Here we are arriving at the Berkley Mansion on the James River. This mansion carries a lot of history to the presidencies of the United States. The date of this mansion was 1726 and it was built by Benjamin Harrison IV. It is said to be the oldest mansion in Virginia that can prove its date. It must be said though that the first settlers settling this area arrived in 1619 and it was over 100 years before the mansion was built.

 Benjamin Harrisons son also named after his father was the second owner and is the Benjamin Harrison we know who signed the Declaration of Independence. William Henry Harrison was the fathers third son and was an Indian fighter known as Tippecanoe who later became the ninth President of the United States. Williams grandson Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd President. A lot of Benjamin's in this family.

 Here is the back of the house that is right next to the mansion. It is a guest house and is still used as a residency on the second floor. In the picture below you will notice a cannon ball lodged in the house. Well they stated that this was there about the same time that there were over 100,000 soldiers camped around the mansion. Well I wasn't satisfied with the explanation or should I say implication on how it got there so I questioned it further. The tour guide then told us that this was a cannon ball found in the yard and the house had a hole in it so someone stuck the cannon ball in the hole to plug it. Now that made sense as where the house sits in relation to the mansion it would be nearly impossible for a cannon ball fired from a cannon to hit this spot. The mansion is just 30 or 40 feet from the face of this wall.

This residence was noted for a lot of noted guests. George Washington was a friend and visited here many times. Thomas Jefferson also came here and received help with the law. When the soldiers were camped around the plantation, who's acreage at that time was 12,000 acres, President Lincoln reviewed  Gen. George McClellan's army. The plantation is also noted to be the first to distill Bourbon whiskey.

 Here is one that most military families might appreciate. When McClellan's army was here the general wanted a tune that could be played by a bugler to put his army to rest at night. This is where taps came from. The bugler name escapes me but when the General heard it he made it the official rest tune for the Army. This is why taps is played at funerals of vets. It is the tune of final rest.

 The last first I have is that in 1619 the first settlers that came ashore here at Berkley observed the first official Thanksgiving in America. I am on the shoreline where they landed.

 Of course the ladies could not miss a gift shop and I thought this sign was made just for them,!!!!

 Well, here we are at Colonial Williamsburg. The settlement probably most responsible for the formation of our nation, more than any other aside from Philadelphia. This is where the American Revolution came to fruition. It was not the only place the revolution was enacted but it was the political power center of the colonies. The town was populated by people such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Harrison and many others.

 Here is Myron walking from a Presbyterian "Meetinghouse" located at one end of the town. The horse is being rode about a block up from the Meetinghouse. Note that the rider is in period garb. There were many walking around and populating the buildings to give you a personal tour of not only the history of Williamsburg but the personal history of the building that you are in.

 This is the seat of our government in those days. It is the capitol building that housed the House of Burgess's (upper right side), and the Kings side (upper left side). King William III was the reigning monarch in England at this time. This building is not the original building. In fact this building has burnt down twice by accidental burnings. This building was reconstructed using the exact 1776 plans.

 This room is the house of Burgess's. These people were the peoples representatives to the government run by the Kings personal representatives to include the Governor. People like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served in this Chamber.

 This chair is the original chair of the leader of the House Of Burgess's. Patrick Henry actually sat in this chair and chaired the assembly. This is the only piece of furniture that survived the fires. In fact when you look at it up close you can see charring on the bottom of the chair. You can just feel the history in this building. It was in this building that our revolution got it's political start and energy to continue.

 As you can see this room is more opulent. It is the Kings side where the kings representatives met. It's obvious opulence was done to intimidate the average population to demonstrate the Kings power in comparison to the Burgess side that is rather plain by comparison.

 On the first floor is the first court house. The big chair is the judge appointed by the governor and the jury of 12 who were all the Kings appointees, the same guys who populated the room above it. All crimes from thievery to murder, if found guilty, had a punishment of hanging until dead, except for thievery, you could get on your knees, plead guilty and ask for forgiveness.  If the head Judge gave you mercy, they would brand the palm of your hand right then and there with a "T" branding iron and let you go.  I'm sure their life was not easy after that, walking around with a brand!.  You can also imagine that there were few repeat offenders as you would already know your sentence before the trial began.

