Winchester, Virginia

On our way back from Skyline Drive yesterday we stopped off at Winchester and Leesburg.

We had lunch in Winchester and then visited the Old Court House at the centre of the pedestrian street in Old Town.  The exterior is largely unchanged from the picture above, from 1862.  Inside it is now a Civil War museum.

The court room downstairs is laid out as it was used for trials in the 1870's and all around the walls are portraits and prints of local notaries.

During the Civil War the court room became a hospital for wounded and sick soldiers.  In the museum that is now upstairs we learned that the majority of deaths during that war - and there were more deaths in the Civil War than the total of all American losses in all wars since then - were attributable to disease arising out of poor nutrition, weather conditions and poor hygiene/unsanitary conditions, rather than deaths in the battles themselves.  Those injured in battle of course had a very high mortality rate - amputations could save the lives of those with damaged limbs, but if the injury was to chest or abdomen then it was likely to be fatal.

Winchester changed hands 70 times during the Civil War and so the hospital and upstairs, the prison, were used at different times for soldiers of both sides.

Some of the buildings in the Main Street, as well as the Court House itself, would have stories to tell.

This quite important looking colonnaded building was Taylor's Hotel in the 1860's and was the headquarters for Confederate General 'Stonewall' Jackson and his officers at one time - he is shown in this picture outside the building in 1862..

On a lighter note, yesterday Winchester Old Town businesses were in 'trick or treat' mode.  Many US town centres invite young children and their families to dress up and come trick or treating on the Saturday before Halloween.  

There were therefore many tiny witches and wizards, together with an assortment of supermen, spider men, ladybirds, flowers, princesses and dragons, all carrying their pumpkin baskets and receiving sweets and chocolates from slightly chilly looking shop assistants outside each store or playing Halloween related games!