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Fredericksburg City, Spotsylvania and Stafford County

The historic Fredericksburg Area (which includes the City of Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties) is unlike any other in America. That’s because attractions found today in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Stafford are real, not a re-creation. And here you can explore more than just one epoch of America’s past. This area’s rich history spans Colonial times, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the 20th century.

Fredericksburg History: One of the reasons that Fredericksburg has had such a long and interesting history is its strategic location at the falls of the Rappahannock River. To the Indians, the falls were favorite fishing and hunting grounds. To Virginia's early settlers, the fall line was the colony's first frontier.

Just below the falls of the Rappahannock River, the town of Fredericksburg prospered as a frontier river port. The town's importance grew with increased river traffic. In 1728, it became an official inland port. Tobacco trade brought prosperity.

Perhaps it was its proximity to George Washington's boyhood home or maybe it was its safe distance from the Colonial government in Williamsburg, but Fredericksburg contributed heavily to the American cause in the Revolutionary War. Munitions were manufactured here; five generals left their families here to fight; and Fredericksburg fortunes were devoted to the fight. Thomas Jefferson and others met in 1777 in Fredericksburg to draft the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.

After the war, the city settled down to relative prosperity. Grand mansions mingled with tidy frame houses and a bustling business district by the river. But a few generations later the city's location would come again into play – and this time it brought danger and disaster.

Located halfway between the two Civil War capitals Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., Fredericksburg was battered bloody for three years. The city was crippled by a Federal offensive in December 1862. Confederate troops defending the heights above the city were able to hold off repeated Union attacks mounted from the shell-pocked remains of the business district. The armies were back in the spring of 1863. This time most of the fighting raged outside the city, at a country crossroads called Chancellorsville. Again, in 1864, the blue and the gray clashed nearby. U.S. Grant had begun the last big campaign in the East in the tangled Wilderness. Ignoring massive losses, he soon had punched through to Spotsylvania. In each of the campaigns, the armies left many of their dead and wounded behind.

Today's Fredericksburg has preserved its memories well. Its large downtown historic district is dotted with Colonial structures and reminders of the people who lived and worked here. Its Civil War past is inescapable. A major National Park interprets the battles, and the city still shows its glories and its scars.

Spotsylvania History: In 1721, a vast new county was formed in the young colony of Virginia. Extending far beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, this frontier outpost was named for Alexander Spotswood, Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Much of Spotsylvania County’s early development is attributed to Spotswood’s ironworks founded in the early 1700’s. Spotswood’s "Iron Mines Company," a mining and smelting operation, was founded in 1725 at Germanna. This was the first fully equipped iron furnace in the colonies and Spotsylvania County’s first industry. Iron was hauled to the Rappahannock River for shipping. A wharf was built at the mouth of Massaponax Creek where ships docked to load wares for colonial ports. Wares from the Iron Mines Company included firebacks, pots, pans and kettles. A blast furnace, also founded by Spotswood, was operated in this area from 1730 through 1785. Remnants of the ironworks are still found in the County.

Under Spotswood’s resourceful leadership, a road network for transporting the iron was laid out, and skilled laborers were imported from Germany. At his death in 1740, Spotswood left behind a nearly self-sufficient iron empire that set in motion the rise of America’s iron and steel industry. Spotswood’s furnace was acquired in 1842 by the United States Government, which set up a forge and foundries. Here, the government made hundreds of cannons to supply the Mexican War. At that time, it was one of the most important cannon works in the country.

Four major Civil War battles were fought on Spotsylvania soils, including one of the bloodiest of the war, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864. Here the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee saw one of the most intense clashes in American history: the Union attack on the Confederate-held "Bloody Angle." This battle marked the beginning of the fall of the Confederacy. Also, it was in Spotsylvania County, at Chancellorsville, that Stonewall Jackson fell to the mistaken fire of his own men. The National Park Service maintains more than 4,400 acres of the Civil War battlefields in various locations throughout Spotsylvania County.

Stafford History: Stafford’s history is impressive. Prehistoric animals of all sorts lived in Stafford; their fossil remains litter the shores of the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers. Native Americas lived here in substantial numbers. Captain John Smith sailed up the Potomac from Jamestown to present-day Stafford and explored its shores. The legendary Indian princess, Pocahontas, was kidnapped from Stafford’s Marlborough Point. The Brents of Maryland established the first English Catholic settlement in Virginia, on Aquia Creek, and opened it to all faiths. All of this took place before Stafford County was formally established in 1664.

Stafford’s fisheries, tobacco plantations, iron works and flourmills were major suppliers to Great Britain in the Colonial period. George Washington, the father of our country, and George Mason, author of the Bill of Rights, lived here as youngsters. James Hunter’s Iron Works was one of the major industrial plants in the Revolutionary era and supplied the colonial army with arms in its fight for independence. Aquia sandstone provided stone for the White House, the U.S. Capital, and trim for private homes. Demonstrating that we still had to face up to the momentous issue of slavery, Stafford’s Anthony Burns was the subject of America’s first major fugitive slave case.

During the Civil War, the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg took place across the banks of the Rappahannock River in December 1862. Chatham Manor, in Stafford County, was utilized as the Union headquarters and a hospital to treat the wounded. And it was in Stafford the next spring that Union General Hooker bogged down his army on the famous “Mud March,” on his way to another Union defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

The civilians of Stafford may have been the first in the world to suffer the devastating effects of a modern war, having to host the entire Union Army from 1862-1863. Over 125,000 men (more than today’s population) had to be housed, fed, warmed and entertained, straining the county’s resources to the point of collapse.  Prosperity did not return until World War I when the U.S. Marine Corps came to Quantico. At that time, the county was primarily agricultural, with the exception of fishing industries situated along the Potomac River. In World War II, the wide expansion of the Marine Corps base created new employment opportunities. A C.C.C. camp was located in Southern Stafford during this time.  With the completion of I-95 in the 1960’s and the recent addition of commuter rail, Stafford is one of Virginia’s fastest growing localities. While encouraging industry, the county maintains its wonderful rural atmosphere.
 

For More Information About the History of Fredericksburg, please see the following websites:

http://www.historypoint.org
http://www.ego.net/us/va/fb/history/index.htm
http://www.fredericksburg.com

http://www.simplyfredericksburg.com

http://www.nnht.com/pages.asp?pg=FredIntro
http://www.fredericksburgvirginia.net/fredericksburg_history.asp?parent_name=area_history

Aquia Towne Center - Exit 143A off I-95, 2848 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Stafford, VA
Central Park - Exit 130 off I-95, Plank Rd., Fredericksburg, VA
Breezewood Centre - Exit 126 off I-95, Courthouse Road, Spotsylvania, VA
Design Center of Fredericksburg - Exit 130A off I-95, Route 3 East, Fredericksburg, VA
Doc Stone Commons - Garrisonville Road (Route 610), Stafford, VA
Four Mile Fork - Exit 126 off I-95, Jefferson Davis Highway & Courthouse Road, Spotsylvania, VA
Fredericksburg Shopping Center - Jefferson Davis Highway, Fredericksburg, VA
Greenbrier Shopping Center - Exit 130A off I-95, Route 3 East Fredericksburg, VA
The Shops at Lee's Hill - Exit 126 off I-95, Jefferson Davis Highway & Mine Road, Spotsylvania, VA
Massaponax Crossing - Exit 126 off I-95, Fredericksburg, VA
Spotsylvania Mall (www.spotsylvaniamall.com) - Exit 130B off I-95, Route 3 W, Fredericksburg, VA 
Westwood Shopping Center - Route 3 East, Fredericksburg, VA