The park around you was once known as the Corporation Burying Ground. Burials occurred here from 1787 through 1853 and included Dr. Charles Mortimer, who had been Mary Washington's personal physician. He also served as Fredericksburg's first mayor, . . . — — Map (db m14429) HM
Architect James Renwick, who designed the Smithsonian Castle, also designed the Fredericksburg Court House, which was built in 1852. It is the only Gothic Revival court house in Virginia. Within the cupola is a bell from the Revere Foundry in . . . — — Map (db m148061) HM
With the arrival of the Union army in the Spring of 1862, Fredericksburg-area slaves by the hundreds fled to freedom. To house the refugees, the Union army transformed the basement of the city courthouse (in front of you) into a temporary barracks. . . . — — Map (db m2567) HM
You could smell the gingerbread and candy when you went into the store. It was utterly quiet, the only noise was the ticking of a clock...and an elderly lady knitting and rocking. A local resident On this corner stood the home of the Ebert . . . — — Map (db m8640) HM
To commemorate the valor of the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, and in loving memory of its heroic dead this monument has been erected by Major General Daniel Butterfield, U.S.V., its commander on this field December 13th 1862.
. . . — — Map (db m1677) HM
Automobiles opened up exciting opportunities for travel, but a racially segregated nation was fraught with risk for African American motorists. In the Jim Crow era, travelers were met with intimidation and outright discrimination. Many carried their . . . — — Map (db m182644) HM
From May 1-3, 1863 Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson fought a powerful federal army to a standstill at Chancellorsville, while Major General Jubal A. Early's division confronted the Union 6th Corps at Fredericksburg. On May 4th, following . . . — — Map (db m76686) HM WM
The James Monroe Law Office - Museum and Memorial Library was established as a perpetual memorial, sacred to the memory of James Monroe, and in honor of the principles of just government and righteousness as exemplified in his life and in his . . . — — Map (db m216707) HM
Dedicated in honor of
J. Earl Jarrell and Esther G. Jarrell
Ambassadors for Christ
Missionaries to Panama
Pastor, Craigs Baptist Church, Spotsylvania, Virginia
Founders of Bayside Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia . . . — — Map (db m216702) HM
This view, taken a mile behind you, shows the vast open space in front of Marye's Heights only months after the December 1862 battle. Union troops crossed the plain between the town (in the foreground) and Marye's Heights. Some attackers advanced . . . — — Map (db m8663) HM
The Ladies' Memorial Association Register lists these soldiers as being re-interred in the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery, but no individual memorial stones have been found for them. — — Map (db m217619) HM WM
Councilor John Lewis (1694-1754) of Warner Hall in Gloucester County purchased 406 ac. at Fredericksburg’s northern edge in 1742 and soon began a mercantile operation in wooden buildings just across Caroline Street.
In 1749 he built this brick . . . — — Map (db m1148) HM
Councilor John Lewis (1694 - 1754) of Warner Hall in Gloucester County purchased 406 acres at the northern edge of Fredericksburg in 1742 and began a commercial business in wooden buildings across Caroline Street.
Lewis had this brick store, . . . — — Map (db m217532) HM
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples have moved in and around the land now known as Fredericksburg, with two tribes establishing themselves in this area: the Mannahoac and the Patawomeck.
By the seventeenth century, the Patawomeck . . . — — Map (db m242241) HM
The space you are standing in is historic Market Square. When Fredericksburg was created in 1728, seven leading landowners in Spotsylvania County were appointed to design the town. The men set aside this block for use by the Anglican Church and the . . . — — Map (db m1124) HM
The Mary Washington Monument is the first monument in the United States funded by women to honor a woman. The first resolution in 1890 of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was a pledge to complete the monument to Mary Ball . . . — — Map (db m217565) HM
If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.
-Dr. John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998)
From 1502 to 1860, the trans-Atlantic slave trade . . . — — Map (db m97364) HM
Standing here you can clearly see how the Sunken Road got its name. Cut into the base of Marye's Heights, the roadbed sits several feet below the grade of the surrounding hill slope. Stone retaining walls on either side of the road hold the banks . . . — — Map (db m8638) HM
“My army is as much stronger for these new entrenchments as if I had received reinforcements of 20,000 men.”
