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My Visit to Old Donation Center




Today I had a really cool adventure!  A lady named Mrs. Smithson visited my blog and left me a comment.  She invited me to visit her school in Virginia Beach.  She’s the library media specialist at the school.  I found Dr. Slaughter in the office and got permission to fly over to Old Donation.

The trip to the school was a little rough….there was light rain in Virginia Beach today.  I was pretty wet when I arrived at ODC, but didn’t get lost because I’d located the school using Google Earth, so I knew just where to fly. 

 odc-charlie.jpg Mrs. Smithson was in the library when I arrived at school.  I think she was really surprised to see me!  She found a towel to dry my feathers, and then I stayed with her as she helped some fifth grade students do research on Civil War battles. 

cannon.jpg I was really interested in learning about a Civil War battle that took place near where Mrs. Smithson grew up in Petersburg, Virginia.  The battle was called “The Battle of the Crater.”  Some soldiers from Pennsylvania who had been coal miners at home, dug a tunnel underground so they could blow up a Confederate fort.  They had to dig the tunnel by hand!  It must have been very hard!  When the tunnel was completed, they lit a fuse and quickly crawled out of the tunnel.  Nothing happened.  They tried again, and this time, there was an enormous explosion.  All the ammunition in the fort exploded along with the gunpowder that the Union soldiers had put in the tunnel.  A huge crater was blown into the earth.  The fort was destroyed – BUT – the Union soldiers were trapped in the crater.  A terrible battle followed.  The plan of the Union army failed that day.  Many soldiers died.

I had a great time visiting at Old Donation Center today.  I hope I can visit with Mrs. Smithson in the library again soon!  She loves birds, and just happened to have some delicious bird seed in her drawer.  On top of that special treat, I really enjoyed learning so much about the Battle of the Crater!

PLEASE leave me comments!  Approved comments will appear within 24-48 hours.

See you later -

Charlie

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 1:50 pm Filed under History, Travel and tagged , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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3 Responses to “My Visit to Old Donation Center”

  1.   Mrs. Smithson Says:
    March 9th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Hi Charlie,
    I just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed your visit with me at ODC. Thank you for helping me research the Battle of the Crater for our fifth graders. As we found out, the study of the Civil War is very interesting, but also very sad with so many losing their lives for what they believed in. I’m sure some of your species saw a lot of what went on since you are the state bird for Virginia. Please fly over and visit me again sometime. Maybe the next time, you can meet our eagle mascot. Take care, and fly safe!

  2.   charliecardinal Says:
    March 10th, 2008 at 7:37 am

    Mrs. Smithson -
    Thanks so much for letting me visit your library!
    Charlie

  3.   Miss Schlegelmilch Says:
    May 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Wow, Charlie you have done some interesting things. Why don’t you come to Parkside Elementary to my class to learn about the Civil War battles that took place in this area. Hope to see you soon! Have a safe flight.

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