Pointless Prize: Civil War History

[BicycleBeth]

Civil War History Pointless Prize

I am sponsoring a Civil War History pointless prize. We have so much Civil War history in the DC Metro area, and I’d love for us to explore more of our nation’s heritage. I’ve had a great time cycling to Civil War sites this year including circle forts, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Maryland Campaign of 1862. I’ve even designed and rode bicycle routes to follow troop movements leading up to the Battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg.

The Rules

For this contest, there are two ways to earn points, each of which will have a hashtag on Strava. You can earn a maximum of 7 points per day. That is, your ride can have both hashtags: #CivilWarMarker #CivilWarStreet. If you have multiple rides in one day and both rides are hashtagged for this prize, only the first ride of the day counts.

1. #CivilWarMarker +5 points
-Find Civil War Markers like monuments, historic signs with descriptions, circle forts, battle sites, and similar. Take a photo of the historic marker with your bicycle. Write a short description of the marker on Strava. This could be as simple as retyping the text of the marker or talking about where you found the marker or why it caught your eye.
-Hashtag the ride on Strava as #CivilWarMarker.
-One Civil War Marker counts PER DAY.
-Don’t repeat the same exact historic marker for the duration of Freezing Saddles. You’re on the honor system here.

2. #CivilWarStreet +2 points
-Find streets named after Civil War generals, key figures, and streets that were critical to the Civil War. Take a picture of your bike with the street sign. Write a short description of who this general/key figure was or why this street/street name was critical in the Civil War in the comment section on Strava.
-Examples for streets critical to the Civil War:
*”Military Road” in Arlington and in DC was designed to connect the circle forts defending the perimeter of Washington.
*Roads that were critical in battle movements also count as long as you annotate why they were important. For example, “Bolivar Road” is the approach that Union troops used to to engaged with Confederate troops at Fox’s Gap (on Reno Monument Road) at the Battle of South Mountain in September of 1862.
-Hashtag the ride on Strava as #CivilWarStreet.
-One Civil War Street counts PER DAY.
-Do not repeat the same street in the same city/town but you could find the same street name in a different city. For example, “Lee” Street appears in multiple cities in the region. You could ride “Lee” Street in 5 different cities on 5 different days and have them all count. But don’t just ride another block down the same street and count that as a new sign (unless it’s in a different city). You’re on the honor system here.

RULES EDITED on 1/3/2021 TO ADD:
1. Hashtags, photos, and Strava captions/ride comments must be completed no later than 3 days after the date of the ride. No saving up those points for the last minute!

2. You must be willing to accept my Strava friend request or have a public profile that I can follow so that I can read your civil war posts and audit them for accuracy and completeness.

3. If your Civil War Marker is not clearly connected to the Civil War on the marker itself, then you must explain the connection in your comments. For example, you see a courthouse or fort sign that you know was relevant to the civil war but is otherwise not explained on the sign. You take a picture with the marker and your bike. You should also explain what the connection is to the Civil War.

4. (2/7/2021 clarification) The Civil War streets, other than those used for troop and supply movements, should be named after historical FIGURES from the Civil War to include topics related to secession, slavery, abolition, the Underground Railroad, and Reconstruction and the politics of these events. Just to be clear, a key figure or historical figure is a PERSON not a city, battlefield, park, ship name, etc. The key figure should be historically remembered in some way that was relevant to one of these topics. Streets do not need to literally be named after the person. They can just be the same name as the surname of the historical figure.

5. (2/8/2021 edit, clarification, and grandfather clause). From the original rules under #civilwarstreet, I wrote “Write a short description of who this general/key figure was or why this street/street name was critical in the Civil War in the comment section on Strava.” This grammatical construction (in particular, “street name”) may have legitimately led people to believe that additional categories other than the two intended categories were allowed. Thus, I will grandfather in all entries referring to places, ships, ship movements, etc until 2/8/2021 as long as all other rules were followed.

To be very clear, I will rewrite this sentence into two sentences.
For Historical Figures: Write a short description of who this Civil War figure was and what role they played in the Civil War in the comment/caption section on Strava. Historical Figures includes both prominent and historically-recorded figures as described earlier.
For Troop Movements and Critical Civil War Routes: Write a short description of why this street was critical to troop and/or supply movements in the Civil War in the comment/caption section on Strava. The idea is that you will ride your bike in the same place that troops or supply wagons used during the Civil War so that you can experience the terrain they encountered. You can use the same street for troop movements multiple times as long as each time you use it it is in a different jurisdiction. The reason for this is that terrain varies between jurisdictions, and I want you to relive the troop movements.
-For example, Georgia Avenue (the Seventh Street Turnpike) was used both for the Battle of Fort Stevens (Confederates attacking and retreating and Federals in pursuit) and for Burnside moving troops and material up to Gettysburg. Based on my research, I can get Georgia Ave in DC, Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Olney since these are four generally viewed as distinct jurisdictions.

–What is not allowed, example: Appomotax Court in Springfield, Virginia would NOT count. Why you might think it would count: Troops fought in Appomattox and Gen. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House. But does it meet either of these two tests:
*Does it share the name of a historical FIGURE (a person) from the Civil War? (No. Appomattox is not a person but rather a place.)
*Did Civil War troops or supplies move on this street and in this jurisdiction? Are you riding your bike in the same place that troops/supplies were documented to be during the Civil War? (No. Gen. Lee did not surrender in Springfield, VA on Appomattox Ct. And Appomattox Court did not exist during the Civil War so documented troop movements for this street are highly unlikely.)

