Rob's Historic Sites

Confederate Colonel Benjamin S Ewell gravesite at William and Mary University in Williamsburg, Virginia (2nd oldest College in America)! Col Benjamin Ewell was the brother of famous Confederate General Richard S Ewell. Col Benjamin Ewell is as important to William and Mary College as General Robert E Lee is to Lee-Washington University. Both gave their all to revive the Universities from closure following the looting and destruction of the campuses by the invading northern Union soldiers. The College of William & Mary’s Wren (main) building was burned by Union soldiers on September 9, 1862, during the War. After the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, Union forces occupied the town, and the college was closed, its buildings used as barracks and a hospital. Soldiers from the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the Wren (Main) Building causing significant damage and destroying much of the interior and library. This was the third time the Wren Building had burned, following f...

Salute! Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia where approximately 700 Confederate soldiers are buried in almost entirely unmarked graves (see photos)! Many died in the fighting around Richmond or while hospitalized at the nearby General Hospital Number 1 (the City Almshouse) during the War. Also buried here are 14 girls killed in the 1863 Laboratory explosion on Brown's Island (see photos), Chief Justice John Marshall (see photos), Charlotte Wickham Lee (Robert E Lee's daughter-in-law), etc, etc. Shockoe Hill Cemetery (the first owned and maintained by the city of Richmond) opened in 1822. It was one of three cemeteries on Richmond’s northern edge, including the Hebrew Cemetery and a free-black and slave burial ground. Shockoe Hill was for several decades the favored cemetery for Richmond’s elite, especially after the interment of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835. Between 1861 and 1864, General Hospital No. 1—the Alms House Hospital—was located in the imposing brick ...

Salute! NEVER FORGET! This Warwick County Confederate Memorial (redesignated as a memorial to ALL VETERANS) in Newport News, Virginia was removed in 2020 and remains in storage to this day! (photos I took March 2019). It had stood in front of the 1884 Warwick County Courthouse for over a century and was considered the most important war memorial in the city. Having been rededicated "In Honor of our Brave Warwick County Veterans" in 2009, this +20-foot granite obelisk had been erected in 1909 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor locals who honorably answered the call to serve and who had died while in service to their country as Confederate soldiers. The monument bore the inscription; "Unveiled May 27, 1909 to our Gallant Soldiers of the Confederacy, Warwick County." (photos taken March 3, 2019) Following George Floyd protests, on July 7, 2020, the Newport News City Council voted 6-1 to remove it. The monument was removed on October 21, 202...

Salute! NEVER FORGET! This is the Edgecombe County Confederate Monument in Tarboro, North Carolina that was removed in 2020. It was erected in 1904 in the Town Common, a historic park established in 1760. Sponsored by the William Dorsey Prender Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, it honored the Confederate soldiers from Edgecombe County who answered the call to defend their homeland, homes, and families in America's largest war. On the side of the memorial is inscribed, "Defenders of State Sovereignty" and dated 1861–1865. The monument was unveiled on October 29, 1904 with a ceremony that included speeches and music like "Dixie." A time capsule was placed beneath it, later excavated in 2020. (photos taken June 13, 2020) The war memorial had been the pride of the city until August 29, 2020, when the Tarboro Town Council voted 5-3 to remove it amid nationwide protests following George Floyd’s death in a far away northern Yankee state. It was offered...

This is another reason why the War is called, "The War of Nothern Aggression" or "Lincoln's War on Americans". This is one of the many American towns that were not only plundered and ransacked, but also burned. The Burning of Bluffton, South Carolina, occurred on June 4, 1863 as part of a Union operation known as the Bluffton Expedition. Bluffton, a small town on the May River in Beaufort County, was notably tied to the 1844 Bluffton Movement, which advocated for South Carolina’s secession over federal tariffs. Under orders from infamous Maj General David Hunter who had a reputation for extreme brutality and abolitionist extremist, approximately 1,000 Union troops, led by Colonel William Barton, landed near Bluffton. Union troops set fire to Bluffton, destroying about two-thirds of its estimated 60 structures, including 40 homes, businesses, and public buildings. The blaze was so intense that smoke clouds lingered into the next day, marking the end of Blufft...