Sites related to the Civil War in the town of Orange, VA.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church– 119 Caroline Street. The church served as a Confederate Hospital after the battles of Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville and the Wilderness. During the Civil War Generals Robert E. Lee, A. P. Hill and Robert Rhodes, as well as Jefferson Davis are known to have worshipped here. 

Traveler’s Tree– at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. When General Lee attended services at the Church he tied Traveler, his horse, to a tree to the front left of the building. The tree shown below is a descendant of that tree. At the time this image was taken, early Spring, the tree was just starting to bud.

Orange County Court House– 107 West Main Street. After the Battle of Cedar Mountain Union prisoners were held on the grounds before transport to Richmond prisons.

Orange Train Station– 122 East Main Street. This area was involved in the Battle of Orange Court House. The Orange Visitor Center is also located here.

Erasmus Taylor House– 154-160 North Madison Road. Brigadier General Charles Winder watched from the front porch as his Stonewall Brigade passed up the Orange-Culpeper Road to Cedar Mountain because he was too ill to march. He later followed them in a horse-drawn ambulance.

Montpeliso– 205-209 Morton Street. Built by Paul Verdier in 1819 the home was the site of a reception for the Marquis de Lafayette. During the Civil War it served as the headquarters of General D.R. Jones, as a Civil War hospital after the Battle of Cedar Mountain and was used by Stonewall Jackson.

Bloomsbury (38.2564329, -78.0550071)- is now open to the public for private tours in collaboration between the James Madison Museum and the Helen Marie Taylor Trust (picture taken from the end of the public road). Jefferson Davis stayed here while in Orange to review the troops in the fall of 1863. Robert E Lee visited him here daily during his visit.

Mayhurst– 12460 Mayhurst Lane  
General A.P. Hill used the Willis home (Mayhurst Inn) grounds during the winter of 1863-1864 as his headquarters. His wife and family were with him at the time. His daughter Lucy Lee Hill was born and christened there, with General Robert E. Lee serving as godfather. On August 6, 1862 the Willis’ noticed a man seated and resting against their gatepost and invited him in to stay the night. That man was Stonewall Jackson. The home is now a bed and breakfast.

Meadowfarm– 16823 Monrovia Road (picture taken from the street). After James Longstreet was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness he was taken to a field hospital at Parker’s Store and was subsequently moved the next day to Meadowfarm, the home of his friend and quartermaster Erasmus Taylor, before transport by train to Lynchburg. He stayed for a time with a relative there but when federal raiding parties made the area unsafe he was moved to Augusta, Georgia. An interesting paper published in the Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery suggests that Longstreet like Jackson was shot by friendly fire. The sleigh bed that Longstreet slept in was referred to by the Taylor family as the “Longstreet bed”. Other wounded soldiers also stayed there in the parlor. Longstreet stayed at the home again in July of 1888 after the train he was riding in wrecked at the Fat Nancy trestle on Route 20 outside of Orange.

Sources- 

Forgotten Casualty: James Longstreet Wounded in the Wilderness: Part two Emerging Civil War

Longstreet’s wound- The Cervical Wound of General James Longstreet

Rebel Hall– 151 May Fray Avenue. Rebel Hall got its name because the Bull family who resided there extended hospitality to so many Confederate soldiers and Generals during the war. It is now a law office. 

Graham Cemetery– 14191 Constitution Highway. Many of the soldiers buried here died in Orange hospitals.

Holladay House Inn– 155 West Main Street (picture taken from the street). The Holladay House Inn is one of the oldest houses in Orange. During the Civil War it was owned by John and Susannah Chapman. A reception was held here after their daughter Emma married Captain Robert Virginius Boykin, chief clerk of the Confederate State Navy Yard in Portsmouth. Guests at the reception included Generals J.E.B. Stuart and Robert Rodes. The house is now a bed and breakfast.

The Inn at Willow Grove– 14079 Plantation Way. The property was acquired by Joseph Clark, the surveyor of Montpelier, in 1778. Many original structures are still on the property including the manor house shown below. According to its website there are trenches and gun emplacements visible near the main house and a cannonball was found in its eaves many years ago.