Hike Location: Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National
Military Park
Geographic Location: west side of Fredericksburg, VA (38.29431, -77.46760)
Length: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: May 2018
Overview: A short loop through a bloody Civil War battle site.
Park Information: https://www.nps.gov/frsp/index.htm
Directions to the trailhead: Near Fredericksburg,
take I-95 to SR 3 (exit 130A). Exit and
go east on SR 3. Drive SR 3 east 1.9
miles to Lafayette Blvd. and turn left on Lafayette Blvd. The Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center
is located 0.5 miles further on the left.
Park in the lot behind the Visitor Center.
The hike: It was
December of 1862 when the eyes of the United States turned to the small town of
Fredericksburg, VA. The town’s location
on the bank of the Rappahannock River about halfway between Richmond and
Washington, D.C. made it an important center for commerce and therefore a
strategically important site to control during the Civil War. Nearly 1.5 years into the war, the Union had
made little progress in diminishing the Confederacy’s ability to make war, and
public confidence in the Lincoln administration’s ability to execute the war
was waning, as evidenced by Lincoln’s party’s large losses during the November
1862 midterm elections. Seeking a more
aggressive approach, Lincoln replaced General George McClellan with General
Ambrose Burnside as leader of the Union’s Army of the Potomac and urged him to
attack south.
On December
11 and 12, Burnside’s men crossed the Rappahannock River via pontoon bridge and
took Fredericksburg after intense hand-to-hand fighting in the city
streets. Yet the Confederates still held
well-fortified positions on two hills just south of the city: Marye’s Heights
and Prospect Hill. Thus, the city was
not secure because it was still subject to Confederate artillery shelling and
skirmishers. On December 13, Burnside
ordered an assault on these two hills that made no progress toward displacing
the Confederates and ended in large numbers of Union casualties including two
generals. Two days later, Burnside
withdrew his army from the city in defeat.
Though the Army of the Potomac would march south toward Richmond again
in later years, the Union would never again try to get to Richmond through Fredericksburg.
Today
Marye’s Heights is the home of Fredericksburg National Cemetery and the
Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center.
The two-story Visitor Center features an interesting film and does a
great job of describing the events surrounding the Battle of
Fredericksburg. The area around the Visitor
Center offers a tour road and one short hiking trail: the 0.8 mile Sunken Road
Trail. Other parts of the park offer
more substantial hikes (as suggested at the end of this post), but I only hiked
this trail due to incoming thunderstorms.
The Sunken Road Trail explores the Confederate fortifications on Marye’s
Heights and gives you a good idea of what the Union soldiers would have faced
as they advanced on the Confederates’ positions.
 |
| Trail leaving Visitor Center parking lot |
From the
back of the Visitor Center, walk across the parking lot and look for the Sunken
Road Trail’s signed trailhead. The
asphalt path curves left and heads slightly uphill to reach the Sunken
Road. Turn right to head north on the
gravel road.
 |
| Sunken Road and stone wall |
The Sunken
Road gets its name because it passes between a steep hillside on your left and
a stone wall on your right. In 1862, the
area beyond the stone wall was an open field, and Confederate soldiers used the
stone wall as a fortification by taking position on the road where you are
walking. Considering the Confederate
artillery stationed atop the hill to your left, you can see why the
Confederates’ position was so impregnable.
Thousands of advancing Union soldiers died here, and none got within 50
feet of the stone wall. After the
battle, Confederate veterans remarked that they could have killed the entire
Union army had it come across the field toward the wall. The section of stone wall closest to the Visitor
Center is a reconstruction, but part of the original wall remains a few hundred
feet further north.
 |
| Stratton House |
As you
continue north, the remnants of several small historic buildings appear to the
right. Heavily damaged during the
battle, these buildings provided limited shelter to advancing Union
troops. When you reach the original stone
wall, angle right to make a short loop past the Kirkland Monument and the site
of the Ebert House and Store. The
Kirkland Monument is a statue honoring Confederate Sergeant Richard Kirkland
who risked his life to bring water to wounded Union soldiers, while the Ebert
House and Store was another building that provided limited shelter during the
battle.
 |
| View from Confederate artillery position |
After
completing the short loop, turn right to head gradually uphill toward the
Confederate artillery position. At the
top of the hill, turn left to begin following a trail made of recycled tires that
leads to the hilltop artillery position.
The view from the hilltop features more trees today than it did in 1862,
but you can still see downtown Fredericksburg over the trees.
 |
| Fredericksburg National Cemetery |
Past the
artillery position, the trail continues south to enter Fredericksburg National
Cemetery, the burial place of more than 15,000 Union soldiers who died in
battles fought between Richmond and Washington, D.C. Angle left to head steeply downhill toward
the Visitor Center to complete the hike.
While you are here, consider visiting other nearby Civil War
battlefields including Spotsylvania Courthouse and Chancellorsville, the place
where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by friendly fire. Both of those locations offer substantial
dayhikes over well-developed trail systems and are worth visiting if the
weather is better on your visit than it was on mine.
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