Although we’d
been to Fredericksburg a few years ago for a half marathon, we went back today
to spend some time looking at the civil war history there. We visited the
Chatham Manor, where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were
once guests, and where Clara Barton and Walt Whitman came during the civil war
when it was used as a hospital for both Union and Confederate wounded.
Located
roughly halfway between Richmond and Washington, D.C., this area of Virginia is
where several major Civil War campaigns were fought. The National Park Service
has done a good job of laying out informative driving tours through the
sprawling countryside. The battlefields include Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
Spotsylvania Courthouse, and the Wilderness.
In the
Spotsylvania battle, there is a place called the Muleshoe Salient (also, the
Bloody Angle) where 17,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in a
single day. Today, it’s a peaceful field. The exhibit placards tell a story of
a horrible day there. We also went to the Chancellorsville battlefield and saw
where General Stonewall Jackson sustained what became his fatal wound.
At the end of
the day, we were driving back to our campground when we realized the Stonewall
Jackson Shrine was just 3 or 4 miles away from the campground in Guinea
Station. To get there from the Spotsylvania/Chancellorsville battlefield, we
travelled the same route as the ambulance that took the wounded Jackson to
recuperate after his left arm was amputated.
The NPS
Ranger at Guinea Station was very well-versed in this part of Civil War
history, and I think he was most pleased that we were willing to hear his
entire presentation. He showed us the house where Jackson was treated,
including the actual bed where he died of complications (pneumonia) from his
wounds. Jackson was shot by his own soldiers in a case of mistaken identity. As
the ranger told the story, I thought I saw tears well up in his eyes (or, this
may have been part of his act). At any rate, these Confederate icons are
certainly worshiped in this part of the country.
Next: Meet up
with Stephanie and Stephen near Lake Anna
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