Civil War Battlefields

As we continued to move north, many of our stops included Civil War battlefields and National Park Military sites. Our first was Fredericksburg, Virginia. There are several battlefield sites in the Fredericksburg area: Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and Battle of Fredericksburg. The map below shows the locations of these battlefields.

We visited the Chancellorsville and the Fredericksburg battle fields. The Chancellorsville site is mostly a driving tour. The National Parks Service (NPS) has a great app that has narrated stories of what happened at each of the stops. One word of caution, make sure that you download the information prior to heading out on the tour. There is no cell service at some of the stops! The Battle of Chancellorsville was significant, because of a 5 way intersection of roads. Controlling this area enabled troops to be sent in multiple directions from one central spot.

The Battle of Fredericksburg with nearly 200,000 combatants—the greatest number of any Civil War engagement—was one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War. It featured the first opposed river crossing in American military history as well as the Civil War’s first instance of urban combat.’ https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fredericksburg 

It was interesting to see that some of the buildings that were there during the Civil War are still standing and still in use.

The Stratton House is the red brick building on the left side of this picture. This building and a swale just in front of the house was used by the Union soldiers for cover as the Confederate soldiers pinned them down for three days from the hill above.

This beautiful house (Brompton) high on the hill overlooking Fredericksburg, was the home of a prominent lawyer during the civil war. In front of the house the Confederate soldiers took position to defend against the Union soldiers that were just down the hill at the Stratton House. Currently, it is the home of the President of the University of Mary Washington.

Our next stop was the Gettysburg National Military Park. This is another great driving tour that is narrated at every stop by the NPS. There are also narrated walking tours and a very large visitors center. https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

If you are interested in learning more, download the NPS app. You can listen to the auto (driving) tour or the walking tour audio from the comfort of your home!!

Cole absolutely loves walking trails. There are so many new smells! Trail walking really can be exhausting, so more naps are required.

We all enjoyed the walk through our nation’s history, but we have so much more to see, so off we go.