Prizes for the Top 3 Winners!!!
The top 3 winners will be honored on the Freezing Saddles forum and receive their choice of the following Audible audio books delivered electronically. If there is a tie for more than 3 top place finishers, then I will go through a subset of the hashtagged Strava posts, view the photos, and read the descriptions posted to Strava and subjectively decide who was more thorough in documenting civil war history.

1. The Great Courses: The American Civil War
2. The Great Courses: The History of the United States, 2nd Edition
3. Another Great Course on American history of your choice by one of these professors: Allen C. Guelzo, Gary W. Gallagher, or Patrick N. Allitt

For this forum, we can post and discuss our Civil War history finds. However, this is just for fun and not for points. The points are counted on Strava.

Track how you are doing in each category here:
Civil War Marker: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/civilwarmarker
Civil War Street: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/civilwarstreet
https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/civilwarhistory

[BicycleBeth]

Here’s one of my favorite websites for learning more about the Civil War including lots of details that help me recreate troop movements on RideWithGPS.

https://www.battlefields.org/

[BicycleBeth]

Here’s a great resource for finding the circle forts and battery defenses near Washington.

https://www.nps.gov/cwdw/learn/historyculture/places.htm

[BicycleBeth]

Follow the Civil War Trails on this website to follow troop movements in Virginia, Maryland, and DC.

http://www.civilwartrails.org/mapguides.html

[lordofthemark]

OMG! I’m verklempt!

Thoughts – living in West Alexandria gives some of us kind of an unfair advantage? https://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/manager/info/Confederate%20Street%20Name%20Inventory%20revised%2002-08-2016.pdf

Special West ALX sub challenge – Fort Ward loops.

Honestly though, this is my excuse to look for markers, and maybe to do something with the forts in DC. Or to find a way to schlep my bike out to Manassas.

[Erikaceae]

Sweet! I’m reading The Quartermaster right now! And super excited to ride my bike to some of the locations mentioned in the book! This challenge is perfect for doing just that! Thanks!

[Kbikeva]

More resources for those who want to pursue this pointless prize (but cool idea because there’s so much in this area it could fill your every cold weather riding day).

For a list of historical markers in Fairfax County that are part of the state program: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/historic/virginia-highway-markers
For a list of historical markers in Fairfax County that are part of the Fairfax County Historical Commission Marker program: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/historic/fairfax-county-highway-markers

City of Fairfax and Town of Herndon also have historical markers
https://www.historicfairfax.org/markers/
https://www.herndon-va.gov/departments/community-development/planning-policy/heritage-preservation/historic-marker-program

You’ll have to look at the lists to a) figure out a good route and b) winnow them down to just Civil War history — there’s a boatload of all types of history represented in these lists. If you come up with a route in the Reston/Herndon area and want a sanity check on it before you come out to ride it, feel free to ping me kbikeva at gmail. I have a couple of rides I occasionally lead that are around this area that are particular to that time frame. Plus, access to different roads is changing so quickly out here, I might be able to help you with a work-around.

[AlanA]

I think this will be as much fun as the park finder. It’s always fun to spot the historical markers along the road and see what happened. I also appreciate the limit of one per day.

I’ll probably stick to looking for markers/signs and monuments. The street part will be too much of a strain on my brain! I’m pretty sure I won’t win, but it will give me something to look for on my rides.

[AlanA]

Just curious. Would items that pertained to the Underground Railroad or slavery related sites be considered? That’s one of the main reasons for the war.

[BicycleBeth]

Hi AlanA, yes! Underground Railroad sites and slavery-related sites can count. You’ll have to explain how they are related to to the Civil War in your Strava comments. I’ve been having trouble finding good Underground Railroad monuments. It seems like most of them are hypothetical future monuments or addresses or places with no marker that might have been on the trail.

I’m so excited that you’re participating!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

KBikeva,

Thank you so much for these resources! I live in Maryland so I’m more familiar with the campaigns on this side of the River. I’m excited to visit more of the Virginia Civil War sites during Freezing Saddles.

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

Lord of the Mark,

Yay! I used to live in Foxchase on Taney Ave, a street that would count for this challenge since Chief Justice Taney ruled in the Dred Scott case. Crazily enough, I didn’t even realize the streets in my old neighborhood were all named after Confederate generals until recently—Pickett, Van Dorn, Beauregard, etc.

Thank you for playing!

Beth

[BicycleBeth]

Awesome, Erika! I’m listening to a Great Course of the Civil War and trying to pay attention to all these names and places so I can go find references to them on my bike. And so I can learn too, of course.

Thank you for playing!

Beth

[AlanA]

FYI, I have been doing my research to plan rides starting 1/1! So far, I’ve found that one sign no longer exists (since it was a CSA sign, and that is a bad thing now), and I have yet to find a sign for another historic house (although, I have found pictures online). I still need to look at that property a bit closer.

Hopefully, I don’t encounter too many of these obstacles once Jan. starts!

But, in that regard, if I take a picture of a building that has no sign (but is clearly related to the civil war – and I tell the story), will that count as a marker?

[SarahBee]

I am organizing a Civil War Forts of DC ride(s), so stay posted. It’s a longish full route even with no stops and super hilly since all the forts are on the ridgeline. At least 2 rides, maybe 3. We’ll see, but this is on my bucket list after hearing about it during my tour of the Congressional Cemetery.

[Author]

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