This post was prepared in preparation for a tour organized by Culpeper Battlefield Tours covered in a previous post (link). It was the first time the public was given access to the Union II Corps winter camp site on Hansborough Ridge. Clark “Bud” Hall, noted Culpeper County and Civil War historian, provided the history of the site along with its preservation, and Chris Army led us on the subsequent walking tour. With respect to the Civil War most people are familiar with the Battle of Gettysburg fought from July 1-3, 1863, in Gettysburg, PA, and the Overland Campaign led by Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, which began in early May of 1864. The period in between is generally thought to be one of inactivity where both sides rebuilt their armies and prepared for the major campaigns of 1864. However, both armies, the Army of the Potomac under Major General George Meade and the Army of Northern Virginia under General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee, were very active during this period. The battles fought are lesser known but had dramatic consequences for the counties that they were fought in including Fauquier, Culpeper and Orange counties in Virginia and the many soldiers lost in combat and to illness in camps and the effect this had on their families. We have previously covered this period in a series of posts entitled The Forgotten Fall and Winter of 1863-1864 in Virginia. After Mine Run (The Mine Run Campaign November 27- December 2 (November 26th, November 27th, November 28th to December 2nd), a battle which was never fought, when General Meade made the prudent decision not to attack a well entrenched Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, both sides settled into their winter camps. This post covers the Union aspect of the winter encampment largely because it has been easier for me to locate sources on it (listed in the Appendix and Sources section at the end of the post) written by Clark “Bud” Hall, John Salmon, and Mike Block. The majority of the information for this post came from Mr. Hall’s April 1991 article in Blue and Gray Magazine that can still be found on Ebay.

Meade spread his army out in the shape of a horseshoe, shown in the map below.

At the apex was the I Corps. The I Corps commanded by Major General John Newton was located in the town of Culpeper. The First Cavalry Division was also here under Wesley Merritt who was headquartered at the Jacob Bruce house. The II Corps was commanded by Major General Gouverneur Warren. They were located in Stevensburg with headquarters at Cole’s Hill. Cole’s Hill ran south for 2 miles and is separated from Hansborough Ridge by a ravine. The First and Third Divisions camped on Hansborough Ridge and dug entrenchments on top of the ridge. Images of Hansborough Ridge are shown below.

Hansborough’s Ridge also played a role in the Battle of Brandy Station.

Headquarters facilities were located at Blucher Hansborough‘s home and Dr. Pembroke Thom’s house “Glen Ella”. The Third Cavalry Division commanded by Judson Kilpatrick was also at Stevensburg. Kilpatrick took up his headquarters at Rose Hill.

General George Armstrong Custer headquartered at Jack Barbour’s home called “Clover Hill”.

The VI Corps to Meade’s right was commanded by Major General John Sedgwick. Sedgwick was headquartered at Farley and was responsible for guarding Welford’s Ford on the Hazel River.

The III Corps commanded by Major General William French was at the center of the horseshoe. His headquarters was in the Henry Miller house (Fleetwood) at the southern end of Fleetwood Hill. The V Corps under George Sykes was camped at Rappahannock Station. It was tasked with protecting a 25-mile stretch of railroad from the Bull Run Bridge to Rappahannock Station. The 20th Maine’s camp was on the site of a former Confederate fort at there. The Second Cavalry Division, commanded by David McMurtrie Gregg, protected the rear of the army from Warrenton. They were headquartered in Virginia Governor “Extra Billy” Smith’s home just west of Warrenton. Cavalry headquarters was located at Dr. Daniel Green‘s house 3 miles northeast of Brandy Station with Alfred Pleasanton in overall command of the cavalry.

Union Commanders

There was an outer picket line, 60 miles in length, set up by the cavalry. An inner picket line of infantry went completely around the army. Each Corps had clearly defined areas of responsibility for the picket. Three brigades were sent out in advanced positions. At Mitchell’s Station, 6 miles south of Culpeper, in the shadow of Clark’s Mountain was the First Brigade, Second Division, First Corps. Behind Stony Point, south of Stevensburg, and overlooking Morton’s Ford, was the Second Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps. At Shepard’s Grove, east of Stevensburg, on the main road to Germanna’s and Ely’s Ford, was the Fourth Brigade, First Division, Second Corps.

