Fredericksburg National Military Park

We stopped for a short visit to the Fredericksburg battlefield, formally Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The museum has a good sampling of artifacts from the battlefield that one might expect. There is a film with a dramatization of the battle that's pretty helpful. As far as the story, similar to Gettysburg, the main highlight of the story is a ridiculously miscalculated attack on a very defensible position, here along the Sunken Road. The Confederates had the high ground and held the Union troops coming across the river at bay.

The CCC rebuilt a good portion of the wall of the Sunken Road, but part of it is still original. You have to use your imagination to picture the federal troops coming up from the river, as modern buildings come right up to the park. What's not hard to imagine is how amazingly good that cover was for the Confederates. According to the park's website, "Of the 12,600 Federal soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, almost two-thirds fell in front of the stone wall." Lee lost just over 5,000.

One of the interesting features along the trail is the Innis House, a small, white house along the Sunken Road. The building got a bit shot up during the battle. Some of the bullet holes are still visible! There was also a white house cat lounging along the rock wall by the house.

Innis House

Atop the hill is the Fredericksburg cemetery. Many of the graves have more than one person in them.