Spring Fling 2026 - Day 24: Chancellorsville Battle Park and now in Williamsburg, VA

We left FOB Lee&Lyn this morning and drove the CRV down to Williamsburg, VA to stay over the Memorial Day weekend with friends Larry&Jane.  We left the RV in the FOB.

Larry and I served together in the same unit at Fort Bragg and Martha and Jane were nurses together on the same post.  Martha had introduced Jane to Larry originally, they eventually married.  I met Martha at a party hosted by her, and to which Jane and Larry had been invited.  Larry got me an invite to the party you see as he didn't want to be the only guy there.  The rest, is history.

On the way down to Williamsburg, we made a short stop to the Chancellorsville Battlefield Park.  Another good visitor center and we learned about the bloody battle that took place during the US Civil War.

Casualties were so high that:

The battle was also where one of the South's more famous generals was killed, sadly due to friendly fire.

Stonewall Jackson, mentioned in the previous post, of 1st Manassas fame, was shot accidentally by Southern troops while coming back from a reconnaissance ride in the dark.

Martha standing near the spot where Stonewall Jackson was shot:

Stuff from the visitor center that caught my eye:

Soldiers sewed their corps symbol onto

their kepis

I'd known observation balloons have been used in the Civil War, just not for this battle.

1991, the Army still used wire land lines as General Hooker tried to in the below pic, for communication.  Just not for such long distances of course....

To give you an idea of the flow of forces....the area within which lied Chancellorsville was known as the Wilderness, a large obstacle which was as mentioned before a defensive strongpoint for the South.

The south would again hit an unguarded Union army flank position and cause their defeat, again.  Chancellorsville is regarded as Robert E. Lee's finest victory.

Lee hoped to continue this success later at a small crossroads town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.