This past weekend I attended the Army of the Potomac’s Winter Encampment Tour with Clark “Bud” Hall. The tour was organized by Susan Ralston and Culpeper Battlefield Tours. It took place over two days and we visited 6 main sites each day. The first day was the subject of a previous post (link). The second day is covered below and included stops at Hansborough Ridge, Salubria, Rose Hill, Struan, Greenville and Clark Mountain. A map of the Winter Encampment of the Army of the Potomac in 1863-1864 is shown below. A detailed discussion of the entire encampment can be found in a previous post at the link.
Hansborough Ridge is a limited access site and this was the second time it was opened to the public. The Brandy Station Battlefield and Hansborough Ridge would not exist for us to enjoy today if not for the preservation efforts of Mr. Hall and his colleagues. His role in their preservation cannot be overstated. Thanks to the relationships Bud has developed in the community we were also able to meet Cita Smalley Suratgar, owner of Farley (Day 1), and Dr. John Ashby Covington, owner of Rose Hill (Day 2). The pride each expressed in the preservation of their properties was inspiring to see. Each of them welcomed us into their historic homes, which was completely unexpected. Any tour with Mr. Hall is a must attend event for me personally and Susan Ralston (Culpeper Battlefield Tours) makes you feel like a member of the family. It was great to see old friends and make new ones as well.
Hansborough Ridge– is unique in that it contains remarkably well preserved untouched archaeological remains of part of the largest winter encampment of the Civil War. The ridge represents a window into military life just before the war’s final stages. The historical uniqueness and significance of the 174-acre site results from its exceptionally well preserved surface features that include more than 75 visible hut sites where soldiers built winter quarters, camp roads, trenches, trash pits and fire backs.
From the National Register of Historic Places application (link)- “The Second Corps occupied the area around Stevensburg, with the First and Third Brigades of the Third Division on Hansborough 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 8th 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 huts were 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 and 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.”
There was a “fort” on top of the ridge. It had interior and exterior lines which are shown in the map below (black lines). The numbers represent three stops as we walked. The blue line running down the center is a camp road.
The first stop was a part of the external line. Labeled #1 in the map above. The earthworks shown are readily visible with the naked eye.
The trench, shown by the red line below (the trench runs just to the left of the line), became shallower as it moved away from us as we walked along the central camp road in the next image.
Next we stopped at #2, in the map above. The internal line was shallow here and the trench filled with leaves between the two red lines.
Stop #3 in the map above took us to the eastern part of the external line. The shallow trench is between the lines.
We next visited the area of the camps. Several areas with stone foundations of hut sites are shown below.
The next area was part of the camp of the 126th NY. There were several hut sites here.
The image below is thought to be an officer’s hut.
Bud discusses medical care at the site and Nurse Cornelia Hancock in the video.
Near the above area were a large number of stone foundations of huts and other structures, shown below.
A fire back
Bud discusses a large wartime camp road in the video.
There were at least two wartime photographs taken on Hansborough Ridge, shown below.
Salubria– Historic Germanna, operates the building and opens it to the public four times a year (spring, summer, fall, winter- the dates are published on their website’s event page in advance) but it is also available at other times for tours by appointment. Shannon Doherty of Historic Germanna provided background information on the home. Salubria is a preserved Georgian-style manor house that dates back to around 1757. It was built by slave labor under the direction and financing of Reverend John Thompson, rector of the Little Fork Church. He married Butler Brayne Spotswood, widow of Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood. Over the years it was home to the Thompsons, Barbours, Hansbroughs, and Graysons. It was named Salubria, Latin for healthful, around 1830. The grounds were the scene of fighting during the Battle of Brandy Station and were the location of the camp of the Third Division of Union Cavalry during the winter encampment. We did not have access to the interior, but I have attended an open house here and photographed the interior and the Grayson family cemetery behind the house (link).
Rose Hill– is owned by Dr. John Ashby Covington and his first cousin, Donald C. Wells Jr. The 210-acre historic property currently operates as the Rose Hill Game Preserve and has been preserved within the same family for generations. Both owners are direct descendants of Alfred Lomax Ashby, who originally purchased the estate from Martin Nalle in 1853.