- R.E. Lee, Decenber 14, 1862
Preparing Breastworks
In December, 1862, the Confederates had no organized . . . — — Map (db m4180) HM
In 1877, the Fredericksburg and Gordonsville Rail Road began operations, with narrow gauge tracks connecting to established railways running through Fredericksburg and Orange. A series of companies tried to make this railroad profitable, . . . — — Map (db m95326) HM
The breaching of the Embrey Dam has allowed the unobstructed migration of fish upstream to their natural spawning grounds. The dam’s demolition has also improved the habitats of a wide variety of wildlife on the Rappahannock River. It also . . . — — Map (db m95308) HM
This property
has been listed in the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
Historic Fredericksburg Foundation
1828
The Rowe House, built for
George Rowe, farmer, . . . — — Map (db m148047) HM
The sandstone blocks used to make these benches were excavated during archaeological investigations in the park in 2019—one of a series of studies that have helped to clarify the history and use of Fredericksburg's historic riverfront. During the . . . — — Map (db m217527) HM
General Lee conferred with some of his officers here at the start of the Chancellorsville Campaign. A few days later, Union soldiers overran Lee’s Hill.
Report on the action at Lee’s Hill by Colonel Henry Coalter Cabell commanding artillery . . . — — Map (db m4182) HM
Five months after the Battle of Fredericksburg the Union army finally captured Marye's Heights. On May 5, 1863, General John Sedgwick's Sixth Corps streamed out of Fredericksburg to attack this ridge. Twice Confederates on the Sunken Road repulsed . . . — — Map (db m217989) HM
Built in 1816, the new market house/town hall maintained the English tradition of placing commercial activity and government functions in the same building. Its location facing Princess Anne Street, however, reflects the evolution of that corridor . . . — — Map (db m148058) HM
The Sentry Box (ca. 1786) is an elegant specimen of late~Georgian~style architecture. Brig. Gen. George Weedon of the Continental Army, later mayor of Fredericksburg, built the house and named it to reflect his military career. Weedon's wife, . . . — — Map (db m5095) HM
Virginia Fredericksburg
Augt 25th 1773
Messrs. Samuel &William Vernon
Gentlemen
You will by this opportunity be advised by Capt. Jno. Duncan of his Arrival here, & valuing himself on Col. John Thornton for his Services in disposal . . . — — Map (db m97371) HM
The foundation outlined before you marks the wartime home of Edward and Martha Stephens. On December 13, 1862, the house was caught in the vortex of Union attacks against the Sunken Road. Confederate sharpshooters fired from the house windows and . . . — — Map (db m8550) HM
For 130 years, this was a road like thousands of others. First called the County Road, then Telegraph Road, it carried farmer's wagons into Fredericksburg or townsfolk to visit relatives in the country. During the 1830s an adjacent landowner built . . . — — Map (db m215579) HM
In 1862 the ground in front of you was an open plain stretching from here to the outskirts of Fredericksburg, one-half mile away. As Union troops left the town to attack Marye's Heights, they had to break ranks to cross a canal ditch, then knock . . . — — Map (db m8502) HM
On May 4, 1863, Colonel Lewis A. Grant's brigade of Vermont regiments held the ridge to your right front. Late in the day, Brigadier Generals Harry T. Hays and Robert Hoke launched their Louisiana and North Carolina brigades against a Union line . . . — — Map (db m82932) HM
This embankment, to your left and right, was once a railway, built to link Fredericksburg and Orange, Virginia. Work began in 1853, but was interrupted by the Civil War. When the Union and Confederate armies confronted one another in and around . . . — — Map (db m242242) HM
To your left front is a ravine that leads up from Hazel Run to what was once the 230-acre farmstead of Walker Landram. In 1854, he had sold 6.5 acres on the southern edge of his farm to the railway company, where you are now standing. When the . . . — — Map (db m95324) HM
Fredericksburg's first publicly supported high school for African American students.
