride on Strava as #CivilWarMarker.
-One Civil War Marker counts PER DAY.
-Don’t repeat the same exact historic marker for the duration of Freezing Saddles. You’re on the honor system here.

2. #CivilWarStreet +2 points
-Find streets named after Civil War generals, key figures, and streets that were critical to the Civil War. Take a picture of your bike with the street sign. Write a short description of who this general/key figure was or why this street/street name was critical in the Civil War in the comment section on Strava.
-Examples for streets critical to the Civil War:
*”Military Road” in Arlington and in DC was designed to connect the circle forts defending the perimeter of Washington.
*Roads that were critical in battle movements also count as long as you annotate why they were important. For example, “Bolivar Road” is the approach that Union troops used to to engaged with Confederate troops at Fox’s Gap (on Reno Monument Road) at the Battle of South Mountain in September of 1862.
-Hashtag the ride on Strava as #CivilWarStreet.
-One Civil War Street counts PER DAY.
-Do not repeat the same street in the same city/town but you could find the same street name in a different city. For example, “Lee” Street appears in multiple cities in the region. You could ride “Lee” Street in 5 different cities on 5 different days and have them all count. But don’t just ride another block down the same street and count that as a new sign (unless it’s in a different city). You’re on the honor system here.

RULES EDITED on 1/3/2021 TO ADD:
1. Hashtags, photos, and Strava captions/ride comments must be completed no later than 3 days after the date of the ride. No saving up those points for the last minute!

2. You must be willing to accept my Strava friend request or have a public profile that I can follow so that I can read your civil war posts and audit them for accuracy and completeness.

3. If your Civil War Marker is not clearly connected to the Civil War on the marker itself, then you must explain the connection in your comments. For example, you see a courthouse or fort sign that you know was relevant to the civil war but is otherwise not explained on the sign. You take a picture with the marker and your bike. You should also explain what the connection is to the Civil War.

4. (2/7/2021 clarification) The Civil War streets, other than those used for troop and supply movements, should be named after historical FIGURES from the Civil War to include topics related to secession, slavery, abolition, the Underground Railroad, and Reconstruction and the politics of these events. Just to be clear, a key figure or historical figure is a PERSON not a city, battlefield, park, ship name, etc. The key figure should be historically remembered in some way that was relevant to one of these topics. Streets do not need to literally be named after the person. They can just be the same name as the surname of the historical figure.

5. (2/8/2021 edit, clarification, and grandfather clause). From the original rules under #civilwarstreet, I wrote “Write a short description of who this general/key figure was or why this street/street name was critical in the Civil War in the comment section on Strava.” This grammatical construction (in particular, “street name”) may have legitimately led people to believe that additional categories other than the two intended categories were allowed. Thus, I will grandfather in all entries referring to places, ships, ship movements, etc until 2/8/2021 as long as all other rules were followed.

To be very clear, I will rewrite this sentence into two sentences.
For Historical Figures: Write a short description of who this Civil War figure was and what role they played in the Civil War in the comment/caption section on Strava. Historical Figures includes both prominent and historically-recorded figures as described earlier.
For Troop Movements and Critical Civil War Routes: Write a short description of why this street was critical to troop and/or supply movements in the Civil War in the comment/caption section on Strava. The idea is that you will ride your bike in the same place that troops or supply wagons used during the Civil War so that you can experience the terrain they encountered. You can use the same street for troop movements multiple times as long as each time you use it it is in a different jurisdiction. The reason for this is that terrain varies between jurisdictions, and I want you to relive the troop movements.
-For example, Georgia Avenue (the Seventh Street Turnpike) was used both for the Battle of Fort Stevens (Confederates attacking and retreating and Federals in pursuit) and for Burnside moving troops and material up to Gettysburg. Based on my research, I can get Georgia Ave in DC, Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Olney since these are four generally viewed as distinct jurisdictions.

