I read an article recently from a back issue of Civil War Times Illustrated in which a reviewer of an interactive Gettysburg Guidebook confessed that she had lived 40 miles from the battlefield for most of her life and had never – ever visited there. I found this to be strange, although I have lived in Fredericksburg for 15 years now and have never visited Washington DC. This of course is a shameful act on my part. After all, I know what historical sites are there, yet I am the only member of my family (minus Jackson of course) never to visit our nation’s capitol. That said, it bothers me even more when there is something of historical significance nearby that I was not aware of.

Yesterday, John Hennessy re-introduced me to a weather-beaten, but still gorgeous Civil War estate that I have driven past everyday for over 10 years and never knew was there. This revelation came as we were discussing my Lee’s Hill talk. John suggested that I include a neglected estate called “Hilton.” It is a beautiful-but-obscured house that sits behind a very trashy-looking roadside flea market on Route 1 just south of the new shopping area at ‘Cosner’s Corner’ (where my oldest son works).

This was an Alsop Family house, and Lizzie Alsop wrote about spending the Christmas of 1862 there in her diary. Most people have no idea it's there, though they drive by it all the time. Now that I do, I plan on driving up there and photographing the property with hopes of including it in my “Backyard History” talk. Who knows, maybe it will lead to a future piece for the Free Lance-Star?

As bad as that sounded, I just found out today that there was a Civil War museum just a few miles from my parent’s home in Green Tree (Pittsburgh, PA). This is where I was raised and lived for 22 years of my life. I was just there last week. Apparently, this wonderful little treasure trove of artifacts sits just over the hill at the Civil War Museum of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library. I discovered this while Googling  today and I cannot wait to mention it to the folks back in the ‘Burg. (You would think that somebody would have told me.) The museum looks to have a fine collection and their website has a nice bit of info on the history of the place. Visit the Civil War Museum of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library.