[BicycleBeth]

@lordofthemark 210425 wrote:

I’d like to thank BicycleBeth for organizing this. This BAFS was my wimpiest since my first, so much had I oriented my riding around my commute, and so discouraged was I by not going to coffee clubs or on group rides (QOTM and I have been particulalry strict about COVID) and not having places to go into to warm up, etc. But the civil war competition kept me interested all winter. I ended up deciding not to focus on Civil war streets and markers in general, but to narrowly focus in on the Civil War markers connected to the fortifications around the capital in particular. I not only learned much about the defenses of Washington, got to see parks and so forth I did not know about but got to ride in places I never would have ventured otherwise (which is the great thing about these kinds of competitions) In particular after exhausting almost all the forts in NoVa south of Rte 50, I ventured into DC and got to ride in places EOTR I had ever ridden, or in some cases, I had never been at all, after living in this area for 28 years.

Congrats to the winners!

Yay! I’m so glad you learned some new American history and enjoyed the game! Thank you so much for playing.

~Beth

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 210235 wrote:

Beth,

Please feel free to give my prize to the #4 person (or re-rank the prizes). I think the effort and thought put into the street names deserves something. And, plus. I don’t do audio books. I’m always unplugged when I ride my bike, and I have my collection of Grateful Dead for when I’m in the car (I can make it all the way cross country and back on one flash drive!) And, I have two!! Plus an old Ipod with even more!!!

My prize was for learning something and having so much fun finding all the Civil War markers. It was eye opening for me. Although, I’m not sure future riding friends will appreciate all the silly nonsense I spew off (like I did today on my ride with a friend).

I also owe you a silly prize (which I still need to get) for your unofficial first place. I will give it to you some day when we do a ride to Reno Monument!

I love that you’re spewing off Civil War related history tidbits to your riding buddies! I inundate my clients with my Civil War stories and finds. �� And I am pleased to honor bikesnick with a prize for coming in fourth place.

[BicycleBeth]

Thank you everyone for playing the Civil War history game with such enthusiasm! We had 31 people participate and over a dozen regular players. I learned so many new things about the Civil War especially regarding the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, and how the Civil War and Reconstruction changed Washington City long-term. I loved reading your posts and learning from your cycling adventures. As promised I have Audible “Great Course” prizes for the top 3 Civil War History players.

Congratulations to the winners!

#1 Matt Williams 529 points
#2 Alan Adams 433 points
#3 Cathy Miller 322 points
Honorable Mention: Glenn Glenn/Bikesnick, 194 points

As a reminder, here are the prizes:
The winners will each receive their choice of the following Audible audio books delivered electronically to their email. Check out the options online at Audible

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

To get you your prize, I’ll need your email address and which Great Course you would like. I’ll message you on the forum to get your email address.

[BicycleBeth]

@bikesnick 209784 wrote:

Beth,
I have been trying to highlight people from the Civil War that might not be as well known as others. To find people, I have looked through records of Medal of Honor winners, nurses, spies, Underground Railroad conductors, etc. and then look for streets with those names. It has been very informative and I have learned that there are many interesting people who have accomplished much, that I never knew about. There were so many people, that for the month of February, in honor of Black History Month, I only chose African Americans. Similarly for March, I am choosing women. History always has been one of my least favorite subjects, but this has been an enjoyable challenge. Thank you for creating it.

Super cool! I’m so thrilled to hear that you’re enjoying history in a new way. I had noticed that you seemed to be playing a special version of the street game so it’s cool to understand more about your approach.

Thank you for understanding about me not finding out about Rebecca Lee being married to Wyatt Lee from the sources I looked at.

Keep up the good work!

[BicycleBeth]

@bikesnick 209777 wrote:

Apologies. I have removed the post and hashtag. My submission was based on the following line from Wikipedia:
“Married to Wyatt Lee at that time, she was identified as Mrs. Rebecca Lee by the school, where she was the only African American graduate. She was the country’s first African-American woman to become a formally-trained physician.”

I stand corrected, Bikesnick. Please keep the marker. Now that I knew to look for Wyatt Lee, I found a source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158775134/wyatt-lee

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 209664 wrote:

Actually it was Rebecca Lee Crumpler, born Rebecca Davis. I do realize that Crumpler was mentioned in the description, but….

To answer your question bikedavid, just do a search for a ‘name’ and ‘civil war’. There is so much nonsense you can find. And if you want to get creative, add a letter and space before the name. I came up with at least another 5 “Lee’s” by taking a minute of my time.

I do my best to not resort to this for the game. But, once in a while, I get desperate.

