Ford Model T Club explores history through Chesapeake Civil War tour
Fewer than 50 years after the end of the American Civil War, Henry Ford’s Model T was transporting tourists around the battlefield at Gettysburg. The advent of the automobile, the Model T in particular, made American society more mobile. It helped to broaden the public horizon and accelerated the pace of American culture.
Rob Sallada of the Albemarle Area Chapter of the Ford Model T Club International teamed up with Robert Hitchings of the Norfolk County Historical Society of Chesapeake to organize a 55-mile Civil War tour through Chesapeake following backroads to historic landmarks. Stops along the way included Beechwood, Superintendent’s House, Happer House and the Jackson Greys monument.
Along Shillelagh Road, Lake Drummond Causeway, Belle Haven Street and Ballahack Road, residents waved from their front yards and driveways as the antique eight-vehicle caravan of seven Model T’s and a Model A sedan delivery drove past their rural homes.
While the city of Chesapeake, formerly old Norfolk County, is crisscrossed with highways, the backroads, although paved, in the southern reaches of the municipality near the North Carolina-Virginia border have remained representative of the dirt roads and wagon trails of yesteryear.
Rob Sallada and Robert Hitchings prepare for the Model T Civil War Tour of Chesapeake. Stops along the way included Beechwood, Superintendent’s House, Happer House and the Jackson Greys monument. (Photo by Bob Ruegsegger/freelance)
“The Model T Civil War Tour was really a coming together of two things,” said Sallada, a resident of Deep Creek. “Model T tours are a lot of fun wherever you go and whatever your highlight is. The Civil War part came from just talking with Mr. Hitchings. He was a referral from a Model A club member who had participated in one of Mr. Hitchings’ tours 10 or 15 years ago — long before I was involved in the program.”
Powered by a 177-cubic-inch, four-cylinder inline engine that produced 20 horsepower and a top speed of 45 mph, the Model T is most comfortable at slower speeds that would tend to impede traffic on well-traveled thoroughfares.
“I went about 42 mph in a Model T once, and that was like being at Busch Gardens,” Sallada said. “That was a little fast. Their sweet spot is 25 to 35 mph. That’s about right.” During the Civil War, many public buildings and churches around the area were put into service as hospitals, barracks and stables. The toll house on the highway, now Route 17, that ran parallel to the Dismal Swamp Canal served as a checkpoint for examining the credentials and identification of local citizens.
For Robert Hitchings, president of the Norfolk County Historical Society of Chesapeake and archivist at the Wallace History Room at Chesapeake Central Library, offering comments on local history is nothing new.
But riding in a Ford Model T was a new experience for the historian.
“All in all, this was an eventful day in my life,” Hitchings said. “Frankly speaking, the ride was quite different than I really expected. There was lots of noise, pulling on the choke and gear shifting. It was quite a feat learning how to drive in those days. We have come a long way in automobiles. I can appreciate my modern Subaru automatic.”
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