Our screening of The Angel of Marye’s Heights at Liberty University is coming up this weekend (Sat. Sept. 18), and we are preparing for what looks to be an incredible experience. We would love to see you there. Here’s the latest info:

• The event will be from 7:00-9:00 PM at the DeMoss Learning Center (Room 1113) on Liberty U’s campus. Admission will be $5 for adults, $3 for students and 100% of the ticket proceeds will benefit the National Civil War Chaplains Museum. For more info contact Kenny Rowlette at 434-582-2087.

• Following the 30-min. film and a 5 min.-bonus feature, there will be 30-min. panel discussion on preserving and presenting history in relation to the film, museum and university. The panel will consist of Clint Ross (Director/Producer), Michael Aubrecht (Producer), Darrin Dick (Art Director/Motion Graphics), Richard Warren II (Actor) and Kathleen Warren (Home-schooling mother).

• Our friend, historian and author Richard Williams will also be in attendance and we will have a table set-up with a slideshow, exhibits, and Will White’s soundtrack CD for sale.

• Our host Kenny Rowlette, Director of the National Civil War Chaplains Museum, will be appearing on “The Morning Show” on Channel 7 in Roanoke on Monday, Sept. 13 (at 5:10, 5:40, 6:10, and 6:40 AM) discussing the museum and film.

• Kenny and Clint were interviewed for the Liberty Champion paper. (PDF to come)

• We will be appearing on Victory FM WRVL (Listen Online) on Saturday morning. Shooting some video spots on our tour at the National Civil War Chaplains Museum, and we will be available following the panel discussion for questions or comments.

The folks at Liberty University are treating us like kings and we will be staying at Montview (Carter Glass Mansion) for the weekend. This beautiful estate was Rev. Jerry Falwell’s office and is now the site of his grave. There will be plenty of photos and videos to share once we return. Then it’s off to the University of Mary Washington the following weekend where I will be presenting the film and a short speech followed by a group tour of Brompton courtesy of the UMW folks.

Keep up with our schedule over on the Screening Dates section of our website. We encourage you to come out and support both our film and these causes.

Earlier this week I noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign standing in the front yard of the Charles Dick House. Located at 1107 Princess Anne St, this gem is considered to be the oldest residence in Fredericksburg. Dating back to 1750, the master of this manor ran in circles that included George Washington who dined there in 1771. As a result, I thought I would share some related history on the neighborhood.

The original English settlement of Fredericksburg Virginia was chartered in 1728. Named for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the town’s footprint was clustered in a fifty-acre area along the west bank of the Rappahannock River. It was originally engineered in a grid-like pattern, with wide streets that were named after British royalty. The initial plot consisted of sixty-four equally sized lots with two extra spaces for a church and a market. As the population increased, Fredericksburg found it necessary to expand the municipal boundaries. By 1759, the city had tripled its physical size, opening the door to both new merchants and settlers alike.

Many significant names from both the Colonial and Revolutionary periods called Fredericksburg home to include George Washington, Fielding Lewis, Hugh Mercer, George Weedon, John Paul Jones and James Monroe. Thomas Jefferson, although not a resident, frequented the area on a number of occasions and penned the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom there.

Although the tract on which Fredericksburg was founded had included a frontier fort that had been established in 1676, its firsthand witnessing of military action in the fight for independence was none. It was the other Fredericksburg, of New York, that witnessed one of the first armed incidents leading up to the American Revolution. In November of 1765, two regiments of British troops arrived from Poughkeepsie and merged with another 200 Redcoats from New York City who were deployed to stop the spread of British land encroachment by local Patriots.

Fredericksburg, Virginia that is, did make a significant contribution in the fight for liberty after Charles Dick teamed up with Fielding Lewis in 1775 to run the Fredericksburg gunnery. They would supply muskets for Colonial troops throughout the Revolution, while also repairing muskets captured from the British. The venture however, turned out to be far more patriotic than prosperous and is said to have taken its toll on their wealth and health. Lewis died in 1781, and Dick, who had been suffering from asthma since at least 1779, died in 1783 at the age of 68.

Unfortunately their spirit of enterprise did not survive either. By 1828, Fredericksburg residents realized that the development of their city was seriously lagging behind the nearby cities of Alexandria (to the north) and Richmond (to the south). As a result, they launched a thirty-year improvement plan that included a water navigation system and road improvements. Fredericksburg also wanted to compete with the nearby town of Falmouth, which had established a stable economy based on the industrial processing of flour. By 1830, both towns collectively boasted a flour-inspection rate of 125,000 barrels a year. However, output dropped dramatically to under 60,000 barrels annually in 1847. This decline hurt the local economy and did nothing to help cover the costs of the city’s fledging revitalization plans.

