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Believing that published articles and books had long incorrectly located the fighting area, Ted was determined to test his theory. Armed with extensive primary sources and battle reports, he and colleague Paul Sacra located what they believed was the battlefield and, with the permission from several landowners, used metal detectors to prove it.

 

Within days Savas and Sacra had unearthed hundreds of artifacts, including bullets, a ramrod, bayonet socket, a partial harmonica, belt buckles, buttons, and much more. Savas drew maps of the field and the general location of the artifacts and delivered them to The Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (or APCWS), and its director, A. Wilson Greene, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Greene, who had no idea the field was in such pristine condition, was excited by the find and affirmed its importance. Today, The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 690 acres of the battlefield. The battlefield features a wooded, 1.5-mile interpretive trail with historical wayside markers.

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  Saturday Tour (Lunch Included)

Expanded Tour of Wilderness as it Relates to 1863-1864 Battles

Greg Mertz

 

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On the Western Edge of the Wilderness, key sites of the Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Mine Run Campaigns reside in Orange and Culpeper Counties. Several points in the counties west of Spotsylvania were significant during all three of the campaigns fought in the Wilderness. We plan to stop at Robinson’s Tavern in Locust Grove to discuss why Federal plans to concentrate there during the precursor to the Wilderness battle, the Mine Run Campaign, fell apart. Next, we will continue with that campaign with a stop at the site of the Catlett Rhodes house to hear of Lee encouraging the young men of his army to exert themselves. We will see the site of Lee’s headquarters during the winter of 1863-64 and base of Clark’s Mountain, from which Confederates saw the flickering of campfires in the Federal camps as blue-clad troops marched past, alerting Lee that Grant’s forces were on the move. 

 

In the town of Orange we will receive a tour of A.P. Hill’s winter headquarters at Mayhurst, learning of the christening of one of Hill’s daughters with her famous godfather attending – Robert E. Lee. Next, we will stop in the community of Rapidan, where during the Chancellorsville Campaign, the Federal cavalry division of William W. Averell was stopped cold. After lunch we will visit the Graffiti House in Brandy Station, focusing on inscriptions pertaining to the three “Wilderness Campaigns”. While in Brandy Station we will stop at Fleetwood Hill where Confederate guerilla John S. Mosby raided the abandoned Federal camps after the army marched off for the Mine Run Campaign. We will stop at Madden’s Tavern and the U.S. Colored Troops monument to discuss aspects of both the Chancellorsville and the Wilderness campaigns. We will likely end at Germanna Ford, where Federal troops crossed the Rapidan River during all three campaigns, but with three dramatically different experiences each time.

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Sunday Brunch at Historic Stevenson Ridge

Stephen Cushman 

Author and historian Professor Stephen Cushman will speak on the topic of his book The Generals' Civil War "What Their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today".

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Some hewed more closely to Grant’s model than others, and their points of similarity and divergence left readers increasingly fascinated with the history and meaning of the nation’s great conflict. The writings also dovetailed with a rising desire to see the full sweep of American history chronicled, as its citizens looked to the start of a new century. Professional historians engaged with the memoirs as an important foundation for this work.

 

In this insightful book, Stephen Cushman considers Civil War generals’ memoirs as both historical and literary works, revealing how they remain vital to understanding the interaction of memory, imagination, and the writing of American history. Cushman shows how market forces shaped the production of the memoirs and, therefore, memories of the war itself; how audiences have engaged with the works to create ideas of history that fit with time and circumstance; and what these texts tell us about current conflicts over the history and meanings of the Civil War.

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