BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Fredericksburg Natl Battlefield -- Chatham

VA -- Fredericksburg Natl Battlefield -- Chatham:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHAT_080301_002.JPG: During the Civil War, Chatham saw soldiers of both Northern and Southern armies come and go. The presence of Union troops this far south often attracted the attention of officials in Washington and this vicinity witnessed three reviews between 1862 and 1863. In these fields on May 23, 1862, President Lincoln inspected the command of General Irvin McDowell which had recently arrived here. The scene depicted in this woodcut was a gala review of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac which occurred nearby on April 6, 1863, under the overall command of General Joseph Hooker.
2. CHAT_080301_003.JPG: The fields of Chatham where Lincoln watched a military review on May 23, 1862
3. CHAT_080301_005.JPG: Chatham: This expansive estate and its impressive Georgian dwelling have dominated Stafford Heights overlooking Fredericksburg for over two centuries. William Fitzhugh, a wealthy landowner from Virginia's Northern Neck, completed construction of his new residence in 1771 and named it in honor of William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham. Fitzhugh and subsequent ante-bellum owners of Chatham managed a large plantation employing as many as one hundred slaves. After the war, Chatham's land was gradually sold until the property amounts to only thirty acres of landscaped grounds and formal gardens. Thus by the early 20th century, the estate had become a country home for the well-to-do. Industrialist and philanthropist John Lee Pratt willed Chatham to the National Park Service in 1975 in order that its historical significance and beautiful setting could be enjoyed by the public, now and in the future.
4. CHAT_080301_008.JPG: Chatham and the Civil War: The Civil War focused national attention on Chatham, which became known as the Lacy House after its wartime owner, J. Horace Lacy. Federal troops first occupied Fredericksburg in the spring of 18672 and their commander, Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, was the first of a series of Northern officers to establish his headquarters at the Lacy House. Union artillerymen bombarded the city and its Confederate defenders from gun emplacements near Chatham and Federal infantry crossed the Rappahannock on pontoon bridges below the house during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Hundreds of wounded soldiers received treatment from military surgeons and volunteer nurses inside the mansion while many of the dead were buried on the grounds. After the battle, the Lacy House served as a refuge for pickets and a rest station where weary Federal troops received provisions. With the end of the war, Lacy returned to his home to find it in as shattered a condition as his hopes for Southern independence.
5. CHAT_080301_117.JPG: Chatham... "... that elegant and highly improved seat on the banks of Rappahannock River..." -- William Fitzhugh, 1805
6. CHAT_080301_125.JPG: Post-Bellum 19th Century: The ravages of civil war levied a heavy toll on Chatham, and Lacy decided to sell the estate at a loss. Beginning in 1872, a series of Northerners attempted to remake Chatham into a paying agricultural enterprise, but by the turn of the century it had still not fully recovered from the war. "I had afterwards many walks about Fredericksburg, the most noteworthy of which was a morning visit to the Lacy House... Crossing the Rappahannock on the pontoon bridge, I climbed the stone steps leading from terrace to terrace, and reached the long-neglected grounds and the old fashioned Virginia mansion. It was entirely deserted. The doors were wide open, or broken from their hinges, the windows smashed, the floors covered with rubbish, and the walls with the names of soldiers and regiments, or pictures cut from illustrated newspapers." -- J.T. Towbridge, 1865, from "The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities"
7. CHAT_080301_128.JPG: Chatham in the 20th Century: In 1900, only thirty acres remained associated with the dwelling house and outbuildings, the rest of the property being sold separately to satisfy debts. Thus denied its historic function as a functioning farm, Chatham became a country home for the wealthy who transformed it into one of Virginia's most beautiful private domains.
8. CHAT_080301_130.JPG: Ante-Bellum 19th Century: The sixty years before the Civil War at Chatham were times of continuity and change, domestic tranquility and sudden violence, stability and disruption. The estate changed hands five times and diminished in size to only 708 acres, yet it remained in the same extended family and continued to function as a working plantation. Elaborate weddings and lavish parties contrasted with the realities of the slave quarters to reflect the broad spectrum of life in the Old South.
