Fredericksburg City Dock
Union Artillery on Stafford Heights
Directly ahead of you, across the river, stood George Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm. According to legend, the future president cut down his father’s cherry tree there and threw a coin across the river. The property took its name from a ferry that operated at that time.
In 1862, Union artillery crowned the bluffs once occupied by the Washington farm. When Confederate troops resisted the Union army’s efforts to cross the river on December 11, Burnside turned nearly 150 guns – arrayed along a three-mile front – on the town. Thousands of shells, some weighing as much as thirty pounds, crashed down upon the unfortunate city, setting several buildings on fire. But when the smoke cleared, the Confederates were still there.
Gen. Henry J. Hunt commanded the Union artillery at Fredericksburg. When his guns failed to drive the Confederates from the town, he suggested sending infantry troops across the river in boats to push the Confederates back from the shore. The plan worked, and by dark Burnside had possession of the town.
“…The Yankees were throwing all their missils [sic] into the City of Fredericksburg, seemingly with the intention of demolishing every vestige of the human race, not leaving even the sign of City or even a house ….” – William White, 18th Georgia Infantry
Marker is on Sophia Street south of Frederick Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
