Historical Sketch.
The visitor to Fredericksburg to-day finds, instead of the easy going town
of ante-bellum days, an entirely new place risen from the ruins of war and
time, new buildings, up-to-date streets and other improvements making a
modern city of the present generation. The object of this little book is
to furnish to the traveler, facts in the history of Fredericksburg, its
many places of interest as well as an up-to-date guide to the city, and to
extend to all a "welcome to Fredericksburg."
The exact time the site of what is now Fredericksburg was visited by white
men is not known, but the general impression is that the first trip was in
1608 (one year after the landing at Jamestown). Capt. John Smith, the true
founder and father of Virginia, with a crew of twelve men and an indian of
a Potomac tribe for a guide, came to the falls of the Rappahannock just
above where Fredericksburg was afterward located, and had a severe fight
with the Rappahannocks, whom he described as the most courageous and
formidable savages he had yet encountered.
The early history of Fredericksburg is full of events[1] along the general
history of the country, it being a centre of trade, the river being wider
and deeper than the present day, and that ocean going barges and
schooners, laden with cargoes from the West Indies, Liverpool and other
ports came to Fredericksburg, and took on for their return voyage
consignments of tobacco and wheat to English and Scotch merchants. A fort
was maintained near the falls of the Rappahannock, and with 250 men the
town was legally founded in 1727 and was named for Frederick, son of
George the Second.
[1] See Quinn's History of Fredericksburg.
Before the introduction of railroads, trade was carried on by what was
known as "Road Wagons." These wagons were of huge dimensions, their curved
bodies being, before and behind, at least twelve feet from the ground.
They had canvas covers and were drawn by four and often six horses. During
the period from 1800 to the civil war, as many as three hundred was often
seen on the streets and in the wagon yards of Fredericksburg at one time.
The country, to the Blue Ridge mountains, even to counties in the Valley
of Virginia, was thus supplied from Fredericksburg.
The part which Fredericksburg played in the civil war is so well known,
that we will be content with a brief reference. As soon as the Confederate
capitol was removed to Richmond, it became at once, and continued during
the entire war, the objective point of the Federal invasion of the South.
It was apparent, therefore, from an inspection of the map, that
Fredericksburg would necessarily witness a bloody act in that direful
drama; for she was situated half-way on the direct route between
Washington and Richmond.
If ever anywhere grim-visaged war showed his horrid front, it was at this
foredoomed, devoted town. She was the immediate theatre of one of the
bloodiest battles of the war, on December 13, 1862. In the cannonade that
ushered in that battle, a hundred and eighty guns, some of them seige
pieces, carrying seventy pound projectiles, for ten mortal hours poured a
pitiless storm of shot and shell upon the helpless town. No such
cannonade, save that which preceded Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, was
ever heard upon this continent; nay, ever heard upon this earth. Four and
a half months after that bloody baptism, the town witnessed the desperate,
but unsuccessful, endeavor of Gen Sedgwick to march his corps of thirty
thousand men to the relief of Hooker, at Chancellorsville; and she was the
hospital for fifteen thousand wounded men from Grant's army in the
Wilderness campaign of May, 1864.
If lines be drawn from Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville; from
Chancellorsville to the Wilderness battlefields; from the Wilderness
battlefield to the Bloody Angle, near Spotsylvania Court-House; and from
there to the starting point at Fredericksburg, these lines will include a
space that is smaller in area than the District of Columbia. On this area
more blood was shed, and more men killed, than upon any area of equal
dimensions, in the world.
Early in December, 1862, Burnside, urged by the clamor of the Northern
press and populace, resolved to cross the Rappahannock, and despite the
near approach of winter to assume the offensive. At this time the attempt
of Federal gun boats to pass up the river to Fredericksburg had been
frustrated by Stuart and some field batteries.
On December 13, 1862, Burnside started to cross the Rappahannock. Never
did a general or army await the attack of a more numerous enemy with
greater confidence than did Lee and the Confederates at Fredericksburg.
[Illustration: BROMPTON (THE OLD MARYE MANSION) Now the Residence of Capt.