–What is not allowed, example: Appomotax Court in Springfield, Virginia would NOT count. Why you might think it would count: Troops fought in Appomattox and Gen. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House. But does it meet either of these two tests:
*Does it share the name of a historical FIGURE (a person) from the Civil War? (No. Appomattox is not a person but rather a place.)
*Did Civil War troops or supplies move on this street and in this jurisdiction? Are you riding your bike in the same place that troops/supplies were documented to be during the Civil War? (No. Gen. Lee did not surrender in Springfield, VA on Appomattox Ct. And Appomattox Court did not exist during the Civil War so documented troop movements for this street are highly unlikely.)

Prizes for the Top 3 Winners!!!
The top 3 winners will be honored on the Freezing Saddles forum and receive their choice of the following Audible audio books delivered electronically. If there is a tie for more than 3 top place finishers, then I will go through a subset of the hashtagged Strava posts, view the photos, and read the descriptions posted to Strava and subjectively decide who was more thorough in documenting civil war history.

1. The Great Courses: The American Civil War
2. The Great Courses: The History of the United States, 2nd Edition
3. Another Great Course on American history of your choice by one of these professors: Allen C. Guelzo, Gary W. Gallagher, or Patrick N. Allitt

For this forum, we can post and discuss our Civil War history finds. However, this is just for fun and not for points. The points are counted on Strava.

Track how you are doing in each category here:
Civil War Marker: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/civilwarmarker
Civil War Street: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/civilwarstreet
https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/civilwarhistory

Topic

[Boomer Cycles]

#civilwarmarker – Alexandria National Cemetery

@HokieBeth took me on a ride here today…

During the Civil War, Alexandria served as a major staging ground for Union troops charged with defending the nation’s capital across the Potomac River. The Union established six infantry companies and one artillery company here. Even as the fighting shifted westward away from Washington, the city remained an important supply depot and hospital center. To provide burial space for Union soldiers who died in the city’s hospitals, the Federal Government established Alexandria National Cemetery in 1862. The relatively small site, covering just 5.5 acres, filled up quickly. Within two years the cemetery was nearly full, contributing to the creation of Arlington National Cemetery five miles to the north. Alexandria National Cemetery officially closed to new interments in 1967, and is the final resting place for over 4,000 individuals.

Find more info here:
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Virginia/Alexandria_National_Cemetery.html

Sent from Boomer_Cycles via my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kbikeva]

#civilwarmarker – Hunter Mill (on the W&OD between Vienna and Reston)

This crossroads was key to western Fairfax in 1862. Hunter Mill Rd was a ‘major’ thoroughfare, and the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad crossed here. Troops from both sides moved along the tracks between Vienna and Leesburg. In September 1862, Confederate General Wade Hampton moved through here on the way to Antietam. In June 1863, both Union troops (under Joe Hooker) and Confederate troops (under J.E.B. Stuart) passed through here on their way to Pennsylvania and what would become known as Gettysburg.

Despite tremendous pressure from traffic counts on Hunter Mill (it connects 66 and the Dulles Toll Road), the Hunter Mill Defense League is determined to stave off any attempts to widen or change the character of this road citing its historical importance. For cyclists, any widening of Hunter Mill would negatively affect the W&OD crossing as well. In August 2020, button activated flashing beacons were installed to improve safety of this crossing. Apparently the flashing yellow “always on” lights had lost effectiveness for drivers.

I’m having trouble posting photos upright, so if this is sideways, apologies in advance.

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[BicycleBeth]

@Kbikeva 203780 wrote:

In the edited rules for sites that aren’t necessarily marked as CW sites, you mentioned our bike being in the photo. I don’t see that requirement in the other rules (Markers, Streets). So — should our bikes be in the photo or is that optional except if the site isn’t obviously CW?

Hi KBikeva,

I looked through the rules again. Sure enough, they state that your bike needs to be in the photo for both the marker and the street categories. You are welcome to post additional photos without the bike too to give us a clearer view of the sign or place.

Beth

[HokieBeth]

Fort Ethan Allen and Lincoln, who sadly did hit a dead end.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kbikeva]

Sorry about that. I just went back and looked too. I guess I was focusing on the edited rules and got sidetracked. My apologies.

