Taking the Fork in the Road: Further Along the Trail

Further Along the Trail

Stone Wall by the Sunken Road in Fredericksburg

To continue on the Russ and Sheri Civil War Trail, we drove north of Richmond to Fredericksburg, which was a battle site in two separate years. The battle there in December 1862 took place smack in the middle of town. Sections of the stone wall lining Fredericksburg's Sunken Road in the National Park are the original wall that was built in the late 1700s. Just up the hill from the Sunken Road is Marye's Heights (show you're a Civil War pro by pronouncing it as "Marie's" instead of as "Mary's") where Union forces charging the hill were repulsed 18 times by Confederates holding the high ground. (A woman at the yarn shop in Fredericksburg who owns a house in Marye's Heights told me that during the 150th anniversary of the battle her lawn was full of "dead" reenactors.) The battle was a terrible defeat for the Union and increased Northern impatience with the war. The victory came back later to haunt the Confederates at Gettysburg when Union soldiers holding the high ground at Pickett's Charge cried ""Remember Fredericksburg" as they decimated the approaching Rebels.

Remains of Chancellor house, namesake of Chancellorsville

When we got to the Chancellorsville battlefield, we discovered that it was actually the start of what could have been the "Stonewall Jackson Tour". When most people think of the Civil War they think of Lincoln, Lee, and Grant. When you're visiting battlegrounds in Virginia though it seems like the name you run into most--no pun intended--is Stonewall Jackson. Jackson must have been one of the most revered figures of the war and was regarded as a legend even in the North. He was there at the beginning at Harpers Ferry as an officer in the US Army, he was at First Manassas where he went from being known as Thomas Jonathan Jackson to being Stonewall Jackson ("Look at Jackson standing like a stone wall!"). But Chancellorsville is the battle most famously linked to Jackson.

At Chancellorsville we saw the spot where Jackson was mistakenly wounded at night by his own troops while he was out scouting by moonlight. Our "Jackson Tour" continued in different places nearby as we saw the brick remains of the tavern where the doctor amputated his arm, the actual table where the amputation was done, the ambulance route where they drove him to await a train to Richmond, the stretcher he was carried on, the house now known as the Jackson Shrine where he stayed until his death three days later--not from the amputation but from pneumonia.

Was Jackson wounded at this spot as the marker indicated? . . .

Or at this place also marked as the spot?

The actual bed where Jackson died

And at Ellwood Manor we saw-- I kid you not--the grave where Jackson's amputated ARM is buried! Ellwood was a working farm that not only served as a field hospital during the battle at Chancellorsville; it was the site of the Union headquarters the next year during the nearby Battle of the Wilderness. Ellwood was interesting for several reasons other than being the resting place of Jackson's arm. It's a great example of a dedicated group of volunteers who work with the Park Department to keep the site maintained and open for visitors. It also has a beautiful Witness Tree (a tree that is proven to have been on the site during the Civil War activity there) and a Battle Log (a log with artillery lodged within the tree).

Me standing under the Witness Tree at Ellwood Manor

The Chancellorsville battle was crucial in another way beyond the death of Stonewall Jackson. Despite being vastly outnumbered there, Lee's army defeated General Hooker's Union forces. The Confederate win at Chancellorsville is considered by many to be Lee's greatest victory of the war. In fact, Lee was so successful at Chancellorsville, he decided to use the same tactics a few months later at Gettysburg, making Chancellorsville what could be considered Lee's warm up for that fateful battle.