M. B. Rowe.]
When the two pre-arranged signal guns announced that the shelling of the
town was about to begin, long streams of carriages and wagons, bearing
fugitive women and children, and long processions on foot of those who
could not procure vehicles, all seeking temporary shelter in the woods and
wilderness, passed the camp fires of the Confederate soldiers in the rear
of the town.
[Illustration: FREDERICKSBURG IN 1862 Just Before the Bombardment, and
After the Car Bridge was Burnt by the Confederate Army]
[Illustration: SUNKEN ROAD--SHOWING COBB MONUMENT]
Shortly after nine o'clock the sun shining out with almost Indian Summer
warmth quickly dispelled the mists which hid the opposing armies, and as
the white folds dissolved, Jackson's men beheld the plains beneath them
dark with a moving mass of more than 40,000 foes, and from the array of
batteries upon the Stafford Heights a storm of shot and shell burst upon
the Confederate lines. The Federal army advanced within 800 yards of the
foot of the opposing ridge when suddenly the silent woods awoke to life
and the flash and thunder of more than sixty guns revealed to the Federals
the magnitude of the task they had undertaken. Column after column
advanced only to be repulsed with terrible loss, until about 12 o'clock
the Irish Brigade, under General Meagher, advanced at the spot on the
Sunken Road which is now marked by the monument to General Cobb, he having
fallen earlier in the day, and boldly charging across the shot-swept
plains, opposed to it were men as fearless and as staunch; behind that
rude stone breastworks, those who were "bone of their bone and flesh of
their flesh," as some of the soldiers of Cobb's Brigade were Irish like
themselves. On the morning of battle General Meagher had bade his men deck
their caps with sprigs of evergreen "to remind them," he said "of the land
of their birth." The symbol was recognized by their countrymen, and "Oh,
God, what a pity! Here comes Meagher's fellows," was the cry in the
Confederate ranks. The rapidly thinning line now was within a hundred
yards of their goal, suddenly a sheet of flame leaped from the parapet, to
their glory be it told, though scores be swept away, falling in their
tracks, like corn before the sicle, the ever thinning ranks dashed on. Of
the 1,200 officers and men in this gallant charge, 937 had fallen; one
body, that of an officer, was found within fifteen feet of the parapet.
[Illustration: CHANCELLORSVILLE HOUSE AS IT APPEARED DURING THE WAR]
It is due to the truth of history to say that not in all the annals of
war, neither in the "charge of the six hundred" at Balaklava, nor in
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg was there ever displayed a more signal
instance of dauntless courage than was exhibited by the men who made these
hopeless attempts to carry Marye's Heights.
Under the cover of darkness and storm the Federals withdrew across the
river two days later and resumed their position on the Stafford heights.
[Illustration: SALEM CHURCH]
[Illustration: "STONEWALL" JACKSON MONUMENT]
Fredericksburg played an important part in the battle of Chancellorsville,
on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of May, 1863. When General Hooker marched
ninety thousand men across the Rapidan at Germania and Ely's Ford and
entrenched them behind breast-works in the impenetrable jungle of stunted
growth that screened and protected the plateau in front of the
Chancellorsville House, he left thirty thousand men, under General
Sedgwick, on the Stafford heights, opposite Fredericksburg. General Lee
left Early with 8,500 muskets (a part of Jackson's corps) to hold back
Sedgwick, while he marched with the main body of Jackson's corps and two
divisions of Longstreet's corps to confront Hooker at Chancellorsville.