Many of Fredericksburg’s long-term projects proved to be poorly planned or executed. By 1858, most had fallen into bankruptcy after uncoordinated and intermittent attempts to complete them were unsuccessful. The news editors of the Semi-Weekly News, Christian Banner and Weekly Advertiser spared no words when they wrote pieces taking the citizens to task for their “lack of energy and enterprise,” as well as their penchant for mediocrity. Clearly the town’s officials did not anticipate the requirements of their plans, nor did they prepare any contingencies in the event of failures.

Regardless of these difficulties, Fredericksburg righted itself economically and was able to continue on the path of progress by adding shipping to their resume by means of river and railroad. This expansion however would come to a screeching halt as the War Between the States would literally roll over the town like no other in the region. Reconstruction would take decades.

The town, which had been officially incorporated in 1781, finally received its charter as an independent city in 1879. Although it is primarily remembered today for hosting four major battles in the Civil War, Fredericksburg did play a big part in the settlement of the Old Dominion, a small part in it’s fight for independence, and is home to such historic sites as Ferry Farm, Kenmore Plantation, Chatham, Mary Ball Washington’s House, the Rising Sun Tavern, Hugh Mercer’s apothecary shop, James Monroe’s Law Office and of course, Charles Dick’s house, which you can own for a cool $1.28 million.

UPDATE: Look for an upcoming interview with us in the Liberty Champion newspaper and listen on Sept. 18, for our live interview on Victory FM WRVL (Find a station)  

SEPT. 18 (Open to public): The Angel of Marye’s Heights will be showing at Liberty University on Saturday, September 18, 7:00-9:00 PM (DeMoss Learning Center, Room 1113) ADMISSION: Adults $5, Students $3. ALL ticket proceeds benefit the National Civil War Chaplains Museum. In addition to the 30-minute film, producers and attending cast will provide brief comments. For more info contact Kenny Rowlette at 434-582-2087. (Meet Michael Aubrecht, Clint Ross, Richard Warren II and Darrin Dick)

SEPT. 25 (Open to MWU Family Weekend attendees only): The Angel of Marye’s Heights will be showing at Mary Washington University’s Family Weekend on Saturday, September 25, 3:00-4:00 PM (Lee Hall 411) WEEKEND ADMISSION: Family $15. In addition to the 30-minute film, producers and attending cast will provide brief comments. A separate tour of the Brompton mansion atop Marye’s Heights will follow. For more info on this event and/or for directions and parking information visit MWU’s Family Weekend site. (Meet Michael Aubrecht and John Cummings)

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking my mother and father out for a private tour. This was the first time that I’ve done something like this and I can definitely say that it was surreal (in a good way). It also had a lasting impact on me and prompted this post that I’d like to share today.

Taking advantage of napping grandchildren, my parents and I visited the Fredericksburg Battlefield, a site they had taken me to as a child. After walking the Sunken Road, scaling Marye’s Heights and strolling through the National Cemetery, we concluded our jaunt with a brief visit to the Eastern National bookstore where they saw two of my titles (Houses of the Holy and Campfires at the Crossroads) sitting on the shelf in the ‘Local Interest’ section.  

It was then that I realized my life had come full circle. I’m a couple years away from the big 4-0 and I can easily say that thirty-something years before, we were probably in the same place - doing the same thing. It was a proud moment for me for sure.

This is not the first time I’ve felt nostalgic. Years ago I penned a short, sappy piece titled Birth of a Buff (READ HERE) that recalled my first trip to Gettysburg. In retrospect, that weekend turned out to be a life-changing experience that I treasure to this day.

For those of you who came to appreciate Civil War history in your adulthood, I’m one of those ‘LIFERS’…a geek that’s been obsessed since I was 7 years old. My parents took me to a plethora of sites in my youth including Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, New Market, Monticello, Fort Ligonier and Williamsburg. I can remember every single one of them as if it was yesterday.

As an adult, my father and I have traveled to Gettysburg, Antietam, Manassas, Winchester and Kernstown. As a Spotsylvania resident, I live in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania and The Wilderness. Yep, feel free to hate me. I am unabashedly spoiled in access to hallowed grounds.

This tour was a little different as it ended in an NPS bookstore, with books on a shelf, penned by me, that would not have been possible if not for the very same trips that I had taken, to the very same locations in my youth. It was like playing “six-degrees of me.”

I don’t say that to sound prideful (OK maybe a little), but I’m trying to illustrate how there is a clear path that can be traced in my life between then and now. If my parents had never taken me on these trips, and then put up with the general weirdness that comes when you want to dress up like a re-enactor before you’re old enough to know what they are, who knows what and where I would be.

Would I still be writing books and producing films? Would I even live in Fredericksburg? Probably not.

Simply put, THIS is what made me who I am today and I’m grateful for it. At the same time I'm also a little sad that my four kids have ZERO interest in traipsing around battlefields. (That is until they come out with something for the Wii.) 

As a parent, I pray that they will have lives that are complete and fulfilling, even if they will never know the joy that I experienced, at the ages of 7 and now at 38, with my parents, on a battlefield, in a bookstore.