Road Trip! Asheville, Andrew Johnson Nat'l Historical Site, Lincoln Memorial U
So after a brief introduction I’m starting the real journey here with this roadtrip my wife Ally and I took to Asheville, NC because it’s our most recent and it was a good one! We packed a lot into two days leaving West Bloomfield on the morning of Wednesday March 15th and returning home the following night the 16th!
A little context for this one: We have friends who just moved their mom to Asheville to be with another of their family members and she had a cat named Suki. Instead of the hassle and cost of flying Suki to Asheville we basically traded with them to drive Suki down there ourselves! She was a great traveler - not a peep the whole drive down. We had never been to Asheville and the drive presented a few opportunities to see some historical sites and some incredible scenery! One of our (my) projects is to try to visit all of the homes of United States presidents and I knew Andrew Johnson’s home might be an option so I mapped it out…. Here’s the route we took from Lexington, KY southward, and here’s the Google Maps link to the directions.
Let me just say the second half of the drive from Knoxville to Asheville is incredible. Reminded me of the mountainous scenery driving through the Delaware Water Gap on either side of you but for probably about an hour and the trees were blooming in purple all around!
Day 1 - Asheville is incredible
What a town! There is some history there too, but after reading up on the Civil War “Battle” Of Asheville I found out it wasn’t really a battle at all. Goes like this: Confederates hear that Union soldiers are coming. Confederates take high ground with a few cannon. Union soldiers arrive but think the Confederate forces might be too much up there. They leave. No casualties. The end.
As much as I love Civil War history this wasn’t compelling enough for me to go on a goose chase on some trail on the UNC-Asheville campus looking for an earthwork or two at the expense of the food and gallery scene in town. We had some fantastic hibachi / sushi at Wasabi Japanese Restaurant, unbelievable deserts at French Broad Chocolates, and woke up the next day for some amazing breakfast at Early Girl Eatery - OMG was that goooooood. Right next door was a classic Flatiron Building completed in 1926 and a massive flatiron on the sidewalk to commemorate it - I told Ally to iron my clothes asap. She tried. Also of note while we were there we visited a photography gallery owned by Benjamin Walls - some of the most stunning landscape and wildlife photos we’ve EVER seen. Check out his website. Here’s a few photos from Asheville!
Day 2
I’ve driven parts of Skyline Drive a few times over the years but never the Blue Ridge Parkway and there’s an entrance and visitor center about 3 minutes from downtown Asheville. We checked out the visitor center which is pretty nice with a few informative displays and set out to drive just a short section on our way towards Greeneville. It was gorgeous with a few nice overlooks we checked out! I highly recommend it. About 35mph speed limit up in the mountains - just relaxing with amazing scenery all around and a Dead show from Europe ‘72 playing (Vol. 8 4/24/72 I believe)… bliss.
We exited the parkway at Bull Gap and headed towards Greeneville which I have to say was also an incredible drive. Some of the non-interstate drives are the best, with a creek running beside the road most of the way, mountains all around, the occasional local restaurant or store… great way to see places you’d never see by driving from destination to destination to see some history, and see some history we did in Greeneville…
Greeneville, TN - home of President Andrew Johnson
Now while I have plenty of opinions about history and historical figures, seeking out the knowledge and my fascination with visiting historical sites shouldn’t be confused with any love I may or may not have for certain parts of history. I certainly can’t say I’m a “fan” of Andrew Johnson as a man or as a president, but his story and that time is certainly a consequential chapter in our history. He came from nothing and when he arrived in Greeneville there was a need for a tailor so that was the trade he took up. What is pretty cool is that they have his actual tailor shop preserved and on display inside the visitor center at the Andrew Johnson Historical Site which is administered by the National Park Service. His early home from the 1830’s to 1851 is there and you can walk through it, along with the main homestead he lived in before and after the Civil War which we toured and the national cemetery where he and his family members are buried. Much to see and learn… I’ll start with the early home:
The visitor center is across the street and it’s nice with a little museum and bookstore - you can sign up for the main homestead tour there - it’s free admission. A few highlights including the tailor shop:
Planning is key to these road trips - for me we live in Michigan so we often have very limited time with too many stops and things to see… We had a little time before our tour - maybe a half hour (?) so I figured let’s run around and see a couple things so we can skate right when the tour ends and make our way to Harrogate and the Lincoln Memorial University Museum with a solid hour and a half to spend there before it closes. It ended up being the perfect plan. We headed first to the Dickson-Williams Mansion - we didn’t have time to tour it but what a stunning home. Per the website the mansion changed between Union and Confederate hands during the conflict, guests at this place included John Calhoun, Henry Clay, Davy Crocket, Andrew Jackson, and James K Polk. One of the more intriguing incidents that occurred there was the death of Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan - famous for many daring raids on the North throughout the war - he was cut from the same cloth as J.E.B. Stuart. His luck ran out at the Dickson-Williams Mansion when he was ambushed - went sprinting out of the home to escape and was shot in the garden. There is still plenty of controversy about his death as this article from 2014 in the Greeneville Sun discusses on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his death.
