Virginia!
Our Page on the Old Dominion
We don't want to sound chauvinistic or anything like that,  but we kind of like the state we live in.  So we thought we'd give you a page of Virginiana, favorite links, etc.
We moved to Virginia after many years in DC, on January 1, 1994. However, we do have roots that go back a bit. Michael had ancestors in Virginia at least as early as 1665, and possibly a generation or so earlier than that; he had ancestors ranging from Tidewater through the Piedmont to the Shenandoah Valley to the mountains. One Virginia ancestor served in the Virginia Line of the Continental Army. Tam had ancestors in Virginia at the time of the American Revolution as well. So we have a right to be obnoxious about the state, right?
First of all, the Commonwealth (that's fancy for state) has a good state home page  which you should visit. Not just government stuff, though that's there too, but travel and what not. Even a page with the state bird, flower, beverage, fossil, seashell, dog, etc. -- yes, the Old Dominion has all of those. Doesn't your state?
And, we have a Turkey statue. (See picture.)
 
We live in eastern Fairfax County, Virginia. You may want to check out the Fairfax County Government Page or the more business and entertainment oriented Fairfax County Guide.
 
 
HISTORY
And then, of course, there's Virginia's real strength: history. They don't call it the Old Dominion for nothing. Here are some introductory links. We're starting with the Civil War but will work backward and forward as we complete this page.
The Civil War, of course, was centered in Virginia. After First Bull Run, JEB Stuart held the Confederacy's forward position up the road from us at Munson's Hill; the Union forward pickets were at Bailey's Crossroads. We live on the ground in between.
There are plenty of Civil War sites relating to Virginia. We'll only mention a few here:
A good series of driving tours of major campaign areas has been put together in the  "Virginia Civil War Trails" system; it's worth checking out.
A rather unusual experiment in digital history, the "Valley of the Shadow" project being put together by the Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia is worth checking out as well.
In addition to all the national parks, there's a superb new interpretive center, privately funded, just outside Petersburg called Pamplin Park, which includes a museum and parts of the battlefield.
For general links for Virginia in the Civil War, one of the most comprehensive Civil War sites of all is that of the Civil War Center at Louisiana State University; it has a huge links list, broken out topically and called "The Index of Civil War Information on the Internet".

A private set of links on Virginia can be found at Jeff Weaver's Virginia Civil War Homepage.   A local preservation group,  the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, particularly interested in the area between Washington and Richmond,  has an excellent links page listing sites in its area of concern.

More to Come! We're Still Under Construction Here!
Back to Our Home Page