Their website describes the history of the property during the Civil War. I have interrupted their text with relevant pictures and videos. “Battle damage is today still visible in the attic and front porch of the main house. It is unclear exactly when this damage occurred, but a significant series of Cavalry engagements took place in the vicinity on September 13th 1863. During the action Confederate forces of the 11th Virginia Cavalry commanded by Col. Lunsford Lomax and supported by Col. R. L. T. Beall’s 9th Virginia Cavalry, were pushed back west by Union forces under General Judson Kilpatrick and George Armstrong Custer. In 1938 newspaper article about Rose Hill suggests that the house was shelled by a Federal battery hoping to get at Confederate soldiers hidden in a “holly planting” just to the west of the main house.”
Dr. Covington pointed out several features of the damage to the upper floor of the home. He stated the cannonball entered here in the lower left corner of this room coming through the wall facing the front.
Directly across from this wall was shrapnel damage to the opposite wall.
There was also damage to the ceiling.
Graffitti was present on one of the walls.
“Shortly thereafter Rose Hill was made the winter Headquarters of the Third Division U.S Cavalry under Brig. General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. Stories passed down through the years recount some of the experiences of the occupation. Before the Union troops arrived the family was worried that they would be stripped of food and so hid numerous hams underneath a large dining room table, which they then covered with wooden slats. The family was forced to move into the basement while General Kilpatrick and his staff requisitioned the more comfortable upper stories of the house.”
“Many times, the family heard the soldiers complain of how heavy “that table” was as they moved it around never realizing what was hidden underneath. Don and John’s Grandfather John Austin recalled from his parents that General Kilpatrick treated the family with courtesy and kindness even supplying them with food from his own table on occasion. This is at variance, however with a late post war letter dated (1902) from a Capt. Aaron Levy of the U.S Signal Corps who was also stationed at Rose Hill during the occupation. In that letter he offers apologies to Miss Ashby for the poor treatment which he felt they endured under General Kilpatrick, including being denied food at one point.”
Dr. Covington reads the letter in the video below.
“It was during this time at Rose Hill that plans were made for General Kilpatrick and his second in command Col. Ulrich Dahlgren to launch a Cavalry raid on Richmond. The ambitious and ill-fated plan was to free the Union prisoners of war impounded on Belle Isle in the James River and in Libby Prison at Richmond. They also planned to possibly capture and kill members of the Confederate government of Jefferson Davis. During that time of occupation and planning, many Washington notables including Senators and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin were entertained as guests of General Kilpatrick at Rose Hill. There is an amusing account of some of the escapades surrounding the social activities at Rose Hill which are detailed in Virgil Carrington Jones book Eight Hours Before Richmond.”
Dr. Covington reads the passage regarding the social activities from the book.
“It was later in the War after the occupying Union forces had vacated the home that a young Confederate of the 9th Virginia Cavalry rode up to the house to ask for food. Young Mary Jane Ashby had just baked some fresh biscuits and had dumped them “hot” into Thomas Rosser Covington’s haversack. He later returned after the War to woo and marry Miss Ashby in 1868 and raise a family at Rose Hill. It can be noted that Col. Dahlgren’s part of the ill fated Richmond raid met with disaster when he was killed near King William Court House ambushed by the 9th Virginia Cavalry.”
Other pictures of the property.
Out buildings
Struan– is a historic antebellum mansion located along the Algonquin Trail near the Rapidan River in Culpeper County. Built circa 1830, the house was uniquely constructed with its front facing the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains rather than the main road. The home was designed by Jeremiah Morton. It stands as one of three prominent sister antebellum mansions he designed along the Algonquin Trail (the other two being Greenville and Sumerduck. It served as the home of planter and agronomist Powhatan Robinson. Struan played a central role during the Battle of Morton’s Ford on February 6, 1864. Federal infantry divisions, including the 14th Connecticut, marched directly past the house as they moved down into the freezing cold waters of the ford. The house served as Union Major General Gouverneur K. Warren’s headquarters during the battle. Following the action, the mansion and its grounds were used as a field hospital by the Army of the Potomac.