9. CHAT_080301_132.JPG: 18th Century at Chatham: Following the successful culmination of the American Revolution, Fitzhugh's estate matured as an agricultural center and focus of entertainment and gracious living. Chatham's master continued his active involvement in community affairs, connected his home with Fredericksburg by means of a ferry, and corresponded with acquaintances like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
10. CHAT_080301_148.JPG: J. Horace Lacy and the Lacy House: During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides referred to Chatham as the Lacy House, after its wartime owner, J. Horace Lacy. Serving as a staff officer with the rank of Major under Theophilus Homes, E. Kirby Smith, and other Southern generals, Lacy was one of Stafford County';s most prominent Confederates.
11. CHAT_080301_150.JPG: Lincoln and His Cabinet: As Commander-In-Chief, Abraham Lincoln maintained an active policy of personally inspecting field conditions throughout the war. In the spring of 1862, Lincoln and members of his cabinet met with Federal commanders at the Lacy House to discuss military strategy and review the troops.
12. CHAT_080301_153.JPG: Chatham as a Headquarters: Chatham's strategic location on the north bank of the Rappahannock River overlooking Fredericksburg induced Federal officials to establish their headquarters within the old home. Throughout 1862, Union generals in each of three invading forces directed their men from command posts within the Lacy House. "... we were marched over the temporary wire bridge built by the Federal army to Chatham, the H'd Quar's of Maj. General Burnside... Gen. Burnside was very courteous and considerate toward us all. He dismissed the guard, which had accompanied us and still stood with fixed bayonets, and paroled us to walk through the grounds at pleasure. We remained here until noon when we were assembled and the General, providing some very fine whiskey, invited the whole party to take a drink, an invitation which was unanimously accepted..."
13. CHAT_080301_154.JPG: Chatham as a Communications Center: [???] The Lacy House was an important communications hub for the Army of the Potomac during the Fredericksburg campaign. The Federal high command relied on horse-mounted couriers, flag waving signalmen, and aerial observers in hot air balloons to relay orders and receive information. The first tactical use of magnetic telegraphs on a battlefield in the United States took place at Chatham.
14. CHAT_080301_164.JPG: Chatham After the Battle of Fredericksburg: The Army of the Potomac remained across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg in the winter of 1862-3, patrolling the riverfront and passing the time in camp. Chatham served as a refuge for shivering pickets and a front line observation post, but with the advent of warmer weather came a new Union offensive, and again the Lacy House played an important strategic role in battle. The armies returned to the Fredericksburg area in 1864, but this time Chatham remained deserted, its forlorn appearance symbolic of shattered Confederate hopes and the cost of Civil War. "Could you have looked in upon us at breakfast time this day of sacred rest, your eye would have fallen on scenes all out of harmony with its holy uses. One cooking-stove pushed to its upmost capacity, groaning beneath the weight of gruel, coffee, and tea, around it clustered soldiers shivering, drenched to the skin, here and there a poor fellow coiled upon the floor, too full of pain and weariness to bear his own weight. Seated along the table, as close-by as possible, were others, whose expressions of thanks told how grateful the simple repast was -- bread, stewed fruit, and coffee. All alike and wet and cold, having been exposed throughout the night to the driving snow and rain..." -- Mrs. John Harris of the Ladies Aid Society of Philadelphia describing her work at Chatham one march Sunday in 1863. Brig. Gen. John Gibbon made his headquarters at Chatham during the Chancellorsville campaign and led his division in the successful assault against Marye's Heights on May 3.
