Virginia in the Fall

It is relaxing to spend the week in sleepy Lexington, Virginia, in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, first settled in 1777.  Having visited in 2010, we look forward to getting to know this quaint little college town, home to Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institure, a little better.

We enjoy eating lunch twice at the Southern Inn, a popular restaurant in downtown Lexington for over 75 years.  Having dined there before, we are confident that we will be treated to a great meal, and we are not disappointed!  Somehow, it seems to be fresher and more attractive than we remember and the dining room we ate in is gone!  Shockingly, we are told that a couple of months after our last visit in 2010, a July thunderstorm produced a lightning bolt that struck the restaurant and basically destroyed everything but the exterior walls!  It is a miracle that downtown Lexington was not engulfed in the ensuing flames. The restoration was just recently completed, and very well-done!

VMI is the oldest state-supported military college in the United States, offering cadets a spartan, physically demanding environment combined with strict military discipline.

VMI offers degrees in Engineering, the Sciences and the Liberal Arts. Although VMI has been called the "West Point of the South," it differs from the federal service academies in several ways.

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are artillery pieces used for practice and later in the Civil War

All VMI cadets must participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), but they are not required to serve in the military upon graduation. VMI graduates may either accept a commission in any of the US military branches or not.

On November 11, 1839 the Virginia Military Institute was founded on the site of the Lexington state arsenal.  In 1851 Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson became a member of the faculty and professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.

He is buried at the nearby Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. VMI played a valuable part in the training of the Southern armies and participated as a unit in actual battles. VMI alumni were regarded among the best officers of the South and several distinguished themselves in the Union forces as well. Fifteen graduates rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army, and one rose to this rank in the Union Army.

On June 12, 1864, Union forces under the command of General David Hunter shelled and burned the Institute as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. The destruction was almost complete.

VMI produced some of America's most significant commanders in World War II. The most important of these was George C. Marshall, the top U.S. Army general during the war.

George C. Marshall Library & Museum, VMI

Marshall was the Army's first five-star general and the only career military officer ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Winston Churchill dubbed Marshall the "Architect of Victory" and "the greatest Roman of them all".   His Marshall Plan which rebuilt Europe was instrumental in getting its people back on their feet after so much destruction and economic ruin.

The Marshall Library and Museum offer a comprehensive look at WWII.

Adjoining VMI is Washington and Lee University which began as Liberty Hall Academy. It became a college in 1785, making it the ninth oldest institution of higher education in the country. George Washington gave the school its first significant endowment in 1796, $20,000, the largest gift ever given to an educational institution in the United States.  Trustees changed the name of the school to Washington Academy, and later Washington College, in his honor.

After the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee turned down several lucrative offers that would have traded on his name, and instead accepted the post of college president. 'First, he had been superintendent of West Point, so higher education was in his background. Second, and more important, he believed that it was a position in which he could actually make a contribution to the reconciliation of the nation. Third, the Washington family were his in-laws: his wife was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. Lee had long looked on George Washington as a hero and role model, so it is hardly surprising that he welcomed the challenge of leading a college endowed by and named after the first president.'

Lee died of a stroke on October 12, 1870, after only five years as Washington College president. The school's name was almost immediately changed to link his with Washington's.

Lee Chapel

His son, George Washington Custis Lee, was named as the school's next president. General Lee and much of his family - including his wife, his seven children, and his father, the Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee - are buried in the Lee Chapel on campus, which faces the main row of antebellum college buildings.

Robert E. Lee's beloved horse, Traveller, is buried outside, near the wall of the Chapel.

The fall foliage is still visible as we spend the day taking a drive along the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway, a National Parkway and All-American Road famous for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles  mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. It originates between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, extending north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, making a transition to the Skyline Drive, the major north/south artery through the Park.  While the two All-American Byways are separate and distinct, it is worth noting that the Blue Ridge Parkway was built to connect Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Parkway is not a National Park, but is a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road, and is the most visited unit in the United States National Park System. Land on either side of the road is maintained by the National Park Service and, in many places, the park is bordered by land protected by the United States Forest Service. The Parkway will be depicted on North Carolina's version of the America the Beautiful quarter in 2015.

The scenic overlooks are numerous, providing a spectacular opportunity to view the expansive Shenandoah Valley.

The seven mile-long Chessie Nature Trail,  provides us the opportunity for hiking on two glorious days.  Meandering through spectacular rural Virginia along the Maury River, it follows the old route of the  Chesapeake-Ohio RR.

We hike for four miles, stopping for picnics on a bridge overlooking the river.  Walkers, joggers and bicyclists, mostly VMI and W & L students, join us here and there, alone, in pairs and in groups as large as five or six.  What a wonderful way to spend a fall afternoon in Lexington, Virginia!