Fredericksburg Flowers

Nurse Woolsey

The verdant fields of Chancellorsville, Virginia, are bursting with wildflowers. The yellows, purple, lavender, white, and pink are delight in the blazing spring sun. It is a humbling experience to walk through the grounds where so many Americans have lost their lives in a Civil War battle won at such great cost, a Confederate pyrrhic victory of sorts, brother fighting against brother. How many cries of agony of the injured or dying soldiers were heard through the gun smoked air and how much innocent blood soaked into the fields surrounding us?

The wildflowers are beautiful every spring and bring to mind the Fredericksburg Flowers. Despite the Civil War doom and gloom, nature sprang to life that spring and with it, its colorful wild flowers. A relief nursing worker from New York, Georgeanna Woolsey, picked wild flowers for a new regiment heading to the front.

“We filled our baskets, trays, and the skirts of our gowns with snow-balls, lemon blossoms, and roses yellow, white, and red. The 8^th New York Heavy Artillery was in the column . . . and [we] tossed roses and snowballs in showers over the men. They were delighted . . . . ‘Oh, give me one . . . . I will carry it into the fight for you;’ and another cheerily, -- ‘I will bring it back again.’”

One such happy New York soldier brought the flowers back as promised – he returned three days later to Miss Woolsey as a corpse, wilted Fredericksburg flowers upon his chest.

James Monroe, an Extraordinary American (Part I)

Fifth U.S. President James Monroe (1817-1825) wore many hats in his lifetime: farmer, lawyer, soldier, statesman, ambassador, governor, husband, father, and grandfather. He was active in politics since he was 24 years old and began studying law when he was 16. By the time of his death at the age of 73, he held every public office available at the time, thus participating in some of the most important moments in American history.

Fredericksburg, Virginia, built a small museum commemorating his remarkable life on the property where his law office used to stand. Furniture and memorabilia are original, but the books are editions of similar books that he and his family had owned. A dress, a couple of his outfits, his daughter’s rusted out ice skates and his wife’s gold and precious jewels decorated with large amethysts, aquamarines, and citrine stones, are also part of the exhibit.

Museum grounds

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

Museum Archives - parents farm

James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on April 28, 1758, to Spence and Elizabeth Monroe. Spence was a farmer and cabinet maker. James had four siblings, a sister and three brothers, and the family lived in Monroe Hall on the banks of Monroe Creek, a tributary to the Potomac. At the age of 16, after his father died, James inherited the family’s land which he owned until 1780 when he sold it.

Museum interior entrance

Photo: Ileana Johnson February 2023

In the summer of 1774, the revolutionary fever hit Williamsburg and law student James Monroe was entirely preoccupied by his disdain for the British monarchy, his studies taking second place.

On June 24, 1775, the 18-year-old James Monroe and 23 of his fellow students, under the command of Theodorick Bland Jr., raided the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. They seized 200 muskets and 300 swords and turned them over to the Williamsburg militia. There was no bloodshed as the palace had been abandoned and all the vestiges of British rule were gone with Lord Dunmore. A Committee of Safety took control of the city and Monroe and his uncle Joseph Jones who were part of this committee, became the city’s ad hoc government.

James and his friend John Mercer decided to enlist in the spring of 1776 in the third Virginia Infantry, commanded by Colonel Hugh Mercer, a friend and neighbor of Uncle Joseph Jones. According to archives, “James Monroe made the long trip from Williamsburg to his uncle’s home in Fredericksburg in order to enlist.”

Furlough signed by Major James Monroe

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

One of the original documents in the museum is a Valley Forge furlough signed by nineteen-year-old Major James Monroe, aide-de-camp to Major General William Alexander (Lord Stirling), on February 23, 1778, to Second Lieutenant John Wallace of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment. This infantry unit was encamped at Valley Forge.

During the Battle of Trenton in 1776, James Monroe was wounded in the shoulder and carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life. There is a famous painting, Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, by John Trumbull, which depicts James Monroe lying on the ground wounded in the left center of the painting.

In 1782 James Monroe was selected to represent King George County in the Virginia Assembly.  In 1783 he was appointed to the delegation which represented Virginia at the Confederation Congress in Annapolis. In 1784 he was present during the ratification of the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution and recognized the United States as a nation.

He left Congress in 1786 and set up his law practice in Fredericksburg. He met the 16-year-old Elizabeth Kortright in New York in 1785 and married her in 1786 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Manhattan. She was the daughter of a rich New York merchant, a strong but interesting marriage if you consider his humble upbringing, a farmer’s son.

They settled in Fredericksburg, in a house rented from his uncle, Joseph Jones. Monroe started his law practice in a small building on Charles Street, on the lot which today houses the museum. The home where the Monroes lived is on Caroline Street and still stands today, privately owned.

Mrs. Monroe's private jewelry collection

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2023

Mrs. Monroe, at the age of 18, gave birth to the couple’s first child in Fredericksburg, a daughter named Elizabeth.  The second child, James Spence, was born in May 1799, but the boy died the following September. In April 1802, the Monroes’ last child was born, Maria Hester.