 Here is the gang in the back of the courtroom waiting for the verdict, fortunately it was not one of us.

 This is looking down main street from the capitol building. We were there pretty early and no one was out but it got crowded pretty quick.

 This is the coffee house near the capitol building. In colonial days this was a very important spot as this is the place where men met to discuss and debate the issues of the day. Women were not invited. In front of the coffee house in the late spring of 1775 Patrick Henry made his famous speech "Give me liberty or give me death", calling upon Virginians to establish a  "well regulated militia for the protection and defense of the country". We went in and had a taste of coffee and hot chocolate made of the recipe of the day. Coffee was strong and the chocolate was real bitter. An interesting side note to this was the young woman you see here in front. She is a naturalized citizen from Portugal and her citizenship is just four years old. We sat and listened to her discuss with us the current immigration situation and she is in absolute dismay. She is frustrated by natural born citizens whom she sees as totally apathetic concerning their freedoms and privileges. She says they have no idea what they are jeopardizing by allowing immigrants to enter this country illegally. What a breath of fresh air she was.

 The next two pictures are in a working blacksmith shop. Marion is always interested in this stuff. Sometimes I think she missed her calling. She should have been a smitty or mechanic. She can't let a hardware store go by without browsing through it.

 Leave it to the gals to find a gift shop in one of the old buildings. We each got a cookie out of it.

 Myron and Karen decided to rest a bit as we made it all the way through town. We were waiting for our name to be called to go eat lunch in Chowning's Tavern.  Don't know if it was operating in colonial times but it is a good representation.

 Some colonial musicians came in while we were eating lunch at Chowning's Tavern. Everything was great except the chairs. If the colonists had to sit in these chairs I can understand why they revolted. They hurt like the dickens to sit in.

 They served us with period china. They are obviously replicas and not the real deal as nut bag tourists like us would break them. LOL

 Marion and Karen strolling to the little tent market that was selling period stuff.

 Myron and I trying on those three point colonists hats. They wanted 60 bucks for these. Shirts were being sold for 50 bucks. I can't afford to be a colonist. It would cost well over 400 dollars to get one set of cloths, hat, wig, and accouterments.

 This is the Palace of the Governor and the park leading to it.

 Here is the Bruton Parish church that was attended by not only the population but many of the founding fathers as well. George Washington attended church here while in town as well as Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison and so on.

 Marion is sitting in the seat that George Washington sat in. This made the whole trip worth while for her. She was elated as we toured this church when we were here in the late seventies but couldn't remember where it was located. She was overjoyed to visit the church once again that George Washington attended.

 This is a close up of the front gate of the Governors Palace. This house looks huge but once inside you realize this is not that big.

As you enter the main door you come into a foyer designed to do one thing and that is to impress and intimidate anyone who enters. It is lined with swords and muskets and implements of war. It was important to the English at this time as it represented their power over the people, The floor was marble and it is credited with being the first marble floor in America. It was imported from Italy.

 The muskets on display are actual period muskets and some may have been used in the revolution

 I left this as the final thing on this page. It was a reading of the Declaration of Independence in front of that main street you seen in the beginning of this post. It is now crowded with people and the reading was electric. The crowd was moved to participate by the very reading of the words of this document. This was inspiring. It also listed the colonists grievance's against the King. You could almost apply those to today's grievance's of our current government. What a parallel. Sometimes you got to think that it is coming around again. I recorded the entire speech but it is too big to add to this file. There are also many more pictures that couldn't be included as the file space will eat up my entire allocation. We will be making a CD later with all the pictures and videos we took.

These men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  None of the 56 signers defected.  Their honor, like their nation, remained intact.  What courage they had!  We should all be indebted to them for the freedoms we have enjoyed.  Today, we are losing our freedoms and need to revisit what our founding fathers committed to.