[Serdar]

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Fort Ward Museum
4301 W Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA
This museum offers rotating exhibits on American Civil War subjects and a Civil War library. It also hosts Civil War reenactments.
I first learned about this place during Judd’s African-American History Ride a year or two ago.

[JoM]

@JoM 203776 wrote:

Charles Benedict Calvert owned Riverdale Plantation, which spanned over 2,000 acres, which includes College Park and some parts of the University of Maryland Campus. In 1856 he founded the Maryland Agricultural College (MAC). While Calvert owned slaves, he was pro-union.

In April 1864, General Ambrose E. Burnside and 6,000 soldiers of the Union’s Ninth Army Corps camped on the MAC campus. The troops were en route to reinforce General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces in Virginia.

I went to a New Deal site – The Rossborough Inn at University of MD and I found that Charles Benedict Calvert used the building as a farm house, he later donated it to the University. In 1864, the Inn was a faculty residence when, during the Civil War, and Confederate Army General Bradley T. Johnson (of Frederick, Maryland) and his cavalry brigade occupied the university grounds, utilizing the building as his headquarters.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=66433

[matteblack]

@BicycleBeth 202905 wrote:

Don’t repeat the same exact historic marker for the duration of Freezing Saddles.

So if I come across a place associated with the Civil War, and there are two separate markers that say different things, I could use them both on separate days?

For example, let’s say that for the sake of argument that at the junction of 66 and the Beltway there are a pair of signs (about 25 yards apart put up at different times by different organizations). One sign says “Battle of the Beltway” and describes how contractors would raid the federal government with jacked up prices and false promises. The second sign says “Raid of the Beltway Bandits” and describes how the federal government was fleeced by contractors with their jacked up prices and false promises.

Could I ride to the first sign one day and then the second sign on another day?

[BicycleBeth]

@matteblack 204031 wrote:

So if I come across a place associated with the Civil War, and there are two separate markers that say different things, I could use them both on separate days?

For example, let’s say that for the sake of argument that at the junction of 66 and the Beltway there are a pair of signs (about 25 yards apart put up at different times by different organizations). One sign says “Battle of the Beltway” and describes how contractors would raid the federal government with jacked up prices and false promises. The second sign says “Raid of the Beltway Bandits” and describes how the federal government was fleeced by contractors with their jacked up prices and false promises.

Could I ride to the first sign one day and then the second sign on another day?

Yes. That’s exactly it. Another example: there are three different sets of historic marker signs at Fort Ethan Allen park. I got one set yesterday and am planning to read and visit the two other sets on two more rides.

[matteblack]

Thanks for the clarification…it’ll make my route planning a bit easier

[BicycleBeth]

@matteblack 204038 wrote:

Thanks for the clarification…it’ll make my route planning a bit easier

You’re welcome!

[AlanA]

@matteblack 204038 wrote:

Thanks for the clarification…it’ll make my route planning a bit easier

I also appreciate that clarification. I was going to a site today that has three signs and I was going to use them all for one visit. Thanks to the rain, I did not make it. Whew!

That rule will certainly help.

[Serdar]

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Freedmen’s Cemetery
Federal authorities established this cemetery for newly freed African Americans during the Civil War. About 1,700 freed people were interred here before the last recorded burial in January 1869.
https://www.strava.com/activities/4572294782
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[lordofthemark]

@BicycleBeth 204033 wrote:

Yes. That’s exactly it. Another example: there are three different sets of historic marker signs at Fort Ethan Allen park. I got one set yesterday and am planning to read and visit the two other sets on two more rides.

Oh dear. There are at least a dozen signs around Fort Ward, not counting the newly installed ones that tell the story of the adjacent post war AA community and its 20th century displacement.

[BicycleBeth]

@lordofthemark 204052 wrote:

Oh dear. There are at least a dozen signs around Fort Ward, not counting the newly installed ones that tell the story of the adjacent post war AA community and its 20th century displacement.

Those will be great for getting Civil War points on your sleaze ride days! Strategize accordingly.

[Author]

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