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STONEWALL BRIGADE iii
The opportunity to save a key piece of land along Jackson's Flank Attack at Chancellorsville, including the location where the Stonewall Brigade bivouacked on May 2, 1863.
History
The fighting that raged over the ground we're working to preserve pitted the 28,000 soldier-strong assault force of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson against the Army of the Potomac's Eleventh Corps. Believing reports that Jackson's marching force was in retreat rather than positioning to make the attack, orders preparing the Federal regiments, brigades, and divisions to make adjustments went unsent. The results were devastating to the Eleventh Corps. Despite several pockets of resistance that put up noble efforts to check Jackson's assault force, the Federals were all eventually forced out of any brief strongholds. These 44 acres were of particular significance in that unfolding drama. In addition to the killed, wounded, and missing Union troops, soldiers from the brigades of Doles, Evans, and Colquitt in the Army of Northern Virginia, also fell on this ground. It is named "Stonewall Brigade III" because they bivouacked here on the night of May 2, 1863.
The Stonewall Brigade tracts would have been crossed by many of the retreating soldiers of the XI Corps. They were pursued by Doles’ GA Brigade in the front line of the attack, then Warren’s VA Brigade and Colquitt’s GA Brigade. In the evening unit’s from A.P. Hill’s 3rd Corps would pass to the front and these tracts bore soldiers from Lane’s NC Brigade, and McGowan’s SC Brigade. Paxton’s VA Brigade – the famous “Stonewall” Brigade – was posted there during the overnight hours.
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How little do the folks at home know of the miseries of war. may they never witness its
horrors, as I have.
Sgt. Horace Smith, Co. D, 154th New York Inf. (Buschbeck’s Brigade)
The gray line moved on regularly with the whoop and yell and the rattle of musketry. There
was, there could be, no effective attempt at resistance.
Capt. Henry Kyd Douglas, 2nd Virginia
Infantry (Stonewall Brigade)
Preservation Story
There are numerous benefits to saving these acres. Doing so will maintain the historical integrity and current rural state of this historic greenspace, preserving these acres of ground also helps tie several other previous Chancellorsville battlefield acquisitions together. In addition, when purchased, interpreted, and opened, this land will be an invaluable resource for Civil War enthusiasts, as well as the general public, to learn about our nation's shared past. Finally, and importantly, saving this land will serve as a worthy tribute to the men who fought and died on it.
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust continues its process of piecing together the parcels of land that saw major fighting during Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's famous May 2, 1863, flank attack. This new tract, known as Stonewall Brigade III, adds acreage to two properties CVBT preserved in 2012 (9.2 acres) and 2016 (1.6 acres). We're asking you to help us raise $100,000 to save these two acres, as well as fulfill our pledge to our friends at the American Battlefield Trust in preserving 42 acres just a few hundred yards west of this tract at Dowdall's Tavern.
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