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Last weekend my family and I went to the Draft Horse Museum at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington. Most items on display are post war but the technology is the same so it would help expand your knowledge base by visiting.
One of the more interesting in this small collection was the hay wagon pictured. It is hard to tell from the image here but there are two bridges, one at each end to raise the reins above the load for use by the driver who walked behind the wagon. At the rear of the wagon is a break lever (can barely be seen in the image, it is a flat iron bar viewed from the side) that would be depressed and moved side to side to regulate the amount of breaking, the bar is held in place by a series of notches in a curved plate. The wagon is also known as a mountain wagon and is designed to safely haul heavy loads down steep grades, if the wagon got away from the driver the driver would be safely left behind to watch the disaster.
While not a Civil War themed museum if you are in Lexington it is worth adding to your visit there. If you are doing the farm museums of the Valley then this too should be part of your tour.
Remember, even if you are not a farmer you would have a working knowledge base of many of the implements. A small walk behind cultivator would not have been an uncommon sight in a city and the museum has a good variety of them.
One of the more interesting in this small collection was the hay wagon pictured. It is hard to tell from the image here but there are two bridges, one at each end to raise the reins above the load for use by the driver who walked behind the wagon. At the rear of the wagon is a break lever (can barely be seen in the image, it is a flat iron bar viewed from the side) that would be depressed and moved side to side to regulate the amount of breaking, the bar is held in place by a series of notches in a curved plate. The wagon is also known as a mountain wagon and is designed to safely haul heavy loads down steep grades, if the wagon got away from the driver the driver would be safely left behind to watch the disaster.
While not a Civil War themed museum if you are in Lexington it is worth adding to your visit there. If you are doing the farm museums of the Valley then this too should be part of your tour.
Remember, even if you are not a farmer you would have a working knowledge base of many of the implements. A small walk behind cultivator would not have been an uncommon sight in a city and the museum has a good variety of them.
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