CVBT Preserves Land on Three Battlefields

By Terry Rensel · Originally published December 2021 · p. 34

The Central Virginia Battlefield Trust announced preservation projects on three Civil War battlefields around Fredericksburg, Va.: Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. The three parcels will total 49.15 acres of newly saved land once CVBT completes the projects. The first parcel, at Chancellorsville battlefield, is associated with Lieutenant General “Stonewall” Jackson’s Flank Attack. For years, CVBT has been working to save land over which the Flank Attack coursed. In a triangular corner of historic Orange Plank Road and the historic Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3), a 1.2acre parcel stands as the lone remaining piece of a significant preservation puzzle, and we now have the chance to save it!

“This is an extraordinary opportunity, as it is not every day that we get to finish part of a preservation puzzle,” said CVBT President Tom Van Winkle. “This small tract fills in a ‘donut hole’ within a seventysix-acre area that CVBT, the American Battlefield Trust, and the National Park Service have previously preserved over the last two decades.” During the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. In the midst of Jackson’s flank attack during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate Major Robert F. Beckham advanced two guns from the Stuart Horse Artillery. One of Beckham’s artillery positions occupied the tract of land now ready for preservation. Once deployed, Beckham’s men dueled with Federal artillerists who made up a defensive position that later became known as the Bushbeck Line, named for Colonel Adolphus Bushbeck, who led the defense. Beckham’s artillery played a key role in helping Confederates collapse the Bushbeck Line. “Young man, I congratulate you,” a pleased Jackson told Beckham. The price tag on the property is $310,000, but CVBT anticipates a 4-to-1 dollar match through preservation grants, leaving $60,000 for us to raise to save this piece of hallowed ground and secure the final acreage in this historic triangle of Flank Attack land.

You can find out more about Major Beckham, the land we’re now calling “the Beckham tract,” and how you can help us preserve it at, https://www.cvbt.org/ beckham-tract. CVBT has also received a donation of land on the Wilderness battlefield. On the morning of May 6, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant launched a major assault against Confederates along Orange Plank Road. Spearheaded by the Union II Corps under Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, Federals pushed west along the Orange Plank Road, completely routing General A.P. Hill’s Corps, which had not fortified their position overnight after a grueling battle on May 5. Even as things looked dire for the routed Confederates, Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s Confederate First Corps arrived and immediately counterattacked, pushing from west to east and driving the Federals back to the Brock Road. Fawn Lake Holdings, LLC, graciously gifted 30.2 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield to CVBT, increasing the preserved land along historic Orange Plank Road east of the Widow Tapp Field. This new property saw major fighting in both phases of the May 6 see-saw fighting. “The great, dark woods are filled with dead and wounded from both sides,” wrote John Haley of the 17th Maine. Another soldier likened the area to a “vast, weird, horrible slaughter pen.” The third preservation project is on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield. In 2018, CVBT preserved 73.3 acres of an area known as Myer’s Hill. Now, Rappahannock Plantation, LLC, has made a generous donation of an additional 17.75 acres of the Myer’s Hill battlefield. The newly donated property sits along and within the Woodbury Manor subdivision. On Saturday, May 14, 1864, after the failed attack against Spotsylvania’s Mule Shoe salient, Ulysses S. Grant tried to shift his V and VI Corps left for another major attack, this one targeted against the unsuspecting Confederate right flank. Because of rain and muddy roads, he couldn’t move his army fast enough, so he settled instead for a smaller assault to take Myers Hill, a piece of high ground that could have provided Confederates with an artillery position. Federals took the hill and then occupied it with a brigade under newly minted Brigadier General Emory Upton, whose regiments dug in. One of Upton’s regiments, the 96th Pennsylvania, occupied the Union right flank. Remains of their earthworks are still visible on this newly acquired tract at Woodbury Manor. Confederates launched a counterattack against the position, led by Brigadier General Nathaniel Harris’ Brigade from Major General William Mahone’s Division of the Army of Northern Virginia’s Third Corps. The assault drove the Federals off the hill and nearly led to capturing of Army of the Potomac commander General George Gordon Meade, who responded with a massive counterattack of his own, retaking the hill by evening. Lee abandoned the position and pulled his army back along Court House Road. Aside from the property’s historical value, it has incredible value to CVBT because our previous holdings at Myers Hill were effectively landlocked. This new donation gives us an easy public access point to the property, allowing CVBT to develop future interpretation for the battlefield. “This generous gift brings the total preserved land at Myer’s Hill to a little more than ninetyone acres,” said Van Winkle. “We’ve had a lot of fantastic preservation successes associated with the Overland Campaign in the last three years, and these parcels gifted to us from Fawn Lake and Woodbury Manor will help us extend the campaign’s story in exciting ways.” Together, the three new acquisitions bring the total amount of land that CVBT has preserved to more than 1,550 acres over its 25-year history. “These three projects are a wonderful way for us to celebrate our quarter-century anniversary,” Van Winkle added. “We’re proud to preserve our history.”

Terry Rensel is the Executive Director of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. The mission of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust is to preserve land associated with the four major campaigns: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. To learn more about this grassroots preservation non-profit, please visit: www.cvbt.org.