Black education efforts in Fredericksburg began in 1836, when free Black people petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to start a school for free . . . — — Map (db m242251) HM
In December 1862 Confederate artillery on this hill rained shot and shell on attacking Union soldiers advancing out of Fredericksburg. Next to the guns was a small brick building, one of three that then occupied this part of the heights. "The . . . — — Map (db m8712) HM
This natural rise in the landscape was once part of a larger earthen mound that was used for thousands of years, first by Native Americans and later by Fredericksburg residents. The site was a prime vantage point above the Rappahannock River and . . . — — Map (db m217526) HM
The monument across the road marks the spot where General Thomas R. R. Cobb suffered a mortal wound. A brilliant Constitutional lawyer prior to the war, he left his practice to take up arms for the South. At Fredericksburg Cobb fought his first . . . — — Map (db m8522) HM
1746
The building in front of you is Fredericksburg's oldest documented structure. It was erected in 1746 and originally served as an ordinary (or tavern), operated by Thomas Thornton. The original entrance was on your left, facing a dirt . . . — — Map (db m149236) HM
(Text of tablet placed in 1992):In honor of Confederate Soldiers who died in Fredericksburg Oct 1861 through Mar 1862 and buried in Barton St. Cemetery No record of reinterment when site reused in 1920 Alabama 14th Infantry- Archer . . . — — Map (db m167003) HM
This monument stands forever a memorial and symbol of undying love and devotion in memory of the men from this city and surrounding areas who fought for liberty and freedom from oppression in the wars of this, their Country, and whose supreme . . . — — Map (db m4618) HM
Along the VCR
In 1853, a group of investors incorporated and began to grade a railway route from Fredericksburg to Orange Court House, 37 miles to the west. In Orange, this new railway would connect with a rail line to Gordonsville, . . . — — Map (db m95322) HM
Along the VCR
In 1853, a group of investors incorporated and began to grade a railway route from Fredericksburg to Orange Court House, 37 miles to the west. In Orange, this new railway would connect with a rail line to Gordonsville, . . . — — Map (db m95328) HM
Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, August 19, 1791 from B. Banneker:
"Sir: I am fully sensible of greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion of liberty which seemed to me scarcely . . . — — Map (db m176148) HM
Walker-Grant School was opened in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1936 as an elementary school. In 1938 a high school wing was added. The school was named for two Black men, Joseph Walker, born into slavery, and Jason Grant, the son . . . — — Map (db m217986) HM
In 1935, an elementary school for Blacks was built at this location, the revolutionary "Gunnery Spring" site. It was expanded in 1938 for the first provision of public high school education for Black students in Fredericksburg. The facility and the . . . — — Map (db m242248) HM
“The General punishes most severely any [soldier] caught in the most trivial act. He says [we must] show the Southern People we will act with true Yankee Hospitality even to the worst treasonable communities.” . . . — — Map (db m2584) HM
"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 . . . — — Map (db m166481) HM
A young George Washington grew to manhood at his home on the broad upland terrace directly across the river. He moved there with his family in 1738, at the age of six. Augustine Washington, his father, owned several plantations and part of an . . . — — Map (db m148513) HM
In 1855, the Fredericksburg Water Power Company adapted the Rappahannock Company’s navigation canal to be an industrial power canal. The canal turning basin became a mill pond and several raceways soon branched off to power the Germania Flour . . . — — Map (db m95317) HM
Constructed shortly after Fredericksburg’s founding in 1728, the tavern across the intersection became a popular gathering place under the proprietorship of its first owner, John Gordon, and then of his son-in-law, George Weedon. George Washington . . . — — Map (db m1060) HM
The Gordon family lived at Kenmore from 1819 to 1859, and the twelve grave markers range from 1826 to 1872.
- Treat all graves and grave artifacts with respect
- Report vandalism to FPD at 372-1122
Please help us preserve the graves, . . . — — Map (db m148050) HM
Commuters and rail passengers hurry to their trains over asphalt paving that is only the most recent layer in Fredericksburg's history. These travelers cross over prehistoric work sites, eighteenth-century shops and dwellings, a Civil War . . . — — Map (db m14419) HM
Built in 1775, Kenmore was the home of Betty Washington Lewis (George Washington's younger sister) and her husband, Fielding Lewis (a prominent local merchant). Known for its elaborate decorative plasterwork and architectural significance, the . . . — — Map (db m182991) HM
"There is a private cemetery on the crest, surrounded by a brick wall. Burnside's artillery had not spared it. I looked over the wall, which was badly smashed in places, and saw the overthrown monuments and broken tombstones lying on the . . . — — Map (db m8718) HM
The cannon emplacement before you is all that remains of a series of similar earthworks that once stretched across this ridge. It was constructed in 1862 as part of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's defenses above the town. During the . . . — — Map (db m148048) HM
During the Chancellorsville Campaign, the 1st Battalion, 11th United States Infantry formed a part of Colonel Sidney Burbank's 2nd Brigade, Major General George Sykes's 2nd Division, 5th Army Corps. Advancing eastward along the Orange Turnpike, . . . — — Map (db m158922) HM WM
1861 - 1865
(South face): To commemorate the services of the 15th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel William H. Penrose, U.S.A., engaged two hours on this line of battle on the Federal side.
May 3rd, 1863. . . . — — Map (db m3516) HM
1861 - 1865
(North face): Monument to commemorate the services of the Twenty-Third Regiment New Jersey Volunteers Infantry, in the battle of Salem Church, Virginia, May 3rd, 1863.
