The direct route from Appomattox to Cold Harbor took me right through the centre of Richmond. And even if it didn't, I wasn't going to pass so close to the capital of the Confederacy without making a halt here.

I didn't have time to make any kind of effort to find anywhere significant to visit, so I had to just content myself with a couple of symbolic photographs just to say that, like Max Boyce, "I was there"

As I drove into the city, I noticed that on the far side of the River James, there was an impressive hill with a scarp slope leading up to it. Just the kind of place that would be a medieval castle-builder's dream. This looked like the best place I was ever going to find at short notice.

Getting there, though, was another thing, and I had to fight my way through a load of traffic and an even greater load of poverty to get here, too.

But is was well worth the effort, as you can see from this photograph and the one below. You can clearly see just how good was the view over the city from up here.

A closer look at this photograph will reveal a small view of the River James that flows through the city and brought all the prosperity here.

And this was a tragedy. Just downriver was the site of the Jamestown colony where John Smith had encountered Pocahontas, and this was another one of my "must visit" places. No chance of that now. That will have to be another time. If only I hadn't have lost that day out at Bayview a couple of days ago, I would have been home and dry by now instead of messing around like this.

I took this photograph of the business centre of Richmond for a couple of reasons, really. Firstly just because it was the kind of shot that just invited taking, and secondly to prove that there was indeed a business centre here.

You see, in a couple of places on this voyage, I'd commented on the poverty that I'd seen in this part of the USA. It's not at all the same level of poverty that I'd seen around the native reservations in Arizona. The people round here are positively wealthy by comparison and have no grounds for complaining when they consider how the original inhabitants of this country are treated. The impression here that I was left with was more to do with the amount of poverty that there was. Here in Richmond, the poverty was relentless.

If you are living in the Arizona or New Mexico desert then there isn't really the potential to do very much to improve your circumstances, but out here there is certainly the potential to become very rich indeed. So why aren't more people benefiting from it?

All men may be created equal, but some are more equal than others in the United States.

NORTH TO FREDERICKSBURG

From Richmond I drove myself out to Cold Harbor and Gaines Mill, and coming back up from there (and that was a story in itself finding the way back from Gaines Mill, I can tell you) in the direction of Hanover Junction, I found myself stuck in a traffic queue, and not for the first time either.

As we gradually inched our way towards the front, it soon became clear what had happened. In the words of the legendary Jerry Reed "Boss, you ain't gonna believe this, but some crazy sonofabitch just tried to drive right up under my truck".

And not only that, he'd made a famous mess of it too. No doubt about that. We were here for ages while everyone sorted themselves out, and I didn't have all that much time to spare, as you know. I was hours, if not days late. And of course, you are noticing from the photograph that the light is well and truly going.

It took a while for me to extricate myself from here and hit the main highway northwards. But all said and done, it was well worth the wait. There's this old saying that "it's an ill wind that doesn't blow anyone any good" for I wouldn't have seen this vehicle if I'd not been slowed up by the fender-bender (ah gawddd - I've got "Smokey and the Bandit" on the brain now, and I've gone all American) back down the road.

It's an old hearse of some desciption and I wasn't going quickly enough to do a U-turn to chase it down the road to find out what make and model. But someone is bound to know, so send me an if you can help me out with this. I'll be much obliged.

On another tack, it reminds me of a friend who married a girl whose family ran an undertakers' in the UK somewhere. They always had two cars in the drive, a Ford Dorchester stretched limousine and a Daimler Princess hearse. Legend has it that each of the two cars had a label in the windscreen. That of the Dorchester said "HIS", and that of the Princess said "HEARSE".

Hanover Junction

Finally, I made it to Hanover Junction, and found myself slap bang in the middle of a complicated system of points (switches for our American readers) junctions, and sidings. In fact, where I was parked up to take this photograph, I was surrounded on all sides by railway lines.

This explains the importance of Hanover Junction during the Civil War. It was the main railway line out of Richmond towards Fredericksburg, a city almost continually under siege in the early part of the war, and the junction for the railway lines to the coast and, more importantly, to the Shenandoah Valley, the "breadbasket of the Confederacy".
 
If Hanover Junction were to fall to the Union army, it would have isolated Fredericksburg and also cut off the supply of food to Richmond and the Confederate soldiers at the front. Hence the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864 saw Hanover Junction as being a prize well worth winning for the Unionists.

North Anna River

From Hanover Junction, it was a quick drive up Highway 1 to the North Anna River. I didn't have the first clue about where I might find any evidence of the battlefield - my "Wilkinson" had, for about the only time, let me down badly in this respect, as his indications are extremely imprecise.

In fact I must have driven up endless side roads trying to find something - anything that would give me some kind of clue as to where anything might be, but without luck. It wasn't until I arrived back on the main road that I noticed a plaque giving some indication that a skirmish took place somewhere at or near the point shown in the photograph here on the left.

This photograph is looking southwards up the road in the general direction of Richmond, as I have my back to the river.

This is the river itself, and you can see that it is a desperate muddy stream with muddy banks, and with a steep descent in and steep slithery scramble out. And the Union forces needed to cross it to head towards Richmond. They did in fact cross the river round about here, and then they attacked the Confederate guns up on the hill. Here on the 24th May 1864, just like the English fooball team in the Ullevaal Stadium on 9 September 1981, the Federal forces "took one hell of a beating".
 
One thing that always puzzled me about the fight, and which I discuss elsewhere. If you want to seriously upset your enemy, the best time to attack him is when he is preoccupied with other things. Like trying to get in and out of a deep muddy river. If I had been in charge of the Confederate Army, I would have had my guns on the forward slope up here and pounded the Union forces with shrapnel and grape while they were all stuck in the mud. Not many would have got out alive if I'd been in charge, that's for sure.
 
Having the guns well back and letting the Unionists extricate themselves from the mud and then charge them is a wasted opportunity, in my opinion. It's open to all sorts of risks that you don't need to take and perils you don't need to face.
 
But then again, the main Union Army under General Crittenden was totally unprepared for the assault, and Crittenden had issued instructions to General Ledlie "not to charge unless he sees a sure thing". But as one officer in Ledlie's command is reported to have said, "it is doubtful if he heard, or if he did, that he understood one word, or cared a 'Continental'"

FREDERICKSBURG

You've no idea about how dark it is right now. That's the beauty of digital images, that you can lighten them as necessary to overcome the lack of light. You wouldn't have seen much with a 35mm print right now. There was no point in hanging about anywhere because you couldn't see anything. I had had a really long day and I'd done so much that I was absolutely whacked. I just wanted a bed.

A few miles up the road was Fredericksburg and although I needed to be a fair bit further north from there, I wasn't in the mood for a drive and a subsequent hunt around for somewhere to stay. I knew Fredericksburg and where to get a good, cheap bed. I'll stay there tonight and get up half an hour earlier tomorrow.

So Fredericksburg it was, but I drove along the river for a while before heading northwards, just to relax. As I came into the city, I came across a whole new shopping mall that I had missed, together with a series of motels that I hadn't seen when I was here a few days earlier. I made my way directly to the same Motel 6 on the edge of the city and booked myself a room. I didn't even bother with supper. I just hit the sack and slept the sleep of the dead.

Next morning .....

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