Eleventh Corps Encampment Area

In 1863, more than 135,000 Union Army of the Potomac soldiers established winter camps throughout Stafford County, creating the largest encampment of any army during the Civil War. Many soldiers compared their conditions to Valley Forge, and while armies were in camp two-thirds of Civil War deaths occurred. After the Battle of Fredericksburg and the disastrous Mud March, the Army of the Potomac reached a low point in Stafford and suffered hundreds of desertions a night, yet by late April 1863 under new leadership it had regained confidence and fighting spirit as its organization, food, weaponry, and training improved. Even after defeat at Chancellorsville and a return to Stafford in early May, morale remained strong, and by June 12, 1863, the army was moving north toward Gettysburg, where it won what many consider the war's most important battle. More than 3,500 Union soldiers died in Stafford that winter from disease, exposure, accidents, and other causes, while local citizens, outnumbered 15 to 1, endured farms turned into camps, homes used as headquarters or hospitals, and woodlands consumed by thousands of campfires. This area preserves more than 41 acres camped on, crossed, and fortified by elements of the Union Army of the Potomac's 11th Corps, 1st and 3rd Divisions, with surviving remains representative of many Stafford winter camp sites later lost to farming or development, including camp remains, soldier-built or improved roads, a pre-Civil War bridge, an early Stafford quarry, and three large earthen artillery batteries built to defend the area.

Virginia · United States