National Park Service

"The Sacking of Fredericksburg"

Wed, 12/14/2011 - 11:31
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War So Terrible: A Popular History of the Battle of Fredericksburg, by Donald C.

Excerpt from War So Terrible: A Popular History of the Battle of Fredericksburg, by Donald C. Pfanz, (pp. 44-46)

Donald C. Pfanz is staff historian with Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He is also the author of Abraham Lincoln at City Point and Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier’s Life.  This chapter is reprinted on CRRL's history site with his permission.

“The Sacking of Fredericksburg”

By the time the fighting ended on Dec. 11, Fredericksburg was desolate.  Fighting in the streets combined with a bombardment by more than 180 cannons had left the venerable old town shattered and ruins.  Those citizens who had not fled Fredericksburg had seen their homes riddled with bullets, shot and shell.

New Trail to Freedom Project Marks Local Black History Sites

Tue, 06/22/2010 - 14:45 | Virginia Johnson
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Between April and September 1862, an estimated 10,000 slaves fled the South through our region. As part of the local Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations, the Trail to Freedom project was designed to give the public a better understanding of the experiences of those whom the war impacted greatly but are often only a footnote in history books.

When the Whipporwill Calls

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By Candice Ransom

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A Blue Ridge Mountain family is displaced to the flatlands by the creation of the Shenandoah National Park.

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Grandpa's Mountain

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By Carolyn Reeder

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During the Depression, eleven-year-old Carrie makes her annual summer visit to her relatives in the Blue Ridge Mountains and watches her determined grandfather fight against the government's attempt to take his farm land for a new national park.

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Battling for Manassas: The Fifty-Year Preservation Struggle at Manassas National Battlefield Park

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By Joan M. Zenzen

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This is the story of how one American Civil War site has garnered national attention and taught Americans lessons about the future of historic preservation. It covers the earliest moves to create the Manassas Battlefield Park up to the struggle to prevent the Disney site nearby.
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Popes Creek Plantation: Birthplace of George Washington

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By Charles E. Hatch, Jr.

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A lengthy, illustrated guide to George Washington's birthplace, also known as Pope's Creek Plantation or Wakefield.

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Stafford County May Get New Museum at Chatham

Mon, 10/12/2009 - 10:38
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According to an article that appeared in the Free Lance-Star on 10/10/2009, Stafford County is working with the National Park Service to place a museum on the whole of the county's history at Chatham, a National Park Service property.

August Is National Parks Month

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 13:30 | Virginia Johnson
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Camping, fishing, hiking, history, grand vistas, and horseback riding--there are so many possibilities in our national parks.

Memorial Day: A Day of Remembrance

Mon, 04/27/2009 - 13:15 | Virginia Johnson
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Memorial Day has a long history, reaching back to the end of the Civil War. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered his army, and soldiers of the North and South went home to their families, their ranks thinned by the war's bloodshed. Thousands upon thousands of the men who went to battle never returned. At home, their families grieved for the fathers and brothers lost to them and looked for a way to memorialize their sacrifices.

Fit for a Queen: The Legacy of Sidney E. King

Mon, 03/16/2009 - 11:53 | Barbara Crookshanks
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Sidney King: "It's a colorful country of ours. I've made it my business to make sure Mr. and Mrs. America get a glimpse of things as they happened." - from James A. Crutchfield 's Tribute to an Artist, the Jamestown Paintings of Sidney E. King