These two divisions of Longstreet's corps were those of Anderson and
McLaws. Longstreet, himself, with the other two divisions of his corps,
was down on the Blackwater, below Richmond, and did not participate in the
battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson was mortally wounded at nightfall on
Saturday, the 2nd of May, after routing and driving back in wild panic,
the right wing of Hooker's army. The next morning (Sunday) a union was
effected between Jackson's divisions and the two divisions of Longstreet's
corps, and a combined, impetuous assault carried the Federal position in
front of Chancellorsville, and the beaten enemy retreated to their second
line of breastworks. Just as General Lee was preparing (on Sunday, at
noon) to renew the assault, word reached him that Sedgwick had crossed the
river and carried the Marye Heights, and was marching on Chancellorsville
to join Hooker. The Confederate commander, in the exercise of what a great
critic of the art of war, has characterized as the highest display of
military genius, paused in his pursuit of Hooker, and, leaving Stuart in
command of Jackson's corps, in front of the disheartened Federal troops at
Chancellorsville, led the two divisions of Longstreet down the
Fredericksburg road, to unite with Early in frustrating the purpose of
Sedgwick to join his forces with those of Hooker. This was accomplished on
Monday, the 4th of May, when Sedgwick was driven across the Rappahannock,
at Bank's Ford. There was a severe engagement that raged around the "Salem
Church," four miles out from Fredericksburg, upon the old turnpike road.
Captain Featherstone, who brought a splendid Alabama company to Virginia,
at the outbreak of the war, occupied the church with his company, and did
excellent work in holding back Sedgwick until Lee arrived.
[Illustration: SEDGWICK MONUMENT]
Gen. R. E. Lee, in speaking of the privations and sacrifices incurred by
the citizens of Fredericksburg, said: "History presents no instance of a
people exhibiting a purer and more unselfish patriotism, or a higher
spirit of fortitude and courage than was evinced by the people of
Fredericksburg. They cheerfully incurred great hardships and privations,
and surrendered their homes and property to destruction, rather than yield
them in the hands of the enemies of their country."
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO GEN. HUGH MERCER]
Since the close of the Civil War, and the equally distressing war of the
reconstruction, Fredericksburg has entered upon a career of commercial and
industrial prosperity, far exceeding any ever experienced in her
ante-bellum days. Her population has largely increased. Situated half way
between Richmond and Washington. Five trunk lines with twenty-six trains
daily, run through the city, thus giving prompt and easy access to all the
large eastern and northern cities, while the water transportation puts
this section in cheap reach of the markets of the eastern seaboard. A
splendid water-power with the present capacity of 4,000 hydro-electric
horsepower with an ultimate development of 35,000 horse power, furnishes
cheap power to manufacturing plants located in the city. Mr. Frank J.
Gould, the owner of this immense power, has completed a survey for an
electric line from Richmond, Va., to Washington, D. C. This line will give
Fredericksburg direct communication by electric railway, with Washington,
D. C., Richmond, Va., and Petersburg, Va. Fifteen miles of this line north
of Richmond is now in operation.
[Illustration: NEW POSTOFFICE]
The United States government has erected a handsome Government postoffice.
The State of Virginia has established at Fredericksburg a State Normal and
Industrial School for Women, this consists of two handsome buildings
situated on part of the historic Marye's Heights.
A good High School with new modern school building, the Fredericksburg
College and two libraries furnish educational opportunities for the youths
of both sexes.
[Illustration: R. F. & P. R. R. PASSENGER DEPOT]
Four banks, a silk mill, pants factory, flour mills, foundry and machine
works, sumac mills, pickle factory, buggy, wagon and wood-working plants,
cigar factories, extract works, plow manufactories, brick yards, ice
factories, bark mills, bone mills, granite works, mattress factory,
excelsior mills, two daily and two tri-weekly newspapers, telegraph, mail,
express and freight facilities unexcelled, all help to make Fredericksburg
an industrial center of the present generation.
Good roads to Fredericksburg through the various adjoining counties open
up a larger territory for trade than ever before, and with the completion
of the National Highway from Quebec to Miami, Florida, which passes
through Fredericksburg, its many points of interest will be opened up to
the tourist.
The city is amply supplied with water, pumped from the river into a
reservoir higher than any of the houses, while the water from the old
"Poplar Spring" is also used. The city owns and operates Electric and Gas
Plants, and there is also an Incandescent Light Plant, owned by a private
corporation, for lighting houses.
The town offers inducements to enterprising capitalists, and to those who
are seeking homes in the genial climate of the South.