Museum archives photo

The Monroes’ first born, Eliza Monroe Hay (1787-1840), was educated at a boarding school in Paris where she met Hortense de Beauharnais, Josephine's daughter and Napoleon’s stepdaughter, and eventually Queen of Holland. They became life-long friends and Eliza named her daughter Hortensia, in her honor. Eliza had married George Hay, a successful lawyer and James Monroe’s confidant.

Eliza’s formal education was superior to most women in Washington society. She provided the supporting role of hostess at the President’s House when her mother was not well. Eliza and George lived in the executive house during Monroe’s two terms as president. Eliza planned her younger sister’s wedding in 1820 and was criticized for not making it into a lavish public event. When Eliza lost her husband and mother in 1830 and then her father in 1831, she traveled a lot to Europe. She settled in France at a convent and died there in 1840. She is buried in Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris.

Maria Hester Monroe Governeur (1802-1850) was sixteen years younger than her sister Eliza. When Monroe became president, she was 14 years old. She decided to attend boarding school in Philadelphia until 1819 rather than live in the President’s House with her family.

Maria married her first cousin, Samuel Governeur, in 1820 and they had four children, two daughters and two sons. The first child, a daughter, died in infancy. The second child, a son, was born deaf. Most of the Monroe memorabilia in the museum in Fredericksburg came from Maria and Samuel’s children.

There were strained relations between Maria and Eliza, and Samuel and George did not get along either. During an extended visit with his daughter’s family in New York, following his wife’s death, James Monroe fell ill and died soon after.  Maria passed away at Oak Hill’s family estate in 1850.

In 1787 James Monroe was elected to the House of Delegates for Spotsylvania County and in 1788 he was nominated to the Virginia Convention to ratify the new Constitution. Monroe and “antifederalists” were able to win two concessions – a Bill of Rights and 20 amendments to be included in the Constitution.

The Monroes left Fredericksburg in 1789. James bought 800 acres of land near Charlottesville, near Albemarle County, and a townhouse one block away from the courthouse in the city. The plantation house, eventually known as Monroe Hall, began receiving guests by the summer of 1793. Monroe sold these 800 acres eventually and the land became the site of the University of Virginia.

Monroe became a U.S. Senator (1790-1794) at the age of 32, backed by Thomas Jefferson and George Mason.

James Monroe was appointed ambassador to France in 1794 by George Washington. The family lived in Paris for three years in a very opulent villa called Folie de la Bouexiere on the fashionable Rue de Clichy. This French home was lavishly decorated in order to keep up appearances at the French court. The furniture purchased was brought back to the U.S. in 1797 and was used in the White House. Unfortunately, the house in Paris no longer stands today.

The ambassadorship was demanding - he had to walk a difficult path during the strained Franco-American relations. He reassured France of American support but kept the U.S. neutrality and out of any involvement with France’s war with England. During the French bloody revolution, many Americans and French aristocrats were imprisoned in harsh conditions. Monroe was able to secure the release of Thomas Paine. Ill from his imprisonment, Monroe brought Paine to his home where he recovered for more than a year. Thomas Paine had radical revolutionary views and a lot of disdain for the administration in Washington.

While in France, James Monroe’s diplomatic endeavors managed to free Madame de Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette’s wife, from prison. The Marquis was imprisoned in Austria while his wife was in Paris, awaiting beheading. Monroe sent his wife in the brightly colored carriage that everyone in Paris recognized as belonging to the American ambassador, to the jail where Madame de Lafayette was held. Crowds gathered to see his gracious and beautiful wife Elizabeth who spent time with the prisoner and assured her that she would be released. The French government was embarrassed that the much admired “La Belle Americaine,” Mrs. Monroe, had to visit such an awful place to see an old friend whose husband was a hero of the American Revolution. The eventual public clamor resulted in negotiations with Ambassador Monroe. The French government released Madame de Lafayette in short order and she and their children joined the Marquis in Austria.

TO BE CONTINUED

Note: Did you know that Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is named after James Monroe? He supported the American Colonization Society's work to create a home for freed African slaves in Liberia.

Fredericksburg, a Historical Vortex

Chatham House facing the river

Fredericksburg, a crossroads of historical significance, has been called a vortex of the Civil War. The battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House have been fought here, with 100,000 casualties within twenty miles of town.

Three historical sites are maintained by the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Military Park: Chatham House, Salem Church, and the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. There is a 100-mile trail which follows the movement of the Union and Confederate armies from Wilderness to Petersburg, beginning at Germanna Ford.

The four major battle sites are: Fredericksburg Battlefield (Dec. 11-13, 1862, a decisive victory for the Confederates), Chancellorsville Battlefield (April 27-May 6, 1863, a major victory for Gen. Lee with the grievous loss of  Gen. Stonewall Jackson who was mortally wounded in the battle), Wilderness Battlefield (May 5-6, 1864, the first confrontation between Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant), and Spotsylvania Battlefield (May8-21, 1864, 30,000 men lose their lives in the desperate fighting for the ‘Bloody Angle’).