15. CHAT_080301_165.JPG: Chatham as a Hospital and Cemetery: The overwhelming defeat of the Union army at Fredericksburg was measured by the thousands of Federal soldiers who fell victim to Confederate fire. Civilian volunteers assisted overworked army surgeons in treating the wounded at field hospitals like the one at the Lacy House. The doctors saved many lives, even with the crude medical practices of the day, but some who could not be helped were buried on the grounds of Chatham. Clara Barton left a graphic account of her nursing activities at Chatham. Walt Whitman aided the surgeons at the Lacy House while looking for his wounded brother, Lt. George Whitman of the 51st New York. Thomas Lynch, a 33-year-old member of the Irish Brigade from Boston, died at the Lacy House on December 19, 1862 of wounds received while attacking the stone wall at Fredericksburg. His grave was moved from Chatham to the National Cemetery after the war. This modern stone on the west lawn marks the grave of one of the more than 133 soldiers buried at Chatham.
16. CHAT_080301_174.JPG: Note the bugs. We'll come back to them outside.
17. CHAT_080301_176.JPG: The Union Winter Encampment: Headstone of the 107th New York: Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union army sprawled across Stafford County, turning this rural community into a virtual city. Thousands of crude wooden huts peppered the landscape, miles of new roads crisscrossed the county, and virtually every tree within miles of the camps came down for fuel or shelter. By mid-1863, Stafford County had been transformed. Though the health and morale of the Union army improved dramatically that winter, death still stalked the camps. Hundreds succumbed to illness and disease, and across the county makeshift cemeteries popped up. This headstone once marked the graves of members of the 107th New York Infantry, which camped near Stafford Court House. It is likely that most of the men once buried under this headstone are now interred in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. "The grave yard of the regiment was in a beautiful spot. It was on a knoll close to the river bank, and was shaded by two great trees.... The graves were all in exact rows, and in the centre of the ground was an extra stone, upon which Lieut. Dennison, with exquisite taste, had placed simply the words '107, NYV, in Place Rest." -- from a regimental reunion speech, 1872.
18. CHAT_080301_177.JPG: Headstone of the 107th New York
19. CHAT_080301_246.JPG: The catalpa trees here were around during the Civil War
20. CHAT_080301_258.JPG: I always loved this handrail
21. CHAT_080301_267.JPG: Union soldiers and officers gazing upon Fredericksburg from this spot in 1862 saw many of the same landmarks visible today. The skyline of this peaceful river town, population 4,500 in 1860, is still dominated by the three steeples of City Hall and the Episcopal and Baptist Churches. The Rappahannock River which served as a source of power, a transportation artery, and a military obstacle in the 19th century, flows from right to left along its journey from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Chesapeake Bay. To the west of Fredericksburg lies the high ground known as Marye's Heights upon which Robert E. Lee posted his gray-clad forces, eager to meet the Union army on the battlefield Burnside had chosen. Following reckless and unsuccessful assaults at the base of those heights on December 13, many hundreds of soldiers from both sides would never gaze upon this or any other earthly vista again.
22. CHAT_080301_268.JPG: Fredericksburg Campaign: Ambrose E. Burnside's Union army had found existing bridges destroyed, and now R.E. Lee's Confederates awaited attack on high ground beyond Fredericksburg. On December 11, 1862, the Union engineers shivered in the early morning as they broke a skin of ice and began laying pontoons across the Rappahannock here. A hail of death from advanced Confederate riflemen drove and kept the workmen ashore. In awesome retaliation, massed cannon on the heights behind the harassed engineers thundered destruction on Fredericksburg. The riflemen stood fast until forced back to the main Confederate line by infantry ferried across about 3pm. The engineers then completed two bridges here, while others were finished downstream. Over these bridges, Burnside's men marched to disaster, and here at the upper site a dauntless nurse named Clara Barton strode over to attend the wounded in the burning city. By another cold morning, December 16, the Unionists had returned to this side. For months, the icy river would flow between winter-bound armies.
23. CHAT_080301_275.JPG: A rebuilt pontoon bridge portion. The Rappahannock River is in the background.
