War Comes to Fredericksburg

War Comes to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg: Timeless.. , "Abraham Lincoln was in town on Friday. Our Mayor did not call on him, and I did not hear a cheer as he passed along the streets." , , Betty Herndon Maury , (diary entry for May 25, 1862, War first came to Fredericksburg in the spring of 1862. General Irvin McDowell occupied the area with more than 30,000 Union troops and their arrival on April 18th created an immediate uproar. Many citizens fled, but slaves saw an opportunity to end their condition of servitude. By the time the army departed, in August, thousands of enslaved persons had crossed the Rappahannock River to the Union camps, securing their own freedom., Though most of the Union camps were north of the river, in Stafford, one brigade occupied the town itself. On May 23rd, President Abraham Lincoln visited army headquarters at Chatham and later crossed the river on a floating bridge. He toured the Northern camps on the western edge of town and then stopped in to see General Marsena Patrick, the brigade commander who had his headquarters in the Farmer's Bank building, across the intersection from you., [Captions:] , When President Lincoln visited the Federal regiments on Marye's Heights, he had no way of knowing that he was also visiting the area that would become a battleground eight months later. His visit to Fredericksburg was remarked upon by local residents, but not celebrated., Confederates burned three bridges over the Rappahannock River on the day the Federals arrived. To prepare for a move south, the Union army established pontoon bridges and rebuilt the railway bridge. This sketch depicts soldiers at work in mid-May 1862. The bridges would be destroyed again when the Federals withdrew that summer., Brigadier General Marsena Patrick became the military governor of Fredericksburg in April 1862. He was a thoroughgoing professional and kept strict order during the first Union occupation of the town.