Willis Hill Cemetery
"There is a private cemetery on the crest, surrounded by a brick wall. Burnside's artillery had not spared it. I looked over the wall, which was badly smashed in places, and saw the overthrown monuments and broken tombstones lying on the ground."
John T. Trowbridge, 1865
This quiet hilltop graveyard, dating to the mid-eighteenth century, sheltered Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Medical personnel treated wounded soldiers behind its walls, and at least one Southern regiment paused here before charging down the hill into the Sunken Road.
By the time the battle had ended, the cemetery was a wreck. Union artillery had scoured the hill, toppling the cemetery's red brick walls and shattering its headstones. Although the damage was later repaired, the scarred marble gateposts stand as reminders of the fury that once engulfed this peaceful spot.
Marker is on Sunken Road 0.1 miles north of Lafayette Boulevard (Virginia Highway 1), on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