24. CHAT_080301_286.JPG: Pontoon Bridges: At Fredericksburg, the Union army crossed the Rappahannock River by means of temporary, floating bridges built upon pontoons. In front of you is a reconstructed section of such a bridge, built to eight percent of its original size. More than 30,000 Union soldiers crossed the two bridges that spanned the river below you. Under ideal conditions, skilled engineers could construct a bridge in a couple of hours. First, they would row or pole pontoon boats into the river. Then they would connect the boats by means of large side rials known as bulks. Wooden boards, called chesses, placed across the bulks as flooring completed the bridges. Engineers staked the bridge to the shore and dropped anchors in the river to steady it against the force of the current. Union engineers constructed pontoon bridges at three points on the Rappahannock River. This photograph, taken in May 1863, shows pontoon bridges at Franklin's Crossing, two miles below town.
25. CHAT_080301_287.JPG: A Bloody Crossing: Church bells in Fredericksburg tolled at 3am on December 11, 1862, as Union engineers wrestled pontoon boats toward the river's edge in front of you. They intended to use the boats to construct two of the six floating bridges that the Army of the Potomac would need to cross the Rappahannock. For two hours, the engineers toiled in darkness, trying to complete the span before Confederate sharpshooters on the opposite bank spotted them. At 5am, Confederate musket fire burst from cellars and windows across the river. Those engineers not shot down scrambled for cover on the shore. Union cannon atop these heights responded with an eight-hour-long bombardment that ravaged the city but failed to silence the Confederates. Only by ferrying troops across the river under fire was the Union army able to drive the Confederates from the town and complete the bridges. "Such a feeling of anxiety and suspense I have never experienced. I could scarcely breathe." -- Surgeon Clark Baum, 50th NY Engineers, watching the bridge builders about to come under fire. Laying the two bridges cost the Union army twelve hours and dozens of lives.
26. CHAT_080301_298.JPG: Between Battles: As the spring of 1863 brought green to the countryside and fish up the river, the legions of civil strife faced each other cheerfully across the Rappahannock. After the slaughter of Fredericksburg, the embattled brothers held off death for the time. No cannon roared. No picket fired. Instead, fishing parties on either bank shouted caustic jokes, and rival bands sent plaintive melodies back and forth. During favorable winds, the doughboys traded souvenirs by means of toy sailboats improvised from scrap lumber and torn bits of old shirts. The tides of the Rappahannock ran free of blood; each soft day seemed to dawn beyond the reality of war. Then Joe Hooker, the new Union commander, took his army upstream and across to defeat at Chancellorsville, after which, again on their sides of the dividing river, the foemen tensely awaited a further move. Lee made that one, and the result was Gettysburg.
27. CHAT_080301_389.JPG: A "Picture of Desolation": "'Tis a perfect picture of desolation, and a sad illustration of the ravages of war." -- Newspaper correspondent, 1863. Union soldiers loll around Chatham in this February 1863 photograph. The scene here was not always so peaceful. Two months earlier, during the Battle of Fredericksburg, soldiers and wagons crowded the grounds; generals issued orders from the porch; surgeons converted the building's interior into a field hospital. More than one hundred and thirty soldiers who died from their wounds received a hasty burial on the grounds. The Union occupation devastated Chatham and surrounding Stafford County. It would take decades to recover. "Every wall and floor is saturated with blood, and the whole house... seems to have been suddenly transformed into a butcher's shamble. The clock has stopped; the child's rocking horse is rotting away in a disused balcony; the costly exotics in the garden are destroyed.... All that was elegant is wretched; all that was noble is shabby; all that once told of civilized elegance now speaks of ruthless barbarism." -- The Continental Monthly, 1863
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Wikipedia Description: Chatham Manor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chatham Manor is the Georgian-style home built in 1768-71 by William Fitzhugh on the Rappahannock River in Stafford County, Virginia opposite Fredericksburg and was for many years the center of a large, thriving plantation. Flanking the main house were dozens of supporting structures: a dairy, ice house, barns, stables. Down on the river was a fish hatchery, while elsewhere on the 1,280 acre estate were an orchard, mill, and a race track, where Fitzhugh's horses vied with those of other planters for prize money. The house was named after British parliamentarian,William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, who championed many of the opinions held by American colonists prior to the Revolutionary War.

