Virginia’s Southern History

We are visiting in Virginia, one of the southern states where the economy developed from colonial times into agriculture using slave labour. Produce might be tobacco, cotton or general farming, or a mixture.

Several historic buildings remain in Virginia as testimony to the institution of slavery. Chatham Manor is one such, close at hand in Fredericksburg. We paid a visit. Built in 1771 for a William Fitzhugh, who was both a farmer and statesman, the estate employed some 100 slaves at peak.

Here it is today, and directly underneath as it originally was. You can see the marks on the modern building where the proticos used to be.

Little is known of the day to day running of the estate but in 1805 the slaves rose up against their overseer and whipped him. Several slaves were killed and some sold off as a result. The slave cabins did not survive, but the brick-built laundry still stands where the slaves employed within also slept on the premises.

By the time of the Civil War in 1861 the estate had changed hands several times and was now owned by the Lacy family. The Manor had a problem: it was beautifully located, overlooking the wide Rappahannock river, and that river became the front line.

In April 1862 the house was requisitioned by the northern army and the Lacys were expelled. In November 1862 the northern commander General Burnside set up headquarters in Chatham. He planned a major assault on Fredericksburg with 120,000 troops. But first he had to bridge the river, which he intended to do using pontoons, a section of which has been preserved in Chatham gardens.

On December 11^th 1862, dozens of guns, ranged along the Chatham heights, pounded Fredericksburg on the other side of the river. This remaining gun in Chatham garden points directly to the town, an easy target. The river is invisible down the slope in front.

Directly after the bombardment the army engineers set about creating three crossing points by lashing together the pontoons. The opposing fire was murderous and only one pontoon bridge was effective. However, the town of Fredericksburg was eventually taken at great cost and Burnside’s soldiers pressed on to challenge the southern forces’ defensive line just beyond the town.  

Now Burnside had a problem. Robert E. Lee, commanding the south,was perhaps the best general on either side, and he had prepared a perfect defence. His men waited in a sunken road behind this actual stone wall..

Behind, up the slope, were Lee’s cannon. Burnside’s forces charged seven times and each time were repulsed. Such were their losses that they retreated back across the river, which then became the dividing line for the next three years.The white cottage in the photo above was there in the thick of battle and bullet holes remain in the walls visible through the windows (door locked).

This was Civil War’s biggest battle, involving nearly 200,000 men. It was savagely fought, creating some 20,000 casualties. However, there were some incredible acts of compassion like the southern trooper Richard Kirkland who repeatedly ran into no-man’s land to give water to the wounded of both sides. Firing stopped when they realised his mission and a bronze statue was struck after the war to commemorate his bravery.

Many of the northern wounded were brought back to Chatham Manor, which was used as a hospital. It became so cold during that winter that the military staff ripped off the wooden wall cladding to burn for heat. The refurbished interior shows how much wood would have been available!

Slaves obtained their freedom in areas occupied by the north. Chatham’s slaves all made off using any transport they could find, as this example shows.

And what of General Burnside, having lost such an important battle? He was replaced soon after, but his name lives on in the word for side whiskers: Burnside became sideburns. You can see why from his photo.