Civil War buff's campaign nears end
RICHMOND, Va. — Hitting 60-plus battlefields in four years during the Civil War’s 150th anniversary takes as much passion and commitment as getting married or having a child.
Rob Orrison has squeezed in all of that since 2011, albeit not without some marital compromises, such as a wedding day on the anniversary of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Next week, Orrison will conclude his own epic march at the place where the curtain fell on the Civil War, with his spouse Jamie and 2-year-old son Carter accompanying him.
“There are worse hobbies,” Orrison said, while acknowledging his wife’s occasional impatience.
Orrison estimates he’s spent well over $10,000 and logged “thousands and thousands” of miles on the road, plus a couple of flights to his farthest destinations.
Name a Civil War battlefield, and he’s been there.
Petersburg? Yes.
Fort Sumter? Of course.
Gettysburg? Please.
Antietam, Perryville, Chancellorsville — been there, done that.
Orrison, 39, marched 3 miserable miles on a dark night in a drenching rain at Harpers Ferry, a rare low point in his travels.
He stood under a glittering starlit sky at 4 a.m. at Shiloh, a highlight. On his way, he wondered, “Who’s going to be here?” Some 2,000 people had the same idea.
“It was pitch black, nothing but the stars, and seeing the same kind of things soldiers saw 150 years ago,” he said. “That was pretty neat.”
At the commemoration of the Battle of First Manassas, he sweltered in 110-degree heat.
In recent weeks, he’s been to Petersburg and Sailor’s Creek, and stopped in Richmond a week ahead of Appomattox for the fall of the former capital of the Confederacy. All are dominos leading to Appomattox, about 90 miles west of Richmond, and Lee’s surrender to his Union counterpart, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
He travels in his 2005 Ford Escape or a 2011 Toyota RAV4, typically encamping at the nearest Hampton Inn. He often travels with a friend or co-worker, and returns home with T-shirts and books.
Orrison compares his travels to a baseball fan’s pilgrimage to every Major League ballpark.
