Tag: Blandford Church

Blandford Church and Cemetery

My last stop of the day was Blandford Church and Cemetery.

The church was erected in 1736 The age of the building alone would have been enough to get me there. The United States of America is such a young country that a building close to 300 years old is something you don’t see every day.

It has some very old graves in the churchyard. This grave predates the church.

It is for Richard Yarbrough, who died in 1702 at age 87. My goodness! That means he was born in 1615! He must have had an amazing story.

According to my Preferred Source, General William Phillips fell ill after the Battle of Blandford, also known as the Battle of Petersburg, which was fought nearby in 1781. For those of you keeping track, that was during the American Revolution. He was ordered to wait in Petersburg to meet Lord Cornwallis. While in Petersburg, Phillips fell ill and died on May 13, 1781. He was secretly buried somewhere in the churchyard.

However, the age of the building is not the reason I wanted to visit. The main attraction for me was the Tiffany windows.

Sister Jeanne told us about these windows in Art History class. Again, thank you Sister Jeanne! I had mostly forgotten about them until I saw a rack card for the tour of the church. (A “rack card” is what we in the travel and tourism business call those card you find in racks that tout places of interest.)

Luckily, I managed to get there before they closed for the day. I paid my $5 and had a private tour of the church.

We entered the door set in the brick wall laid in the Flemish Bond. There is more than one way to lay a brick wall. If you are interested in the different styles, you can find more information here.  (And, if you are interested in tuck pointing, check in with me in a month or so. I am looking forward to learning all about that in an HistoriCorps project in New Bern, North Carolina.)

Blandford Church is a rare American treasure. It is one of the few churches whose decorative stained-glass windows were completely designed and installed under the direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany of New York. It is also one of the few churches that has all of their Tiffany windows intact and in place.

The Church’s fifteen exquisite windows were commissioned by the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Petersburg in memory of the Confederate soldiers buried at the adjacent Blandford Cemetery. From 1901 to 1912, Tiffany and his team of artists designed, created and installed the windows, which were financed by contributions from each of the Confederate states in honor of their war dead.

By Júlio Reis – by myself, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1710151

The red states were the states that seceded. The light blue represents the five Union states that permitted slavery (border states). The dark blue represents the Union states.

Windows were donated by each of the former Confederate states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas. The border states of Missouri and Maryland also contributed windows. Kentucky, another border state, was the only state that refused to participate.

This is Alabama’s window. It follows the pattern of most of the windows.

Each state’s window depicts a saint. This is Saint Andrew.

At the top is the state’s seal.

At the bottom is an inscription.

South Carolina’s window depicts Saint Mark.

Saint Bartholomew is featured in North Carolina’s window.

Louisiana’s window was funded by the Washington Artillery. It is the only state window that doesn’t include a state seal. At the top of their window is insignia of the Washington Artillery. The saint on their window is Saint Paul.

Saint John the Evangelist represents the state of Virginia.

Mississippi is represented by Saint James the Younger.

Missouri – let’s see…He’s holding keys. Yes, it’s Saint Peter.

Tennessee is represented by Saint Philip the Apostle.

Saint Thomas the Apostle represents Georgia.

Florida’s patron is Saint Matthew.

Saint Luke is watching over Texas.

This is Maryland’s window. If I remember the guide correctly, some of the states had trouble coming up with the full amount to pay for the large windows. Maybe that is the case with Maryland.

I am not sure about this window. The light coming through the glass made it difficult to make out the inscription.

The lunette was over the door.

Louis Comfort Tiffany donated this window.

I wonder if Tiffany made any money on this job. If I remember correctly – and you all know that numbers are not my thing – the large windows only cost $175 each. That included the windows and the installation.

If you are interested in Tiffany’s work, I highly recommend a visit to Blandford Church. You can get up close and really examine the glass, which is what made his work so outstanding.

Let me take you through a few more things that caught my eye before I leave the Church.

The building was quite stunning. I was taken with the rafters. I love it when you can see the structure of a building.

The building was used as a hospital during the Siege of Petersburg. It’s interesting – to me, at least – that this plaque was erected in 1985.

Mahone, who I mentioned in a previous post, is also remembered here.

Mahone’s men are also remembered. At the top of the plaque, it says:

THE CRATER LEGION
In loving remembrance of the Comrade of Mahon’s Brigade,
Anderson’s Division, AP Hill’s Corps, A.N.V who lost their
lives in the Battle of the Crater. July 30, 1864.

I’ll let you read the text on this one, if you are so inclined.

This plaque  was also on the wall of the church. The guide left me with the impression that it was significant, but I am not sure how it relates to the church.
The church had been abandoned in 1806 after the construction of another Episcopal church in Petersburg. Perhaps it was a romantic response to the crumbling building. After all, a building that hasn’t been maintained for 35 years is bound to show some signs of ruin.

Or, maybe I was just captivated by the name of the supposed poet, Irish comedian, Tyrone Power.

No, not that Tyrone Power.

After my speed tour of the church, I decided to drive through the Confederate Cemetery. My guide told me that the women had taken the lead in exhuming the Confederate dead and reinterring them here. There are over 30,000 soldiers buried in the cemetery.

I drove through the civilian part of the cemetery and found the entrance to where the soldiers are interred. The arch carries the motto, “Our Confederate Heroes.”

This is the new arch.

My guide had mentioned how poor everyone in the south was after the war, and I think that is born out by the cemetery.

I had expected to see rows of markers like you see in the national cemeteries, like Arlington or the one in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

There were only a few markers scattered around the area where the Confederate soldiers were buried.

Maybe there was more to see, but I was out of time. If you have any additional information to share with me, feel free to drop me a line.

