August 2022
The Fredericksburg National Cemetery
In the eighteen months between December 1862 and May 1864, four major battles, Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Wilderness; and Spotsylvania Court House, were fought in and near Fredericksburg, as well as the Mine Run campaign. Combined Union deaths from these five actions exceed 8,200 men, most of whom were buried on the various battlefields.
Men who were killed in action were usually buried on the battlefield. Fredericksburg, burials were done on the battlefield’s southern end on December 15, 1862; burials on the northern end took two days, December 16 and 17, 1862. Both burials were done during truces agreed upon for that very reason.
In June 1865 the government decided they would make an effort to inter unburied Union dead in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, as well as the surrounding area. Brevet Major James M. Moore was put in charge of doing so, and the First U.S. Veteran Volunteer Regiment was assigned to help.
The work of collecting the
remains began on the northern end of the battlefield on June 12, and then they worked their way south. The first cemetery was constructed near the western edge of Saunders Field, on the south side of the Orange Turnpike. The work continued June 14 along the Orange Plank Road. A second cemetery was constructed just east of the Confederate earthworks where fighting had been heaviest, about a half mile west of the Brock Road intersection.
On June 19, the men started work at Spotsylvania Court House. There were fewer unburied remains there because many of the dead had already been buried. Due to the condition of unburied corpses, many were covered over in place.
In May 1866 work began on creating a national cemetery in Fredericksburg. Land on Marye’s Heights, overlooking the Sunken Road, was selected and engineers began preparing the site. Bodies were originally gathered and reburied by members of the Eleventh U.S. Infantry, but laborers were soon hired to do the job. Called the Burial Corps, they were made up of formerly enslaved men, former Confederates, and Irish immigrants.
The Eleventh U.S. Infantry, and then the Burial Corps, started by relocating bodies buried on the Fredericksburg battlefield. These were mostly found on the old fairgrounds, and in front of the Sunken Road. As work continued, the Burial Corps not only moved remains that had been previously buried in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House cemeteries; they also began going further afield. They recovered remains from six battlefields: Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Wilderness; Spotsylvania Court House; Mine Run; and North Anna. Remains from the Stafford County Union camps, as well as from other camp grounds throughout the region were gathered and moved to Fredericksburg National Cemetery. By the time the work was concluded in 1868, the remains of over 15,000 soldiers were interned. In 1997 the National Park Service started hosting a Luminaria on Memorial Day Weekend. The luminaria honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Local Scouts light the 15,300 candles, one for each grave in the cemetery. Throughout the evening a bugler plays Taps every 30 minutes. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park staff located throughout the cemetery share stories of some of the soldiers buried there.
On May 28 the Luminaria returned to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery for the first time since 2019. In 2019 it was cut short due to severe weather, and in 2020 and 2021 it was cancelled due to COVID. At the end of the night, about five minutes before the final playing of Taps, the bugler played Tattoo. The weather was perfect this year and over 4,000 people attended. If you have never attended one of these events, it is a very somber and moving experience.
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust’s first land preserved was the tract between the National Cemetery and Brompton on Marye’s Heights, known as
Willis Hill, in 1997. More about the history of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery can be found in Where Valor Proudly Sleeps: A History of Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 1866–1933 by Donald C. Pfanz.
Civil War Artillery Book 392 page, full-color book, Civil War Artillery Projectiles – The Half Shell Book.
$89.95 + $8 media mail for the standard edition.
Reviewed by Joseph Truglio
Aside from Gettysburg, Fredericksburg is my most visited battlefield. I have traipsed over virtually every site and spent uncounted hours at the ‘sunken road.’ I have read numerous books and accounts of what transpired there. However, as time passed, my interests shifted from ‘what happened’ to ‘why it happened.’ This book fulfilled my expectations.
The history presented is well annotated, with an ample bibliography for further study. A multitude of photos and illustrations are interspersed to assist in identifying participants, events, and sites. Also included is an order of battle.
Each chapter begins with a brief anecdotal account of the participants and actions discussed there. Then the author lists all the options available at a particular time, explaining each option in detail. Next comes the decisions made, and why they were chosen. Finally, we get a thorough explanation of the results of those decisions. It is here that the reader can reflect on whether he is in agreement or not.
I found this to be a wonderful process. For the most part I was in agreement with the author’s conclusions. The one thing I came away with is how political the Army of the Potomac leadership was. Politics and ego permeated all aspects of decisions and, in my opinion, led to some disastrous results. One can lay blame on all the participants, from the generals to Lincoln himself.