Also, the citizens gathered at the Capital to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 25, 1776.  We were here exactly 238 years later on July 25, 2014 to hear the reading of the same.

  We visited the Yorktown battlefield yesterday. This is where the revolutionary war was won. It was the final battle against the British. Three years after this battle they signed a treaty and the war was over. It must be noted that if it hadn't been for the French we would not have won this war.

 Here is Karen hoochykooing with George Washington. She is getting a little cheeky on this trip. She is having a good time except for all the walking. I can say one thing though, she and Marion never miss a gift shop no matter how much walking. Myron and I man the benches and watch all the sticks.

 Here is a typical military camp on a small scale. The tents you see in the front are the enlisted swine. They pack 6 guys in these tents. All they have is a little straw. We always get the short end of the deal. Behind the enlisted tents there are two officer tents.

 This is the officer tents with just one person to each tent. This sucks even in this day and time. I didn't get a pic of the Commanders tent for some reason, but his tent is large enough to stick four of these tents in and has furniture and table with cutlery. What adds insult is the generals never stayed in the field, they had a home in some nearby town.

This was the hospital tent. After seeing this I have very little to complain about when it comes to my care. This is out of the Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble era. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the Kitchen. Yes I said Kitchen. They dig a ring hole around in a big circle. They throw the loose dirt on top. They make these little burrow holes at the bottom and one on top connecting the two holes. They place wood in the bottom holes then set pots or whatever they are heating on the top hole. It was working while we were there and it really heats good. The purpose of this was that since the wood was being burnt below ground level it got less oxygen and burned slower saving wood and it also controlled smoke thereby not giving the position away to the enemy. There would be many of these pits and each individual fire hole supported 6 men and there were about twelve cooking holes per pit meaning each tent had it's own hole. Now you can imagine how many kitchens were needed for several thousand men.

 This is a picture of the actual battlefield. I was standing on the British gun mount looking directly at the American lines about a quarter mile away. To the right was the French lines about the same distance away. Much of the battlefield now is wooded when in fact all the trees for about three miles around here was cleared for battle. The real feeling here is that you are actually standing on the ground that our country was started and where the blood was spilled for our freedom. Below is the house where the British surrendered to the colonial army. Corwallis was cowardly and did not attend the surrender. He sent a colonel to represent him. Reason was that the Washington would not allow him to surrender with military honor. Cornwallis was incensed and would not attend, however this is exactly what Cornwallis did to the colonial army in Charleston when he defeated the colonial army. The house is called the Moore house and is the original house.

As we were departing the Yorktown visitors center we toured a typical farm. It was interesting on two levels. I was impressed with the construction of the log cabin as it was truly unique. The second reason was the character that gave us a little insight into the mindset of those during those days.

Here is the character I am talking about. He had several of us semi dressed in period clothing and gave us each a personality. One was a rich guy who is the guy to the distant left. The Farmer to his right who wants to join the revolutionary army and his wife to his left who is a fence sitter not able to decided which side to support. and then there was me, a slave, guess he must have talked to Marion before I got there, as she has me enslaved. LOL.

The coat he gave me was for a midget as you can see. Well he went though each character and gave us their fate. The rich guy turned out to be one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and he was ultimately banished and killed by the British. The farmer joined the revolution and lived and his wife had to choose sides or face banishment from whatever side she didn't choose, fortunately she chose to follow her husband and lived. I as the slave joined the British to fight the colonialists as Cornwallis promised me freedom, oops, the British lost and I was sold into slavery. Bummer. The interpreter then summarized that people reacted much the same as they do today. You have to choose sides in the political argument. Today we also have to choose sides in the battle of ideologies. The difference is that in those days your choice and outcome could determine how or if you lived. That took a lot of us back and you had to stop and think for a moment about this. I still have trouble with the thought process here but he did make a good point. I am sure that the winner of the ideological argument of today will determine how a person will live and that is the real scary part.