His Excellency the esteemed General George Washington once again opened his fine estate in early May to allow spectators to watch another major engagement of British and American forces at Mount Vernon.
 |
| Photo credit to Troy Corbett |
The First Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line, along with about 650 other reenactors from locations as far away as Ohio, Quebec and New Hampshire, encamped on the beautiful grounds of Mount Vernon. There were Redcoats, Patriots, Dragoons, Jaegers, Royal and Continental Artillery, Riflemen, Light infantry, surgeons, sutlers and even camp followers. The Marquis de Lafayette was also there to help the Patriots with their battle plans.
 |
| Hanging in camp before the big battle |
 |
| Young members of the musket corps |
 |
| Photo op with the Marquis de Lafayette and his staff |
Spring had sprung at Mount Vernon, and there were signs everywhere. His excellency had even made repairs and put a fresh coat of paint on the old homestead. The Spring lambs with their helicopter ears reminded us of the many batches of lambs we raised on our old homestead.
 |
| The scaffolding is finally gone! |
The weather was dreary, but thankfully a little rain didn't keep the tourists away. In fact, Mount Vernon set a new daily attendance record of 8,000 visitors on Saturday and 5,000 visitors on Sunday, which tied its biggest day of 5,000 visitors last year.
 |
| Stationed near the kitchen to engage visitors |
 |
| Bringing history to life |
For those of you most interested in the battles, we've included some photos to give you a flavor of the weekends' engagements. Many thanks to the professional photographer, Troy Corbett, who got close to the action and took pictures and gave members of the First Virginia permission to use them. You'll definitely be able to tell the professional photos from our photos, but credit was also given where due.
Fun facts we picked up in the excellent exhibits in the museum this time around:
- Washington was one of the wealthiest men in America by the time he died, having built up his wealth with land acquisitions. He grew Mount Vernon into a five-farm estate of almost 8,000 acres, and he owned 51,000 acres of land across the country when he died.
- Washington's teeth are actually NOT made of wood.
- Unlike other founding fathers, Washington DID free the 123 slaves he owned at his death.
 |
| General George Washington |
 |
| The General's choppers |
Many thanks for your most gracious hospitality, General. We hope to be back again next year. It might take us a little bit longer to get there, though . . . could be an awesome Spring road trip from the West Coast!
No comments:
Post a Comment