For years, Dave and I have wanted to visit Civil War sites from Maryland to Virginia. On March 30, 2023, we finally began that trip. We flew into Washington D.C. and stayed at the auspiciously named Hotel Pentagon. It was, in fact, a tired, renovated motel which nevertheless bore the princely price, as it seemed to us, of $250 per night. Such are the serendipities of travel. It seemed fitting that our first residence, on our Civil War trip, would be associated with war! As we drove into Washington D.C., we passed the huge, five-sided Pentagon, the first time I remember driving past it.
We drove into Washington D.C. in the late afternoon, as the sun set over the blossoming cherry trees on the Tidewater.
We were in eternal search of Southern food on this trip--shrimp, grits, pecan pie, and we satisfied that lust repeatedly. We started out, though, with East Indian food at a quaint cafe, Binda's. That cafe was probably more typical of the diversity of Washington D.C. than shrimp and grits!
We spent an hour or two at the National Portrait Gallery. One luxury of big cities is excellent art museums. Although I appreciate the exhibits at the BYU Art Museum and the Utah Museum of Fine Art, I still feel literally starved for great art, whenever I visit a large city. It is a feast for me to lose myself, for several hours, in one gallery of a great museum after another.
We saw the classic portrait of Barack Obama.
We saw other portraits of Civil Rights figures, including this portrait of John Lewis, who led the 1960s march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
And, we saw both portraits and sculptures of Abraham Lincoln.
I enjoyed a special exhibition of photographs and paintings of family life. I am very aware of the richness of family life, which continually morphs, as family members are added and fade away, and as children disappear into teenagers and then into adults. I try to capture that richness myself, but so less adequately than these great artists.
I loved this celebration of pink. It reminded me of offering Audrey two birthday cakes, one with pink flowers and one with orange ones. She immediately chose the pink one.
On Thursday morning, March 30, 2023, Dave and I attended an endowment session in the Washington, D.C. Temple. I had just finished reading Elder Melvin Ballard's biography, describing his assistance to President David O. McKay in creating a spacious, prominent building readily seen from the Beltway into downtown Washington. The temple is still an easily visible landmark, although some secularists refer to it as "Oz."
Everything about the temple was large and lovely. LDS members ask why I visit temples wherever they go. "Aren't they all the same?" they question. Not at all. Each temple has its own look, guests, staff, and culture. I love to see how the Gospel is worshipped in all its venues.
We then began touring Civil War sites in earnest. We stopped at the Old Soldiers Home where Abraham Lincoln spent the summer of 1863, writing the Gettysburg Address. Abraham rode his horse to work at the White House every day past soldiers limping back from battle. Once, he took a shot through his hat. "Don't tell Mrs. Lincoln," he advised onlookers.
We spent the night in Frederick, Maryland. It is very close to Washington, D.C., yet was occupied by Robert E. Lee and his Confederate forces at one point during the Civil War. It is now a quaint town with red brick stores.
We passed the Ritchie House, where an old woman, Barbara Ritchie, reputedly hung the Stars and Stripes out her window as Confederate troops rode through town. A poem about Barbara Ritchie was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
We browsed at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. It gave an overview of the Civil War, through the lens of the developments in medicine during that period. One achievement of this trip was to cement in our minds the sequence of events in the Civil War and their relative importance.
One of the tragedies of the Civil War was the thousands of men whose limbs were amputated. Today, with better antibiotics and reparative surgery, many of those limbs could have been saved.
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