From there we had JUST enough time to head up to the cemetery to the gravesite which sits atop the highest point in town with a spectacular view.
From there we headed back down to the home for our tour. What’s nice about Presidents who aren’t Washington, Jefferson & Lincoln is you often end up getting a private tour or close to it. There was just one other family with a couple of young kids and us, and the guide did a fine job. President Johnson owned this home for 24 years and lived there before and after the war. During the war the house was used as a hospital as well as headquarters for both Union and Confederate armies and it was completely trashed when the Johnsons left the White House to return home. They covered the graffiti on the walls with wallpaper and furnished the house and much of the items on display are original which is pretty cool.
I took photos of pretty much every room we saw which was the majority of them but I’ll just share a few highlights:
The family was ravaged by tuberculosis - I guess they didn’t know how contagious it was. It seems Andrew’s wife Eliza may have gotten it first and only made two public appearances during their time in the White House due to her illness. Two of the sons self-medicated to deal with the disease and succumbed to alcoholism. Johnson wasn’t exactly sympathetic - thought his sons were weak with their alcoholic vices. A man of his time perhaps…. Indeed - also as a “man of his time” in the South he was a slaveowner even though he was loyal to the union as was most of Eastern Tennessee. And while he “treated them well” and freed them in 1863 he was no friend to African Americans when it came to their rights in the reconstruction of the South as president. I wondered how they would paint him at the park. To the ranger’s credit I felt he tried to lay it out as objectively as possible. He didn’t simply try to sell us on Johnson’s positives because this was the park dedicated to him. The next two photos are from the slave quarters - I’m not sure they are exactly representative of how they were at the time. I believe the guide said this was originally the kitchen with the slaves living in a separate structure that no longer exists and then they were moved into this room in the house. I know the stove is original, and there is a solid page of information that will do the story of the slaves of Andrew Johnson better justice than my memory of the tour at the NPS website HERE. There is some fascinating info there on Sam (in the right photo below in the center in later life) and Dolly (in the photo on the right holding Andrew Johnson’s grandson on her lap.
On to Harrogate, TN and Lincoln Memorial University
We got back on the road at this point to head up to Harrogate and the museum at Lincoln Memorial University. Once again the scenery along the way was fantastic. We went by Bean Station where the final and significantly bloody battle of the Knoxville Campaign of 1863 took place on December 14th. The battle site itself is mostly lost now - covered by water and the famous tavern that stood there no longer exists. There is a marker and apparently a few earthworks but we didn’t have any time to spare if LMU was the priority. It turned out okay because the unplanned stop we made at Veterans Overlook at Clinch Mountain was awesome. This is the spot where Daniel Boone and William Bean observed the landscape while on a hunting and surveying expedition in 1775 before establishing an outpost there.
Next stop Lincoln Memorial University!
Lincoln had a lot of support in Eastern Tennessee which was mostly loyal to the Union and that’s the connection and reason there would be a University named for him in a state that seceded. The museum is well done with a pretty impressive collection of original artifacts along with some interesting displays such as Lincoln in Hollywood - how he’s been depicted in various shows and films. Here’s a selection of photos from the visit!
The museum had a few other displays from the period that weren’t directly related to Lincoln himself some of which were really impressive such as some Civil War weapons and a few things related to the war in Tennessee. I still want to get to Knoxville and learn more about Fort Sanders there even though there isn’t a whole lot to see. I’m fascinated by that battle, and they have a blood stained Confederate cavalry flag from Fort Sanders on display. What a disaster… Union General Ambrose Burnside - one of the worst commanders in American history responsible for the defeat at Fredericksburg (not to mention one of the biggest blunders ever at Antietam) - gets a dramatic victory in a reversal against Confederate General James Longstreet in an ill-fated attack after a two week siege that turned into a 20 minute massacre when Confederates underestimated how deep the trench was in front of the fort and got trapped in it on November 29th, 1863, failing to dislodge Union troops from Knoxville as a result.
The original plan was to drive towards Perryville, KY that evening and tour the Perryville Battlefield the following morning but the weather forecast was really bad…. so we headed home and arrived around midnight. I was disappointed since Perryville has eluded me - it’s the closest major battlefield to where I live and one of the few I have yet to visit! I’m getting there this year I swear… So I’ll leave you with our final stop - Gold Star Chili for some 5-way Cincinnati style now available with Beyond Meat! I cheated with the cheese - I’m not that strict on my plant-based lifestyle when I’m traveling but I was happy to have a plant-based option at least with the actual chili.
Don’t even @ me with any Skyline commentary - when they add a Beyond Meat option like Gold Star has then we can talk…
So there it is… really an awesome trip to be able to pack all of that in inside of 48 hours. I recommend this itinerary!
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here.
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