[BicycleBeth]

I found my first #CivilWarMarker and #CivilWarStreet today!

#CivilWarMarker I rode to the Josiah Henson House in Rockville/N Bethesda. Josiah Henson was a former slave who dutifully obeyed his master and tried to buy his freedom. Cheated out of his freedom, he ran away to Canada with some of his family. He was a conductor in the Underground Railroad. The book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was based in part on his experiences and influenced Northern opinions toward slavery. Some of the markers from the Josiah Henson cabin on Riley Plantation are pictured above. I still need to visit the lower part of the grounds.

#CivilWarStreet Confederate General Jubal Early marched his troops down Rockville Pike toward the defenses of Washington in 1864 culminating in the Battle of Fort Stevens.

Photos are here on Strava

[BicycleBeth]

@SarahBee 203280 wrote:

I am organizing a Civil War Forts of DC ride(s), so stay posted. It’s a longish full route even with no stops and super hilly since all the forts are on the ridgeline. At least 2 rides, maybe 3. We’ll see, but this is on my bucket list after hearing about it during my tour of the Congressional Cemetery.

Please keep me in the loop! I’d love to join in and lead one too!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 203269 wrote:

FYI, I have been doing my research to plan rides starting 1/1! So far, I’ve found that one sign no longer exists (since it was a CSA sign, and that is a bad thing now), and I have yet to find a sign for another historic house (although, I have found pictures online). I still need to look at that property a bit closer.

Hopefully, I don’t encounter too many of these obstacles once Jan. starts!

But, in that regard, if I take a picture of a building that has no sign (but is clearly related to the civil war – and I tell the story), will that count as a marker?

Great question! In a situation like this, I would want one additional thing posted to Strava: a photo of the historical marker from your original source.

So in this case you need 3 things:
1. A photo of your bike and the house/historical site that used to have a historical marker
2. Photographic proof that such a marker once existed
3. A description of how this site/marker/former marker is related to the Civil War.

Have fun scouting!

[BicycleBeth]

Awesome, Erika! I’m listening to a Great Course of the Civil War and trying to pay attention to all these names and places so I can go find references to them on my bike. And so I can learn too, of course.

Thank you for playing!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

Lord of the Mark,

Yay! I used to live in Foxchase on Taney Ave, a street that would count for this challenge since Chief Justice Taney ruled in the Dred Scott case. Crazily enough, I didn’t even realize the streets in my old neighborhood were all named after Confederate generals until recently—Pickett, Van Dorn, Beauregard, etc.

Thank you for playing!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

KBikeva,

Thank you so much for these resources! I live in Maryland so I’m more familiar with the campaigns on this side of the River. I’m excited to visit more of the Virginia Civil War sites during Freezing Saddles.

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

Hi AlanA, yes! Underground Railroad sites and slavery-related sites can count. You’ll have to explain how they are related to to the Civil War in your Strava comments. I’ve been having trouble finding good Underground Railroad monuments. It seems like most of them are hypothetical future monuments or addresses or places with no marker that might have been on the trail.

I’m so excited that you’re participating!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

Carol,

I sent you an email reply this evening. As of yesterday, my name, “Elizabeth Taylor,” was on the Freezing Saddles leaderboard. Is there something I still need to do?

Beth Taylor

[BicycleBeth]

Follow the Civil War Trails on this website to follow troop movements in Virginia, Maryland, and DC.

http://www.civilwartrails.org/mapguides.html

[BicycleBeth]

Here’s a great resource for finding the circle forts and battery defenses near Washington.

https://www.nps.gov/cwdw/learn/historyculture/places.htm

[BicycleBeth]

Here’s one of my favorite websites for learning more about the Civil War including lots of details that help me recreate troop movements on RideWithGPS.

https://www.battlefields.org/

[BicycleBeth]

Civil War History Pointless Prize

I’d like to sponsor 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.

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

Thread on this Forum
I will create a Civil War History thread on this forum so that we can share our finds and discuss them. This won’t be for the points though. This part is just for fun.

[BicycleBeth]

I will be there!

Elizabeth Taylor
BicycleBeth

[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 197644 wrote:

No fair!!! You’ve taken over last place!! I need to report this to the authorities!

I know! This got me to ride 10 miles today when I was planning to take today off riding. I wanted my Misfit Toy points!

[BicycleBeth]

@epilsk 196144 wrote:

BicycleBeth,

I also live in Takoma Park. Happy to meet up sometime and compare riding notes, maybe at the FS Happy Hour next week. If you commute into DC, also happy to introduce you to Friday Coffee Club at Swings if you don’t know it already.

Awesome! I’ll see at the happy hour on Tuesday!

Beth

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