The Signal Corps was commanded by Captain Lemuel B. Norton, Chief Signal Officer of the Army. The principal signal station was on Pony Mountain. To the left of Pony Mountain was an auxiliary station, which covered the union left from a rock platform at Stony Point. On the right Cedar Mountain was a signal station. Another station was erected on Garnett’s Mountain overlooking the confederate left at Barnett’s Ford. The last station was known as “Wiggins Station” for its commander, Lieutenant John Wiggins. It was also called Bald Knob or Bald Pate. Two other stations near the Rapidan were used infrequently because of the fear of attack. These were located on the “Bubby Hills” and Thoroughfare Mountain near James City. Protecting the rear of the army were two lofty signal stations on Watery and Piney Mountains west of Warrenton with excellent views of the gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The chief signal post on Pony Mountain coordinated signal traffic between each Corps’ signal station, the most prominent of which was located on Cole’s Hill (II Corps) and communicated directly with army headquarters at Brandy station.

Meade’s headquarters was located on a knoll just east of Fleetwood Hill near Brandy Station. Sawmills were established at Norman’s Mill on Mountain Run and Kelly’s Ford on the Rappahannock River. The principal hospital was located at the James Barbour mansion “Beauregard”.

John Minor Botts was a Unionist and his home “Auburn” was left undisturbed.

Grant’s headquarters was in Culpeper at the home of Presley Morehead Rixey. The home no longer exists.

Grant arrived at Brandy Station on March 10th. Prior to his arrival, Meade had reorganized the army of the Potomac. The I and III Corps were abolished. The First and Second Divisions of the III Corps were transferred to the II Corps. The Third Division of the III Corps was transferred to the VI Corps. The three divisions of the I Corps were transferred to the V Corps. Warren was given command of the V Corps replacing Sykes and his headquarters moved to Culpeper. Generals Newton, French, and Sykes no longer Corps commanders, were moved out of the Army of the Potomac. Hancock resumed command of the II Corps, and Sedgwick remained in command of the VI Corps. With respect to the cavalry, Pleasanton was transferred to the Department of the Missouri. On April 4 Philip Sheridan arrived from the west to replace him. Infantryman Alfred Torbert took over the First Division, David Gregg retained command of the Second Cavalry Division, while James Wilson replaced Kilpatrick as head of the Third Cavalry Division.

On April 22nd, at the western foot of Cole’s Hill, the II Corps conducted a review for General Grant.

At the end of April the IX Corps under Ambrose Burnside arrived at Rappahannock Station from Annapolis. The V Corps relieved by the IX, moved across the Rappahannock and camped at Paoli‘s Mill on Mountain Run. Meade gave the order to move out on May 2, 1864, and two days later the Federals headed for the Wilderness. The cavalry led the way. Wilson’s division crossed at Germanna’s Ford, Gregg‘s at Ely’s Ford with Torbert‘s division following. Hancock’s II Corps left Hansborough Ridge and proceeded on Kitley‘s Road past Madden‘s Tavern and Shepard’s Grove, through Richardsville to Ely’s Ford. The V Corps departed Paoli’s Mill, proceeded south on the Stevensburg Road, then east past Madden‘s Tavern to the Germanna Plank Road to Germanna’s Ford. The VI Corps left last and followed the V Corps’ route to Germanna’s Ford.

Appendix

From the NRHP application (link)- The Second Corps occupied the area around Stevensburg, with the First and Third Brigades of the Third Division on Hansborough’s Ridge and the Second Division north on Cole’s Hill (the Second Brigade, Third Division, was detached on picket duty south at Stony Mountain). According to a member of the 8th Ohio, the First Brigade occupied “the extreme north of the [Third] division” (the northern part of Hansborough Ridge) while the 8^th Ohio was encamped at the northernmost point on the ridge. There is no record of any encampments on Hansborough Ridge either before or after the encampment of 1863-1864. so all remains must date back to that period. Hansborough Ridge and Cole’s Hill were attractive locations for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this high ground constituted a strong position from which to defend against an attack from the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, encamped just a few miles to the south. This elevated position also facilitated the transmission and receipt of signals between the army’s scattered signal stations. Furthermore, this high ground drained better in the rainy winter and spring months, and “lumber was found in abundance in the vicinity”. The close proximity of Mountain Run provided a ready source of water. The evergreens and other forestation that covered Hansborough Ridge prior to the winter encampment soon fell victim to the needs of the Army of the Potomac. “When we first came here,” wrote a captain in the 126th New York, “it was a wilderness; now it is in a large city of log huts; hardly a tree to be seen. The huts are built of logs a foot thick, split, and laid up face side in. They are about twelve by seven feet, and seven feet high, with a door at the end hung on a wooden hinge. They have a cloth roof, which also serves as a window…. Each hut housed from six to ten men.” The enlisted men’s huts were aligned in rows, along company streets, while the noncommissioned officers and company commanders camped at the end of the rows. Many regiments end brigades built log chapels; the 125th New York, for example, dedicated its chapel on Hansborough Ridge in January 1864, and held nightly religious services there for the remainder of the encampment. An example of a camp at Brandy Station is shown below with smaller huts for enlisted men and larger huts for officers.