Erected by the State of New Jersey, under the . . . — — Map (db m3514) HM
After being driven from the Chancellorsville crossroads by Lee on May 3, 1863, Hooker retreated to a new line of defenses covering U.S. Ford, 3.5 miles to your rear. For two days, Hooker strengthened his defenses and awaited attack. Lee took . . . — — Map (db m12857) HM
The cleared vista to the left offers a framed view of a 30-foot square, 23-foot high pyramid. It marks the left of the Northern penetration into Confederate lines on Dec. 13, 1862. Federal troops under Gen. George Meade took advantage of an . . . — — Map (db m4090) HM
Earthworks to your right rear mark the apex of Hooker's last line of defense. The Federals retreated to this position late in the morning of May 3, guarding the roads to Ely's and United States Fords. The defensive minded Union commander sat . . . — — Map (db m3695) HM
On May 2-3, 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee defeated the Army of the Potomac under Hooker on this field. “Stonewall” Jackson, Lee’s great lieutenant was mortally wounded in the flank attack on Hooker’s right which resulted in victory . . . — — Map (db m14514) HM
Hooker reached this point, April 30, 1863; Next day he entrenched, with his left wing on the river and his right wing on this road several miles west. That wing was surprised by Jackson and driven back here, May 2. The Confederates stormed the . . . — — Map (db m3511) HM
On December 13, 1862, Union and Confederate troops clashed here, on muddy fields dubbed the "Slaughter Pen." Union Gen. William B. Franklin had 65,000 troops, but employed only two divisions, numbering 8,000 men, under Generals George G. Meade . . . — — Map (db m21106) HM
In November 1862, Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside led his 115,000-man army southward toward Richmond, the Confederate capital. Delayed by tardy pontoon boats, Burnside was slow to cross the Rappahannock River, which allowed Confederate Gen. Robert . . . — — Map (db m21109) HM
of May 3, 4, 1863 fought by Lee and Hooker concluded the Chancellorsville Campaign here. The followers of Lee, in imperishable bronze respond to the noble sentiment of the followers of Grant and pay highest tribute to the patriotism of both. . . . — — Map (db m3506) HM
This mile-long trail leads to the site of Bernard’s Cabins. On the eve of the Civil War, these cabins (now gone) were home to as many as thirty-five slaves. During the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Confederates turned the terrain surrounding the . . . — — Map (db m213527) HM
On this knoll stood Bernard's Cabins, a small community that in 1860 was home to about three dozen slaves. The complex consisted of three two-room cabins, a stone-lined well, and perhaps two additional buildings. This was only one of several such . . . — — Map (db m213525) HM
Following “Stonewall Jackson’s” successful flank attack and his subsequent wounding on the night of May 2nd, Lee appointed Major General “Jeb” Stuart to command Jackson’s Corps. Faced with an imminent threat from the direction of . . . — — Map (db m79637) HM
In 1816, an innkeeper named George Chancellor announced that his “large and commodious” roadside inn, named Chancellorsville, was open. By the 1860’s the inn had gone out of operation, as central Virginia became a vast battleground. Headquarters for . . . — — Map (db m159169) HM
May 1-3, 1863. "Our enemy must either ingloriously fly or come out from behind his entrenchments and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." With these words, "Fighting Joe" Hooker, on May 1, started toward the rear . . . — — Map (db m3559) HM
Early on May 3, 1863, elements of Howard's battered XI Corps retired to this vicinity. As the battle swirled around the Chancellorsville crossroads, one mile to the southwest. Howard's men hastily dug and constructed lines of rifle pits and . . . — — Map (db m126607) HM
April 10 - May 3, 1863. These trenches were part of Hooker's original line. On May 2, Couch's II Corps skirmishers, under command of Col. Nelson A. Miles, beat off repeated Confederate attacks launched to draw attention from Jackson's flanking . . . — — Map (db m159157) HM
April 10 - May 3, 1863. These trenches were part of Hooker's original line. On May 2, Couch's II Corps skirmishers, under command of Col. Nelson A. Miles, beat off repeated Confederate attacks launched to draw attention from Jackson's flanking . . . — — Map (db m159158) HM
After the Union defeat at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside in January 1863 with the aggressive Gen. Joseph Hooker. At the end of April, Hooker sent most of the Army of the Potomac . . . — — Map (db m181506) HM
"May God have mercy on General Lee for I will have none." -Gen. Joseph Hooker, U.S. Army On May 1, 1863, the head of Union Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac arrived on these fields, apparently completing one of the most successful and . . . — — Map (db m181507) HM