Fredericksburg in the distance from Chatham House

Overlooking the Rappahannock River, the 18^th century plantation called Chatham House stands majestically surrounded by huge trees and gardens. During the fierce battles, the house became headquarters and hospital for the Union army in two major campaigns.

Gazebo at Chatham House with a very old tree nearby

During the Chancellorsville campaign, the Salem Church, a house of worship whose name means peace, was at the center of the battle in 1863. In a small building dubbed the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, Gen. Stonewall Jackson died on May 10, 1863, eight days after he was wounded at Chancellorsville.

Marye's Union Cemetery

A 400-foot railroad bridge was built in nine days over the gorge at Potomac Creek Bridge. Lincoln said facetiously that the construction was made of “beanpoles and cornstalks.” The Fredericksburg City Dock was the site where Union troops fought their way across the Rappahannock River over a pontoon bridge on December 11, 1862.

Masonic Cemetery

In 1862, the ambulance that carried the wounded Stonewall Jackson made its way on Guinea Station Road past beautiful antebellum homes which still survive today despite intense fighting nearby.

Masonic Cemetery

Weedon’s Tavern was the location in January 1777 where a Committee of Law Revisors composed of Thomas Jefferson and four delegates met to begin the task of revising laws to reflect the independence from Britain. They presented eventually 126 statutes to the Assembly for adoption. George Weeden, the tavern’s owner, had been an ardent supporter of American independence from Britain and commanded Virginia troops in Gen. Washington’s Continental Army.

Gen. Hugh Mercer's monument

The Masonic cemetery in old town Fredericksburg dates to 1784 including burials of people who came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Williamsburg, and Boston. Several people buried here have fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Kenmore plantation

George Washington grew up in Fredericksburg and became a member of the local Masonic Lodge the year it was founded as the Fredericksburg Lodge #4, Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, in 1752. These Masons established the Masonic Cemetery in 1784 with 270 graves. People buried here are family members of the original lodge, with some re-burials of members of the American Masonic Lodge #63 which had splintered off from Lodge #4 in 1799 but did not survive beyond the Civil War.

Religious Freedom monument

Mary's meditation rock

Cemetery by Mary's monument

Among the buried in this Masonic Cemetery are:

-          Colonel Fielding Lewis, an iron forge owner during the American Revolution where repairs were made to damaged weapons and manufactured new ones as well.

-          William Woodford, commanded Virginia troops in Washington’s army at Brandywine, Great Bridge, and Monmouth, captured in Charleston in 1780, imprisoned on a ship in New York harbor where he died;

-          Brigadier Gen. George Weedon, a veteran of the French and Indian War and commander of Continental troops and Virginia militia, blocked the British breakout at Gloucester Point in the Yorktown campaign;

-         Gen. Hugh Mercer, a Scottish soldier for the exiled Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie); Mercer met Washington on the Pennsylvania frontier during the French and Indian War and joined the American Revolution; he was mortally wounded at Princeton in 1777.

The Hugh Mercer monument was erected on Washington Avenue in 1906 by the U.S. government. In addition to being a battle-hardened general, Mercer was “a doctor who fled Scotland after the Battle of Culloden, where he had supported the Stuart cause.” After he met Col. George Washington in Pennsylvania, on his advice Mercer moved to Fredericksburg to practice medicine and run an apothecary. The archives claim that Gen. George S. Patton is a great, great, great grandson of Hugh Mercer.

On the same Washington Avenue is located the Thomas Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument which represents all 16 religious denominations in the U.S. On January 13, 1777, Thomas Jefferson met with his committee, George Mason, Edmond Pendleton, George Wythe, and Thomas Ludwell Lee to draft the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

According to the archives, Thomas Jefferson considered the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, the Declaration of Independence, and the founding of the University of Virginia as his three major accomplishments.

Mary Washington's Monument

On the same Washington Avenue are Kenmore estate, Betty Washington Lewis and Colonel Fielding Lewis home built in 1752. Betty was Gen. George Washington’s sister. Mary Washington lived with her daughter and eventually died in her home. She was buried not far from her favorite spot, the Meditation Rock. There is an obelisk monument dedicated to Mary Washington in the vicinity of historic Kenmore on Washington Avenue.

Marye’s Heights is now the final resting place of the Union soldiers killed in the surrounding areas during the Civil War, reinterred in 1865 by the U.S. government in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

The Confederate soldiers were reinterred in the Fredericksburg City Cemetery founded in 1844. The Confederates had been unceremoniously buried on all the battlefields. Five Confederate generals are buried here and one Lucy Ann Cox, the wife of a Confederate soldier who followed her husband for four years in battle. She was made an honorary Confederate veteran; her tombstone reads, “A sharer of the toils, dangers, and privations of the 30^th Infantry C.S.A. from 1861-1865.”

Fredericksburg stands witness as a historical vortex of the brutal battles between brothers who shed their innocent blood to maintain the economic interests of the wealthy in power.

NOTE: Photos by Ileana Johnson taken January 2023