Corduroy roads and walkways linked the camps to each other and to division hospitals, supply depots, headquarters, and other important locations. The camps almost certainly were crisscrossed by drainage ditches that directed rainwater and sewage down the slope of the ridge. Additionally, trenches and fortifications dotted the ridge. A soldier in the 39th New York wrote that “the whole Corps, [was] out throwing up breast works,” and a surgeon from the neighboring 20th Massachusetts [Third Brigade, Second Division} wrote of ‘the fort on the hill.” When the Third Division broke camp on the evening of May 3, 1864, it left behind campsites littered with equipment and debris. Captain Thomas F. Galwey of the 8th Ohio wrote, “The comfortable huts in which we had passed so much of the early winter were unroofed; old shoes, old pantaloons, ragged blankets, pots, kettles, and what not, lay about in disorder.” General Alexander Webb, commander of the Second Division, noted that all houses in his camps were torn down on May 2. The troops spent the last days of camp in shelter tents. Apparently, the Hansborough Ridge campsite has not been greatly disturbed by relic hunters in the intervening 127 years (with the exception of twelve hut sites and fire pits on the southeastern end of the ridge), for scattered among the hut sites and other surface remains are barrel staves, glass shards, bits of brick, and other metal fragments. From a distance, “Hansborough Ridge looks much the same today as it did prior to the winter encampment of 1863-1864. The crest of the ridge is heavily forested, with the exception of a hundred-foot-wide cleared swath bisecting the ridge where a power line runs in an east-west direction. There is no record of any part of this site being cultivated since the war. On the northern end of the ridge, approximately fifty hut sides remain visible, along with approximately twenty-five other surface features such as fire pits, trash pits, stone piles, and unknown surface depression. There appears to be a linear order to some of these hut sites to suggest their alignment along company streets, but the density of the foliage has thus far hindered a more detailed study. There is also a trench line in the woods just north of the power line right-of-way; it roughly parallels the power line up the eastern slope of the ridge. Although only two contributing sites have been identified in this nomination, the bulk of information from first-hand accounts suggests there may be more contributing features and deposits of artifacts on the ridge.”

Additional information learned from Mr. Hall’s presentation on the Hansborough Ridge location during the tour- In 1803 Peter Hansborough bought the property from John Cole. Hansborough’s house was on Cole’s Hill. A road ran between Hansborough Ridge and Cole’s Hill that connected Carrico’s Mill to Norman’s Mill on Mountain Run. The two major roads in the area were Kirtley’s Road, which came from Fredericksburg, and curled around the southern base of the ridge to Stevensburg where it intersected with the Old Carolina Road. The Old Carolina Road entered Culpeper County at Norman’s Ford on the Rappahannock River passed by Fleetwood Hill on to Stevensburg and crossed into Orange County at Raccoon Ford. Hansborough Ridge was sometimes called the Fort. It had an outer and inner trench line to protect the Union artillery reserve which was located there. The II Corps under Major General Gouverneur Warren headquartered at the Hansborough home and Dr. Pembroke Thom’s house “Glen Ella”. Of the II Corps the First and Third Divisions were on Hansborough’s Ridge and the Second Division on Cole’s Hill. The Third Division was led by Brigadier General Alexander Hays. Of Hay’s three brigades one was at Shepard’s Grove, another at Stony Point near Morton’s Ford and the third was on Hansborough Ridge (111th, 125th and 126th NY, and 39th NY the Garibaldi Guards). Hays had three headquarters one on the eastern base at the Jacob Stout house, another in a tent on the ridge and a third at Milton Mills.

Sources

Season of Change The Winter Encampment of the Army of the Potomac Blue and Gray Magazine April 1991.

The Winter Encampment by Mike Block Appendix B in Out Flew the Sabres by Eric Wittenberg and Daniel Davis

NRHP Application