Federal earthworks we’re erected here along the Mineral Spring Road on May 2, 1863. They anchored on the Rappahannock River to the northeast and extended to the southwest apex on Ely’s Ford Road. This line was backed up by a second and third line of . . . — — Map (db m192277) HM
By May 5, 1863, Union General Joseph Hooker knew that he had lost the Battle of Chancellorsville and faced the necessity of retreating across the Rappahannock. Troops of the Federal Fifth Corps dug trenches that stretched a mile on either side of . . . — — Map (db m192279) HM
Vicious fighting surged back and forth across this large clearing on the morning of May 3. From here, you can clearly see the two key Union positions; Fairview, to your right front near the brick wall of the Chancellor Cemetery; and the . . . — — Map (db m3785) HM
In the spring of 1863, Chancellorsville was the home of Mrs. Sanford Chancellor and seven of her children. The old inn hosted a steady flow of Southern military men as soldiers and officers from Lee’s army stopped to pay their compliments to Mrs. . . . — — Map (db m159165) HM
For the first two days of May 1863, the boom of distant guns rattled the windows of Salem Church. Eight miles to the west, at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee’s main Confederate army battered a Union army nearly twice its size. Four miles to the . . . — — Map (db m3497) HM
In seventy-two hours the Chancellor family's world was turned upside down. A Union soldier described the Chancellor women on April 30:
"Upon the upper porch was quite a bevy of ladies in light, dressy, attractive spring costumes. They were not . . . — — Map (db m159166) HM
On the morning of May 3, 1863, more than 17,500 men fell killed or wounded in the woods and fields around you - one man shot every second for five hours. Entrenched Union lines in front of you collapsed, and the Confederates surged forward to seize . . . — — Map (db m3801) HM
The Virginia General Assembly authorized the construction of a fort built nearby along the Rappahannock River in 1676. It served as a defensive fortification for settlers of European descent on the frontier when periodic conflicts occurred between . . . — — Map (db m1655) HM
Here was Newpost, headquarters of Alexander Spotswood (Governor of Virginia, 1710-22), Deputy Postmaster General for the colonies, 1730-39. Spotswood also had an iron furnace here. — — Map (db m1658) HM
“I at once saw the enemy outnumbered us, as they were in double lines, and extended beyond our right. I immediately asked for reinforcements, but was informed they could not be furnished. Colonel Webb, who has remained in front for some moments, . . . — — Map (db m79639) HM
"My brigade was thrown to the left. Forming line of battle parallel to the road. I advanced in face of a severe fire to a line of breastworks from which the enemy had been driven. The contest was sharp and fierce for a few moments. I . . . — — Map (db m79638) HM
Confronted by overwhelming numbers, Confederate forces fell back from Chancellorsville (three and a half miles in front of you) and established a defensive position here on April 30. General Robert E. Lee instructed Richard H. Anderson, who . . . — — Map (db m7532) HM
Twisting through the woods one hundred yards ahead of you are two well-preserved lines of earthworks constructed by Confederate forces in the winter of 1862-1863. General Robert E. Lee had ordered his troops to build the trenches in anticipation of . . . — — Map (db m19313) HM
Como Gordon was born in February of 1832 at "Kenmore" near Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was one of ten children born to William Knox Gordon (1790-1886) and Elizabeth Fitzhugh (1816-1872). The Kenmore Estate was given by Samuel Gordon to his wife, . . . — — Map (db m230872) HM
Across the road to the northeast stood the Cox House, also known as the Wiatt House. In December 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws’s division used it as a hospital, and there on 13 December, Brig. Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb died from wounds . . . — — Map (db m1713) HM
The crescent-shaped earthworks in front of you protected the 14 guns of Lieutenant Colonel Reuben Lindsey Walker's artillery battalion, which held this position on December 13, 1862. Prior to the assault of Union infantry, artillery blanketed this . . . — — Map (db m21901) HM
The South had few more ardent advocates for independence that Maxcy Gregg of South Carolina. He argued for secession long before most. He sought not just the protection of slavery, but its expansion into the West. And he urged the reopening of the . . . — — Map (db m237552) HM
General Maxcy Gregg fell mortally wounded near this spot on December 13, 1862. Fiery and uncompromising on the issues of slavery and states’ rights, the South Carolina lawyer had been an early and ardent proponent of secession. When war came, . . . — — Map (db m4092) HM
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