America: the Story of Us

Recently, while perusing on Netflix, I came across a documentary series called, 'America: the Story of Us'. The documentary was made by the History Channel. It features interviews from many famous Americans, such as Meryl Streep, Brian Williams, Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and others. The series is narrated by Liev Schreiber.

The series features 12 episodes, beginning at the start of America and ending at the Millennium. This documentary is so far my favorite historical documentary/series. I love that this documentary features really awesome reenactments for all aspects of our history. It also features lots of special effects to make the scenes  seem as real as possible. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who loves American history. It is very enjoyable to watch, and I learned a lot of new facts while watching it.

The episodes are also available to watch online on the History Channel website:
http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

When I was in high school, I had the chance to visit Nashville, TN and the surrounding areas. One of those surrounding areas was a sleepy little town called Franklin. I would soon learn how this little town was right in the middle of a bloody battle of the Civil War. My family and I decided to visit a place called 'Carnton'. I will post about my trip to Carnton as it is my favorite to date-I just need to dig up the pictures I took. The story of Carnton is amazing! Basically, Carnton was used as a field hospital during the battle of Franklin. Carrie McGavock was the lady of the home and oversaw the care of the soldiers. She created a private cemetery in her own backyard, doing her best to name each of the soldiers. She also organized them by state. She took great pride in caring for the soldiers who came through her home. I loved my visit to Carnton so much that my parents gave me a book called, The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. It is my absolute favorite book! The story is about the battle of Franklin and the goings-on at Carnton while it was used as a field hospital. Obviously, this is historical fiction so not all aspects of the story are true, but I loved it just the same. I have read it twice now and am looking forward to reading it again sometime. This story gives you a good idea of what it might have been like during the battle of Franklin. Robert Hicks is a beautiful writer and I am in the middle of reading another of his books, A Separate Country. This story follows General John Bell Hood post Civil War. I will post about it when I finish it! I highly recommend reading The Widow of the South as it is a beautiful tale. 

*Check out Robert Hicks' website to learn more about The Widow of the South and A Separate Country, as well as more about the author. 

http://www.robert-hicks.com/

Jennie Wade House-Gettysburg PA

For my family's last road trip, we drove out to New York City. On our way back, we made a point to drive through Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I was so excited when I found out that we were going to Gettysburg. As you know, I am highly interested in the Civil War. The hotel we stayed at was incredibly close to the battlefield and RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Jennie Wade House:

I had never heard of Jennie Wade until we took the tour of her house. We took two tours about Jennie Wade. The first one we took was during the day and a thorough tour of the house itself. The second tour we took was a 'Jennie Wade Ghost Walk'. The walk occurred at night and met at Jennie Wade's house and continued throughout the connecting side streets. Anyways, the story of Jennie Wade is incredibly tragic. The death of Jennie Wade was the only civilian casualty during the Battle of Gettysburg. As legend has it, Jennie was in the kitchen baking bread. To protect herself, she opened the kitchen door to serve as a 'blockade' from bullets. Unfortunately, one stray bullet blasted through the side door, through the kitchen door, and struck Jennie Wade as she was baking. Here is a picture of what the kitchen where she was shot looks like now:

In this picture, you can just see the bullet hole from the bullet that struck Jennie Wade. The whole house is furnished much like what it would have looked like during the battle. Jennie Wade was the fiancee of Corporal Johnston Skelly. Soon after Jennie died, Corporal Skelly was fatally wounded in a battle in Virginia, never knowing of Jennie's death. During the fighting, the house (which was owned and occupied by Jennie's sister and family) sustained many bullet holes, most if not all are still visible on the exterior of the home. The upstairs of the house was also damaged by a rogue artillery shell. Luckily, the shell did not explode, but it did a number on the walls upstairs.

After Jennie died, they carried her body to the downstairs level until they could get a chance to properly bury her. First she was buried in the yard for about six months until she was eventually  moved to a German cemetery, then finally to Evergreen Cemetery. The basement was furnished to look as though they had just moved Jennie after she was killed (I thought it a bit creepy to have a mannequin where Jennie would have been put but hey, what do I know).

Overall, the Jennie Wade story and the tour that my family took are probably the most memorable experiences I have had. I highly recommend not only this tour, but a trip to Gettysburg. This town is incredible and I am sad that I wasn't able to spend as much time there as I would have liked. I hope to go back someday and check out more as I know that there is so much that I didn't get to see.
http://www.gettysburgbattlefieldtours.com/jennie-wade-house.php

*Also, the Ghost Tour that we took was pretty fun, even if you don't believe in Ghosts. If you do, you might be familiar with the concept of 'orbs'. I snapped so many photos on this tour hoping to catch a ghost! Here are my favorite pictures that I snapped-think what you will!

ORBS! EEK!