Thus ends my whirlwind tour of Petersburg, Virginia. Next stop: Richmond.

 

Downtown Petersburg

In the middle of my battlefield tourism, I started to feel a bit peckish and I headed into town for lunch.

The Dixie Restaurant caught my eye, so I parked and went inside.

According to the information in the menu, The Dixie has been a Petersburg landmark since 1920, and has been in this location since 1939. The current owners, Charlie and Frannie Rawlings, spent three months renovating the restaurant, and reopened it in June 2011. They tried to keep as many of the old features as possible. They even managed to rehire some of the longtime employees, including Millie, a waitress, who has been serving for 25 years, and Mary, the cook, who has been whipping the southern delicacies for 15 years.

They value the history of the restaurant so much that they even listed the previous owners.

Hey! The Ramseys owned it in the ’80s! I wonder if we’re related? (On my mother’s side.)

As I recall, this was a tasty Cobb Salad. It refreshed me and I was ready to explore a bit before heading back to finish my tour of the battlefield.

This decal was on the door. In case you are reading this on a small screen, allow me to share what it says.

Lincoln Was Here

This Virginia business proudly hosted the filming of
the movie Lincoln, the film’s cast and crew, and/or
President Abraham Lincoln himself.

I can easily see how they could recreate the appearance of what it must have looked during the Civil War.

I found this interesting marker on a corner. It kind of reminds me of day laborers who gather in parking lots looking for work these days. Well, except that the day laborers are there by choice and they get to keep what they earn. But, other than that…

I saw a sign for a tourism office and went in to see what I could see. As an Information Specialist for Discover Kalamazoo, I find it interesting to check these things out and to see what the people on duty have to offer.

There were the usual brochures and such, but in the back they had an informative display of reproductions of photos from the 1860s.

It’s interesting to see the effects of war on life in a city under siege. At the beginning of the Civil War, Petersburg was ranked the second largest city in Virginia and ranked eleventh in size among all Confederate cities. The 1860 U.S. Census listed 18,266 residents in the city. The five railroads that crossed through the city and its location on the Appomattox River contributed to the area’s economic growth in the years before the war.

This photo was labeled “Damaged home in Petersburg.”

Reverend William Platt, the priest of Grace Episcopal Church, wrote a letter to Federal forces asking them to refrain from shelling on Sunday mornings, so that the citizens of Petersburg might be able to attend worship services. The Federal troops were ordered to comply with the request.

Grace Episcopal was one of the newer churches in Petersburg. Construction started around 1859, and at least the basement space was completed by the Siege. A Wednesday evening prayer service was held during the Siege, and General Lee was reported to have attended several of these services, although he frequently attended morning services at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The building the housed Grace Episcopal Church was demolished in 1959.

This is a photo of the ruins of a woolen mill.

Buildings were commandeered for military purposes. This was a tobacco warehouse was used as a Confederate prison.

Here’s a Federal wagon train rolling through Petersburg.

City Point was at the mouth of the Appomattox River, where it emptied into the James River. It was about 10 miles away, but was important because boats couldn’t get through once the Union forces controlled the area. General Grant made his headquarters and base for supplies in City Point.

The damage in this photo wasn’t caused by the Union troops, however. This photograph depicts damage at City Point following an explosion set by Confederate troops on August 9, 1864.

After the explosion at the Crater, the Confederates did what they could to prevent another mine explosion. They dug at twenty-seven foot ditch at the rear of fort Gilmer.

The twenty-seven foot ditch would slow down attackers, as would these structures known as “abates.”

This Mortar was named “The Dictator.” It weighed in a 17,000 pounds and was mounted on a specially reinforced railroad car. It was transported to the Siege operations by rail from City Point. Th mortar could lob a 200 pound explosive shell about 2.5 miles. It was usually positioned in a curved sections of the Petersburg & City Point Railroad and it was used for about three months during the Siege. During the Siege, it was manned by Company G of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery.

David Knox photographed this image of the mortar that Gardner later published in the Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War.

A soldier has to eat, and this is a restaurant. I don’t know if this was created by some enterprising individual or was created by the army.

This structure was built by the army. Members of the 50th New York Engineers completed this church at their winter camp in February 1865. The church and the officers’ quarters to the right of the church were built from wood that had been cleared from the land. This church was built near the site of Poplar Springs Church, that had been destroyed during the Battle of Peebles Farm. The structure was demolished in 1868.

It tickled me to see that they managed to include the Army Corps of Engineers logo included over the door.

There was a photo of a place I hoped to get to before it closed for the day – Blandford Church.

It had been built in 1735, as the seat of worship for the members of Bristol Parish. The church building was abandoned in 1806. This image was taken by Timothy O’Sullivan in April 1865 and included in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. It is now used as a Confederate Memorial, and roughly 30,000 Confederate soldiers are buried Blandford Cemetery.

Some of the most prolific documentary photographers of the Civil War were Mathew Brady and his associates, Alexander Gardner, George Bernard, and Timothy O’Sullivan. They travels throughout the easter part of the country visually recording scenes of war and its aftermath. The result is a collection of some 12,000 images that form a rich visual document of the Civil War.

Not to mention, forming the basis for Ken Burns’ PBS miniseries. Cue Ashokan Farewell.

The Post Office and Customs House was built between 1856 and 1859. In July 1864, the postmaster moved the post office to Dunlop Street in the western portion of Petersburg because he felt that this location was too exposed to shelling.

The building was used as a meeting place for Confederate officers during the Siege. General Lee and General Beauregard met here on at least one occasion. A Confederate signal Station was also located on the roof.

The building became Petersburg’s City Hall in 1938.

Yes, the same building is still in use.

And with that, it was time to find the truck and head back to the battlefield.