Slavery at Chatham:

Fitzhugh owned upwards of one hundred slaves. Most worked as field hands or house servants, but he also employed skilled tradesmen such as millers, carpenters, and blacksmiths.

January 1805, a number of Fitzhugh's slaves rebelled after an overseer ordered slaves back to work at what they considered was too short an interval after the Christmas holidays. The slaves involved overpowered and whipped their overseer and four others who had tried to make them return to work. An armed posse put down the rebellion and punished those involved. One black man was executed, two died while trying to escape, and two others were deported, perhaps to a slave colony in the Caribbean.

A later owner of Chatham, Hannah Coulter, who acquired the plantation in the 1850s, tried to free her slaves through her will upon her death, a rare event for ante-bellum Virginia. She stated that, upon her death, her slaves would have the choice of being freed (and have their passage to Liberia paid for) or remaining as a slave for the new owner of Chatham. That new owner, J. Horace Lacy, took the will to court and had it overturned. The laws of the day, affirmed through the 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, had declared that slaves were property -- without choice -- and not persons with choice. Thus, Chatham's slaves remained so. Naturally, the slave story at Chatham ended in 1865 with end of the Civil War and the passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing the institution.

Antebellum:

Chatham's builder, Fitzhugh was a friend and colleague of George Washington whose family's farm was just down the Rappahannock River from Chatham. Washington's diaries affirm that he was a frequent guest at Chatham. They had served together in the House of Burgesses prior to the American Revolution, and they shared a love of farming and horses. Fitzhugh's daughter, Mary Lee, would later marry the first president's step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, whose daughter in turn wed the future Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Evidence supports that Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were there, as well, beginning a veritable "Who's Who" of important Americans who stopped in to sample Fitzhugh's hospitality. His feasts were legendary and even included caviar from the sturgeon (in the Rappahannock at the time and until the 1930s) he trapped in what essentially was a "caviar factory" on his river frontage.

Major Churchill Jones, a former officer in the Continental Army, purchased the plantation in 1806 for 20,000 dollars. His family would own the property for the next 66 years.

William Henry Harrison stopped by Chatham in 1841 on his way to be inaugurated as President.

The Civil War:

The Civil War brought change and destruction to Chatham. At the time the house was owned by James Horace Lacy {1823-1906}, a former schoolteacher who had married Churchill Jones's niece. As a plantation owner and slaveholder, Lacy sympathized with the South, and at the age of 37 he left Chatham to serve the Confederacy as a staff officer. His wife and children remained at the house until the spring of 1862, when the arrival of Union troops forced them to abandon the building and move across the river. For much of the next thirteen months, Chatham would be occupied by the Union army who would refer to the mansion as the "Lacy House" in their orders and reports as well as diaries and letters.

Northern officers initially utilized the building as a headquarters. In April 1862, General Irvin McDowell brought 30,000 men to Fredericksburg. From his Chatham headquarters, the general supervised the repair of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad and the construction of several bridges across the Rappahannock River. Once that work was complete, McDowell planned to march south and join forces with the Army of the Potomac outside of Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln journeyed to Fredericksburg to confer with McDowell about the movement, meeting with the general and his staff at Chatham. His visit gives Chatham the distinction of being just one of three houses visited by both Lincoln and Washington (the other two are Mount Vernon and Berkeley Plantation).

Seven months after Lincoln's visit, fighting erupted at Fredericksburg itself. In November 1862, General Ambrose E. Burnside brought the 120,000-man Army of the Potomac to Fredericksburg, using pontoon bridges, Burnside crossed the Rappahannock River below Chatham, seized Fredericksburg, and launched a series of bloody assaults against Lee's Confederates, who held the high ground behind the town. One of Burnside's top generals, Edwin Sumner, observed the battle from Chatham, while Union artillery batteries shelled the Confederates from adjacent bluffs.