Vaile Mansion-Independence, Missouri

The same afternoon that we visited the Marshal Museum and Jail in Independence Missouri, my boyfriend and I hopped in the car and drove to the Vaile Mansion. All I had seen online was that the Vaile was a HUGE Victorian mansion dating back to the 1880's. In one of my college courses, we had discussed the Victorian era and even visited a Victorian house as a 'field trip'. I was excited to compare the one I saw in small town Iowa to this mansion in Missouri. It was starting to rain as we pulled up so I quickly snapped a picture of the outside of the mansion then sought refuge inside. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to step back and take a proper picture of the mansion, but I'm still happy with the one I got:

We signed our names in the guest book and waited for the next tour. The ladies that worked there were all very nice and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. The tour took us to the 'gentleman's parlor' on the left side of the house, and in somewhat of a circle, making sure that we covered all the rooms on the lower level. The rooms were all incredibly beautiful decorated just as it might have looked when the Vailes would have lived in it. My favorite part was the upstairs rooms. We walked up a beautiful staircase and were greeted by a beautiful wide hallway:

Unfortunately, the third floor was roped off. I would have LOVED to see what was up there. (In the far background where those Christmas lights are, that's the gift shop which connected to the far bedroom) The Vaile mansion was complete with working bathrooms, which were VERY rare for its time. The upstairs also housed an impressive library and study. The two bedrooms on the left to the stairs were very ornate. The ceiling in the master bedroom has a painting that from what our tour guide told us, was very controversial for the time. It features a woman laying rather suggestively. The painting was done by an Italian artist and was called, 'Innocence'.

From reading the handout I took from the mansion, Mr. Vaile and Mrs. Vaile were well traveled. Their home was inspired by a French home they saw while on a trip to Europe. Mr. Vaile enjoyed the finer things in life and was a patron of the fine arts. This is why the mansion is so ornate. He imported French, Italian and German artists to hand decorate the thirteen foot ceilings in the house. The mansion was completed in 1881 for a total cost of $150,000. The house originally was built on 55 acres with many outbuildings. It had large working water tanks and indoor flushing toilets. It has 31 rooms and 9 marble fireplaces. Here is a picture of just one marble fireplace in the mansion. This one was located in one of the upstairs bedrooms:

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my step back into time at the Vaile mansion. The tour was enjoyable, and I learned a lot. The tour cost us $6.00 each, but it was well worth it. It was also nice to see a Victorian mansion on a much larger scale than the one I visited in Iowa. Go! You won't regret it! http://www.vailemansion.org/Welcome.html

1859 Jail and Marshal Museum-Independence Missouri

Last fall, I had the opportunity to travel to the Kansas City area for my second Kansas City Chiefs experience. (Go Chiefs!)For those of you who don't know, the Chiefs actually play in Independence, Missouri. My boyfriend and I like to get there on Saturday morning, and he leaves plans for Saturday up to me. Well, I immediately looked for interesting historical museums or houses that we could visit. My eye immediately drawn to the 1859 Jail and Marshal Museum in Independence. Their claim to fame was that the jail once housed Frank James, the brother of the famous Jesse James for about six months. I was definitely in! Tours cost us around $5 and were completely self guided. The building consists of the main house where the Marshal and his family lived. Connected to the house was the 'jail' which had two levels which looked like a dungeon. We walked into the gift shop which was very small, and a very nice lady took our money and gave us tour pamphlets which gave us information about each room and even the objects in the rooms. We were two of only a few people in the museum itself, which was actually kind of nice. We began out tour by going upstairs. (Unfortunately, for some silly reason I didn't get my camera out until the latter part of our tour so I don't have any pictures of the house) The house was furnished modestly-just like it would have been back in the 1800's. Upstairs had a few bedrooms which we were able to see into but were roped off so we couldn't walk in and around in them. They had also opened up part of the hallway so that we could see into the jail from the upper level. I was VERY excited to get down there and see the cells-they looked very ominous and VERY cool. We went back down the stairs, and took a look at the parlor. The parlor was beautiful, which makes sense because this is where families would have put there fanciest items, as this is where they would host company. We walked down the downstairs hallway, past the parlor and looked into the Marshal's office. Then, across the hall was the door to the cells. Here is a picture of what I saw:

On the lower level was the location of the cell used to house Frank James for a period of about six months while waiting to be tried for a train robbery and murder. From what I read in the pamphlet, Frank James was treated pretty much as a celebrity at the jail. He had his own cell furnished with a rug, photos on the wall, a chair and a few other furniture items. Here are two pictures of what Frank James' jail cell looked like:

As I mentioned, the building consisted of the main Marshal's house and the jail. Here is a picture from the courtyard behind the house. It shows the main house the farthest back, the jail on the right side, and the gift shop on the left.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this tour. It was very interesting, and the pamphlet gave a lot of information. Also, I forgot to mention that through the back of the jail is an addition housing many artifacts from the area and also about the James-Younger gang. I would say this is worth the trip as it doesn't take very long and it's pretty neat to say you were in the jail that housed Frank James.
http://www.visitkc.com/member-details/index.aspx?id=28939

*Note, if you're in the area of the jail, visit Clinton's Soda Fountain. It is just around the corner from the jail and was very cool. My boyfriend and I stopped in there for some delicious ice cream. It is well known as the building where Harry Truman worked his first job. Back then it was a pharmacy and soda fountain. It looks very much like it might have back then! And the ice cream was delicious!
http://clintonssodafountain.com/

Meet Me

My name is Beth. I am creating this blog to post about various historical sites that I have visited, and to discuss what my thoughts on them. Pretty much all my life I have been overwhelmed with a passion for history, mainly American History. I enjoy watching movies and documentaries based on events of America's past, especially ones around the American Civil War era. It is quite common for me to pause a movie to check the historical accuracy via the internet. When I 'research' an individual or an event in history, it is very basic. I don't read books upon books of history, although I am sure that I would enjoy that very much. I am drawn to historical fiction books-mainly about the Civil War. I will review a few of my favorites that I have read in a later post. I just LOVE history and I enjoy imagining how life was like for people many years ago. Thanks for reading :)