I double-checked this name, and Alan A is right. Lee is not the surname of Rebecca Lee at any point in her life but rather a middle name. In order to count for the game, the name on the street sign needs to be the SURNAME of someone involved in the history of the Civil War (including the related categories described in the rules). @Bikesnick, please find a Lee with the surname of Lee or remove the hashtag from the post. Thank you!

Source: https://www.nps.gov/people/dr-rebecca-lee-crumpler.htm

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

I just want to bring your attention to a line in the rule clarification of 2/7. “Streets… can just be the same name as the surname of the historical figure.”

I have seen at least one instance of a player using the street sign name as someone’s FIRST name. This is clearly not allowed in the rules. For example, you may not use the street “Jefferson” for “Jefferson Davis.” You may use the street name “Davis for “Jefferson Davis.”

“ 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.”

[BicycleBeth]

@bikedavid 208793 wrote:

Do national park signs or traffic circles count? Here is the impressive statue of John Logan in Logan Circle who was a Union General and later served in the senate. Much of the sign was obscured today but I think I caught that he was an advocate for veterans and instrumental in creating Memorial Day.

Yes, this statue of Gen. Logan counts as a Civil War Marker. If you had photographed the street sign “Logan Circle,” that would count as a Civil War Street.

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 208569 wrote:

Stay tuned for nicer weather. I didn’t quite make it to any of these three markers today!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24441[/ATTACH]

Wow! That’s a lot of snow, Alan!

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 207872 wrote:

lol, thanks, Beth!!

For example, “Bolivar Road” is the approach that Union troops used to engage with Confederate troops at Fox’s Gap (on Reno Monument Road) at the Battle of South Mountain in September of 1862. And I even got Reno Monument Rd. in the picture.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24053[/ATTACH]

I super, duper love this, Alan! How are the road conditions in the Catoctin Valley?

[BicycleBeth]

@matteblack 207699 wrote:

I’ll accept your unofficial answer as an official answer (for me anyway).

Great, Matt! Alan is correct.

[BicycleBeth]

@BicycleBeth 207293 wrote:

I have a rule reminder and clarification for the #civilwarstreet game.

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.

Reason for clarification: I have seen people use places, battlefields, and ship names for the #civilwarstreet hashtag. At first, it was just with casual players but today I saw it in one of the top players who has a chance of placing for the prize. So I wanted to nip this in the bud before more people start doing this. Let me know if you have any questions.

Retroactive grace period: I will allow ONE non-figure #civilwarstreet name that was documented in Strava and otherwise meets the rules up to and including the date of Monday, 2/8/2021.

I have an update to yesterday’s rule clarification that grandfathers in all #civilwarstreet posts that might have been due to my poor grammar choice.

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.)

I hope this helps further clarify the rules while being fair to those who were affected by my grammatically ambiguous sentence construction.

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 207322 wrote:

Include your results. I’ll give you a prize if you win.
It’s been fun learning all the Civil War history we have around here.

Alan, you are so sweet! I have 261 points as of today.

[BicycleBeth]

Top Ten Rankings for the Civil War contest as of Feb. 7, 2021.

This is still a very competitive game! You can earn up to 7 points per day, 5 points per marker and 2 points per street. The max possible score right now is 266 points.

As a reminder, here’s the formula for the points as mentioned in the rules: 5 points/marker * # of markers + 2 points/street * # of streets
*If you let me know that you over reported your streets, then I have subtracted off those streets in the count. However, I have not done any other auditing or policing of the numbers.

The top three players at the end of Freezing Saddles will be the winners. (I am playing the game but will not be giving myself an award if I finish in the top 3. So I’m not showing my results in the below rankings.)

Name, # of points
1. Matt W 258
2. Alan A 207
3. Cathy M 144
4. Bill B 102
5. Ken N 64
6. Chris R 50
7. Glenn 46
8. Jo M 32
9. Boomer 32
10. Beth D 29

[BicycleBeth]

I also wanted to bring your attention to the requirements to write a short description of your marker or street on Strava in the comments or in the caption

From the Rules:
#civilwarmarker 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.

#civilwarstreet 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.

Clarification & Reminder:
You must write a description of the #civilwarmarker or #civilwarstreet in Strava under the comments section or in the photo caption. This is especially critical with the #civilwarstreet game since we won’t even know the name of the figure you have in mind unless you make it explicit. The street descriptions will require some research or good historical knowledge.

You can go back and describe your previous markers and streets now. Any hashtags without descriptions will not count toward points for the purpose of awarding winners and prizes.

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