As the summer got hotter, Richmond’s population was getting bigger, and there were fewer recreational opportunities. What to do? Take a train ride to The Center of the Universe. Failing that, folks could head to the outskirts of town to enjoy a little martial entertainment.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch June 25, 1864:
A great public Want Supplied.
–We invite special attention to the advertisement in another column of excursion tickets over the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad. Precluded, as our greatly increased population is this summer, from opportunities of visiting public watering places, or other more private resorts in the country, and destitute as they are of their usual means of riding and driving out of the city, few accommodations more acceptable and useful could be offered them than those announced in this advertisement. The hours at which the trains are run between this city and the South Anna River, are precisely those which are best suited to afford the greatest possible convenience, comfort, and healthful recreation. They enable our people, suffering from the heat, dust, and impure air of the city, to enjoy, for three hours, either the freshness and fragrance of the woods and fields in the dewy hours of morning, or their welcome shade and breezes after the exhausting heat of a day’s labor in the city, without any encroachment on the usual hours of business; and by the liberal reduction of fare on these tickets to one-half, this comfort is afforded at a cost of less than a fourth what any other conveyance would require. Persons desiring to spend a day in the country, or at the beautiful village of Ashland, can avail themselves of these tickets. Those who cannot spare three hours for a ride on the passenger train, the establishment of a regular schedule of frequent trips, at certain hours, for the street and steam coach between the depot in this city and Camp Lee affords a very pleasant ride, at a very small cost, with an opportunity in the afternoon of attending the dress parades, and listening to the music of the fine band at Camp Lee. To ladies and children these excursions are peculiarly welcome and valuable.
THE CITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.—DRAWN BY A REFUGEE JUST ESCAPED FROM SECESSIA (Camp Lee to the northwest)
The map of Richmond was published in the August 9, 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South.
I don’t know when Ashland was nicknamed “the center of the Universe”. If you click on Mr.Sneden’s map at the Encyclopedia Virginia you can see Ashland on the railroad a bit south of the South Anna.