Fredericksburg was a disastrous Union defeat. Burnside suffered 12,600 casualties in the battle, many of whom were brought back to Chatham for care. For several days army surgeons operated tirelessly on hundreds of soldiers inside the house. Assisting them were volunteers, including poet Walt Whitman and Clara Barton who later founded the American chapter of the International Red Cross.

Whitman came to Chatham searching for a brother who was wounded in the fighting. He was shocked by the carnage. Outside the house, at the foot of a tree, he noticed "a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, etc.-about a load for a one-horse cart. Several dead bodies lie near," he added, "each covered with its brown woolen blanket." In all, more than 130 Union soldiers died at Chatham and were buried on the grounds. After the war, their bodies were removed to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Three additional bodies were discovered years later. They remain at Chatham, their graves marked by granite stones lying flush to the ground.

In the winter following the battle, the Union army camped in Stafford County, behind Chatham. The Confederate army occupied Spotsylvania County, across the river. Opposing pickets patrolled the riverfront, keeping a wary eye on their foe and occasionally trading newspapers and other articles with them by means of miniature sailboats. When not on duty, Union pickets slept at Chatham, Dorothea Dix of the U.S. Sanitary Commission operated a soup kitchen in the house. As the winter progressed and firewood became scarce, some soldiers tore paneling from the walls.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker has also been associated with serving the wounded at Chatham. Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor, the only woman from the Civil War to be so recognized for her meritorious service to the wounded during several battles. When the law for the Medal of Honor changed to restrict the medal to combat veterans, she refused to return the medal and died with it still in her possession. Her family continued to petition for its restoration and, in 1977, then President Jimmy Carter, signed the Congressional bill into law that restored Dr. Walker's medal.

Military activity resumed in the spring. In April, the new Union commander, General Joseph Hooker, led most of the army upriver, crossing behind Lee's troops. Other portions remained in Stafford County including John Gibbons' division at Chatham. The Confederates marched out to meet Hooker's main force and for a week fighting raged around a country cross-road known as Chancellorsville. At the same time, Union troops crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and drove a Confederate force off of Marye's Heights, behind the town. Many of 1,000 casualties suffered by the Union army in that engagement were sent back to Chatham.

Postwar years:

By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, Chatham was desolate. Blood stains spotted the floors; graffiti marred its bare plaster walls. Outside the destruction was just as severe. The surrounding forests had been cut down for fuel; and the lawn had become a graveyard. Although the Lacy's returned to their home, they were unable to maintain it properly. They moved to another house they owned called "Ellwood" and sold Chatham in 1872. The property languished under a succession of owners until the 1920's when Daniel and Helen Devore undertook its restoration (and made significant changes). Their efforts can probably be credited with literally saving the house. In addition to the restoration, the DeVore's re-oriented the house away from the river / West front and made the East entrance the main entrance. They also added a large, walled English-style garden on the East and as a result of their efforts, Chatham has regained its place among Virginia's finest homes.

Today the house and 85 surrounding acres are open to the public thanks to the generosity of Chatham's last owner, industrialist John Lee Pratt. Mr. Pratt purchased Chatham from the Devores in 1931 for $150,000 cash. Chatham's distinction as a destination of note for important people continued during his ownership. Visitors whom Pratt met during his tenure as one of President Roosevelt's "Dollar-a-Year" men included Gen. George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower. Upon Pratt's death in 1975, he willed additional land for parks to Stafford County and Fredericksburg as well as a large section to the region's YMCA. He gave the manor house and approximately 30 surrounding acres to the National Park Service which uses it as the Headquarters facility for the Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park. Five of the rooms are open as a museum facility and the grounds are open to the public; the remainder of the house and outbuildings are offices and support facilities.
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