I don’t know how I missed this series. It is an excellent tool in understanding the ‘whys’ of Civil War battles. I plan on reading a few more of this series, perhaps all of them! I highly recommend you get one…, or a few…, or all of them, and test your own theories. These books are a must for any serious student’s library.
Joseph Truglio, of Manchester, N.J., is a retired Motion Picture Technician who has a lifelong interest in the Civil War. He is past President of the Phil Kearny CWRT in N.J.
Contesting Commemorations: The 1876 Centennial. Independence Day, And The Reconstruction-Era South. By Jack Noe. Notes, Bibliography, and Index. 244 pp., 2021. Louisiana State University Press, lsupress.org. Cloth. $45.00.
Reviewed by David Marshall
Between May and November 1876, a world’s fair called the International Exhibition of Arts Manufacturers and Products of the Soil and Mine, also known as the Centennial Exhibition or Centennial was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It attracted more than ten million visitors, one fifth of the U.S. population. Its purpose was to celebrate one hundred years of national existence, presenting an opportunity for whites, African Americans, Northerners, and Southerners to reflect and engage with ideas about their identity as Americans. It provided an opportunity for expressions of nationalism, patriotism, healing sectional wounds, or for the white South to reject reconciliation following the Civil War. Together with the 1876 presidential election of Republican Rutherford Hayes, Reconstruction ended partly due to agreements made with representatives from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.
Commemoration Contesting provides a captivating representation of post-Civil war reunion and reconciliation, using white Southern reactions to and involvement with these celebrations. Jack Noe offers a colorful discourse on the economic, social, and political aspects of reunification, and the difficulties behind the changes that occurred in a post- Appomattox American identity. Throughout this well written book, a comparison is made between the points of view of white Southerners and African Americans utilizing the voices of many.
Noe spends a considerable number of pages in his six-chapter study linking the recent work of historians such as Gregory Downs, Anne Sarah Rubin, and Richard Zuczek. They suggest that white guerrilla-style terrorism, a defiant white public, and Federal military control of the South, resisted the Radical Republican measures to completely unify and rebuild the New South during Reconstruction. An important argument is suggested by historian David Blight that sectional reunion was achieved at the expense of African Americans, resulting in reconciliation by both north and Southern whites and the beginning of the Jim Crow era.
In The 1976 Centennial, Independence Day, And The Reconstruction Era South readers will gain an understanding of how former slaves used the memory of the Revolutionary War, and its commemoration to demand the status of full citizenship as per the fifteenth amendment. Noe asserts that a reason for the Civil War was the emancipation of African Americans. Additionally, he further extrapolates the challenges between reunion and reconciliation in this deeply researched narrative.
Little has been written on the Centennial. What has been published on the fair itself, and its design is very different than what is examined throughout this study. Noe emphasizes how America experienced and felt about the events and celebration of American history and the meaning of the Fourth of July throughout this title. The writer tells a story that the North and the South were moving away from its agricultural past and into an industrial future with increased importance on the railroad and other inventions for manufacturers, farmers, and people allowing the U.S. to become a world economic giant.
Noe found that some southern women, such as Ellen Long of Florida, believed the Centennial would unite America, and restore the South to prosperity. Furthermore, he analyzed how over time that some Southern governments and businesses realized the Centennial was an opportunity to showcase their great states and benefit economically by participating in the fair. Finally, this tapestry was a focus of national memory and shared identity that used rituals such as the Fourth of July, and the Reconstruction era to portray our sectional identities and differences.
This tome depicts the nationalism fought for by the South between 1861-1865 through commemorative activities such as celebrating our nation’s founding and issues that Southern States had with the Centennial and the Federal government during Reconstruction. During this period, many African Americans were killed or harassed in the South, which resisted any recognition of citizenship for freed people. White Southerners both shunned and engaged with the celebrations of American nationhood. Noe contends that African Americans embraced the opportunity to claim full agency and citizenship. He further postulates that commemorations and historical memory during Reconstruction was intertwined with politics, biased newspapers, partisanship, and racial divisions.
While Southern participation in the 1876 Centennial was limited with only Mississippi and Arkansas having any official presence, the Southern States finally had opportunities to market themselves in future fairs in Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Nashville during the late nineteenth century. They were linked to the idea of a New South, progress, and patriotism. The fairs included black exhibits that focused on education. Noe points out that the fairs forged a link between race and progress during the Jim Crow era. In the end, he suggests that the United States was reunited but far from reconciled.
This reviewer recommends this new volume.
David Marshall is a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for the past thirty-five years. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Common Soldier.
