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Nine Mile
Run
History
This preserved ground is the low ground west of the ridge occupied by the Confederate army at the end of the fighting on May 1, 1863, during the Chancellorsville campaign. During the next day, while Major General “Stonewall” Jackson marched a force around the Union front to attack the Federal right flank, General Robert E. Lee kept pressure on the Federals in this area to distract them from Jackson’s risky maneuver. Late in the afternoon, Jackson’s troops attacked out of the woods, three and one-half miles to the west, and pressed hard toward Chancellorsville on May 3rd. There were episodic reports of panicked XI Corps soldiers fleeing all the way through the Federal lines, only to be captured by Confederate units along the Nine Mile Run line. This preserved terrain saw more fighting when Major General Richard H. Anderson launched his Confederates through this area in support of the Southern attacks closing in from the west. Well preserved Union earthworks are still evident on the ground.
There was no wasting of ammunition here; every man fired with the utmost coolness and deliberation, taking careful and steady aim at his object, as if firing at a target for a prize. Not a man flinched under the terrible fire to which he was now subjected. Every one of them felt that the high and enviable reputation of the gallant old Third Brigade was in his special keeping, and was determined that it should not be tarnished by any act of his.
Colonel Orlando H. Morris,
66th New York Infantry (Official Report, Chancellorsville)
We were unwilling to waste a shot, knowing that, in the very nature of things, such an opportunity would not be long vouchsafed us. In the pauses...of the cannonade we could hear the clear, high-pitched, thrilling, dauntless yell of our charging infantry, and we felt what our fire, if well directed, might mean to those gallant fellows. We had already unlimbered and moved the guns forward by hand, so that their muzzles just failed to project over the brow of the hill....
We gave them no time to recover, but kept throwing in shell as rapidly as the guns could be loaded and discharged, until the entire hillside seemed to be cleared for the time of both artillery and infantry.
Major Robert Stiles, writing about Chancellorsville and describing Confederate artillery fire toward Nine Mile Run
Preservation Story
This 11.89 acre tract is comprised of two parcels on the north side of Route 3, on either side of Nine Mile Run. It is across Route 3 from the McLaws Wedge property. The first acquisition was 5.39 acres, closing in 1999. The second acquisition occurred when a house on an adjacent parcel burned and the owner decided to move rather than rebuild. This second purchase was for 6.5 acres, closing in 2002. Through a grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation, the CVBT subsequently removed all evidence of the burned house and restored the grade. The site is rapidly revegetating.