The entrance to Struan is shown below. The house is to the left of center in the distance. The driveway was part of the road to Morton’s Ford.
Greenville– is a 716-acre estate located near Raccoon Ford in southern Culpeper County. Located along nearly 1.5 miles of the Rapidan River, the property is famous for its architectural significance and its role during the Civil War. It was built between 1847 and 1854 for Culpeper entrepreneur Philip Pendleton Nalle. The Nalle Family Cemetery is located at Rose Hill. About two hours earlier on the tour, I took this picture of his grave.
As stated earlier Greenville was designed by Jeremiah Morton, who also designed nearby Struan and Sumerduck. We drove past Sumerduck on the tour.
From the National Register of Historic Places application- Greenville is one of Virginia’s finest examples of Classical Revival architecture. Its facade mimics the grand antebellum country mansions of the Deep South. It features: four massive Doric columns supporting a grand portico; a unique W-shaped (or M-shaped) copper roof; heavy window entablatures; tall, bracketed cornices; and soaring 11-foot ceilings. It was officially listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1979 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. During the Civil War, the estate was located along the front lines of the conflict. Between 1863 and 1864, the grounds were subjected to heavy artillery duels. The acreage directly adjacent to the main house earned the local nickname “cannonball field” because of the dense amount of unexploded ordnance and artillery fragments left behind in the soil after the war.
Cannonball field, shown below, on the other side of the fence, is in front of the house. The house and grounds were not damaged during the war.
We did not enter Greenville but it is currently on sale for $4.5 million dollars (realtor.com, search term Raccoon Fort Virginia, sort highest price to lowest). What is being sold is the house and 312-acres. This parcel includes half a mile of frontage on the Rapidan River, a guest cottage, conservatory, pool and pool house, stables, managers cottage and farm infrastructure. The remaining additional 403 acres of property can also be purchased separately. The pictures below are from the realtor.com listing.
Clark Mountain– During the Winter Encampment Clark Mountain, 1083 feet above sea level, was the main signal station of the Army of Northern Virginia. There were three separate signal stations arrayed across the summit.
A description of General Robert E. Lee’s trip to the top of Clark Mountain on May 2, 1864, just prior to the Battle of the Wilderness appears in Confederate Military History Volume 3, Chapter 24, written by Clement Anselm Evans (link) “Lee was accompanied to his point of observation by Longstreet, just returned from his Tennessee campaign; Field, commanding Hood’s old division, and Kershaw, that of McLaws; Ewell, and his division commanders, Early, Edward Johnson and Rodes; A. P. Hill, with his division commanders, R. H. Anderson, Heth and Wilcox. It is said that after his information-seeking overlook of the Federal camps, Lee turned to these officers, and pointing toward Chancellorsville, said, that in his opinion, the Federal army would cross at Germanna or at Ely’s; and that he then bade them prepare to take up the line of march whenever orders were given from the signal station.” Evander Law wrote (link) “On the 2d of May, 1864, a group of officers stood at the Confederate signal station on Clark’s Mountain, Virginia, south of the Rapidan, and examined closely through their field glasses the position of the Federal army then lying north of the river in Culpeper county. The central figure of the group was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, who had requested his corps and division commanders to meet him there. Though some demonstrations had been made in the direction of the upper fords, General Lee expressed the opinion that the Federal army would cross the river at Germanna or Ely’s. Thirty-six hours later General Meade’s army, General Grant, now commander-in-chief, being with it, commenced its march to the crossings indicated by General Lee.” The view they had from the summit is shown below.
Video of the view atop Clark Mountain
Bud discusses the Confederate communication system on Clark Mountain.
Bud points out sights in the valley below us. I wish I had done a better job filming this, but I did get a nice view of Stevensburg and Hansborough Ridge in the second half of the video..
Appendix
The passages above describing the meeting on Clark Mountain on May 2, 1864 appear below.
The first page of a 25-page article (link) on the Overland Campaign written by Evander Law is shown below. It contains some very nice sketches and Michler’s maps of the battlefields.
