![\"Two](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/05\/Malvern_Cannons__Civil_War_Battlefield_RIchmond_National_Battlefield_-_Stierch-1.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
One of my recurring disappointments about our visits to Richmond is that, occupied as we always are with family matters (which, of course, is a very good thing), we\u2019ve usually been unable to pay much attention to the astonishingly rich history here and about \u2014 both from the colonial and revolutionary era and from the Civil War, and also beyond those momentous times. \u00a0Every time that we\u2019ve driven down to Richmond from Washington DC, we\u2019ve passed signs along the road identifying places that I know were of great significance, especially during the War Between the States. \u00a0Oh yes, I\u2019ve managed to visit some important sites \u2014 e.g., Jamestown, Yorktown, the Petersburg National Battlefield, the Richmond National Battlefield, the \u201cWhite House of the Confederacy,\u201d the American Civil War Museum, and so on. \u00a0Not an inconsiderable list, I suppose.<\/p>\n
But I still don\u2019t feel that I have a handle on the history of the area, or on the history of the Revolutionary War or of the Civil War. \u00a0And I worry about trying to acquire<\/em> such understanding. \u00a0So much has been written on the American Civil War alone, I think, that a person could drown in the literature. \u00a0And I want to avoid that. \u00a0(For much the same reason that I\u2019ve refused to try to gain a real command of chess: I realize, being who I am, that, if I ever actually wanted to get serious about chess, I would end up reading endless books on the subject, and I would be hard pressed to do things that I consider much more important. I have a hard enough time at it is getting to the important things.)<\/p>\n One good place to gain a basic understanding of the American Revolution, by the way, is the Visitors Center at Mount Vernon. \u00a0I haven\u2019t been there for several years now, but we revisited it once quite a while ago shortly after it had been comprehensively rebuilt and refurbished \u2014 and it featured an audiovisual exhibit that offered the best, the clearest, summary account that I had ever seen of the Revolutionary War, its strategies, and its battles \u2014 the latter of which had, until that time, existed in my mind as isolated but vaguely significant names in no clear chronological order (except, perhaps, for the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning and the Battle of Yorktown at the end). \u00a0I need to go back again, and I commend it to anybody who hasn\u2019t seen it yet.<\/p>\n Anyway, my visits to Richmond remind me, painfully, of how much I don\u2019t know. \u00a0One of my goals is someday to work my way through Richmond\u2019s Hollywood Cemetery (often unofficially called the \u201cNational Cemetery of the Confederacy\u201d). \u00a0It encloses the graves of writers that I admire, such as James Branch Cabell, Douglas Southall Freeman (biographer of George Washington and Robert E. Lee), and Tom Wolfe (d. 2018). \u00a0But it also includes the graves of such important political figures as Jefferson Davis (Confederate President), James Monroe (fifth president of the United States), George Pickett (famous for his role at the Battle of Gettysburg), Lewis F. Powell (d. 1998, justice of the United States Supreme Court), John Randolph of Roanoke (d. 1833; one of the wittiest men ever to serve in Congress), General J. E. B. Stuart, John Tyler (tenth president of the United States of America, who died as a member of the Congress of the Confederate States of America). \u00a0I\u2019ve driven briefly through Hollywood Cemetery on a couple of occasions, but I\u2019ve never really spent any time exploring it. \u00a0And, right now, I don\u2019t think that I know enough to fully appreciate it.<\/p>\n Please consider the \u201cConstruction\u201d photographs here<\/a>. \u00a0See how the claims of the opponents of the Cody Wyoming Temple \u2014 that its enormous bulk would loom over the surrounding city and that it would completely block views of Cody\u2019s mountains and of the sky above \u2014 have been fully vindicated. \u00a0This should be a lesson to any people who might be on the fence about the construction of future<\/em> Latter-day Saint temples: \u00a0Trust the critics. \u00a0They will never mislead you.<\/p>\n I was fascinated to read this, the longest, most sustained statement that President Donald J. Trump has issued thus far about his relationship (if, indeed, there was any relationship at all) with the late Mr. Jeffrey Epstein. \u00a0It was kindly brought to my attention by one \u201ct. tangata neneva,\u201d who often posts comments on this blog. \u00a0But it was published in The Atlantic<\/em>, so I don\u2019t know whether you\u2019ll all be able to access it or not: \u00a0\u201cHow I Came to Be in the Epstein Files: A conspiracy wrapped in a conspiracy theory wrapped in an enigma.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Incidentally, some \u2014 including Mr. Donald J. Trump \u2014 were upset that the football team formerly known as the Washington Redskins changed its name a while back to the Washington Commanders, and they are demanding that it abandon the new name. \u00a0Presumably, they want the team to return to its original name, the Redskins. \u00a0But the suggestion has apparently also been made that the name be changed to the Washington Epsteins. \u00a0And, I have to admit, I can see the charm of that idea.<\/p>\n Here are a few items from the news media that have recently caught my eye:<\/p>\n With a representative of the Third Generation in tow, my wife and I visited the Science Museum of Virginia<\/a> this afternoon. \u00a0We spent most of our time there at a pretty good visiting exhibit, originating from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, that is called \u201cUltimate Dinosaurs.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s too bad that I\u2019m a young-earth creationist. \u00a0(I\u2019m told<\/em> that I am, anyway.) \u00a0I might have enjoyed it.<\/p>\n Posted from Richmond, Virginia<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 One of my recurring disappointments about our visits to Richmond is that, occupied as we always are with family matters (which, of course, is a very good thing), we\u2019ve usually been unable to pay much attention to the astonishingly rich history here and about \u2014 both from the colonial and revolutionary era and from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":40444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
<\/a>