Union Army Ninth Corps

In the winter of 1862-1863, following the Battle of Fredericksburg, Colonel Edward Harland’s Union brigade camped on this site. The brigade comprised six infantry regiments: the 4th Rhode Island and the 8th, 11th, 15th, 16th, and 21st Connecticut. Held in reserve at Fredericksburg, it took just 40 casualties there, many from Union artillery shells that exploded prematurely overhead, but suffered far greater losses here from exposure and disease in camp. “Little Whim,” the Wallaces’ house, served as General Burn’s headquarters beside Colonel Harland’s encampments. The small valley east of the house became known locally as Burnside’s Bottom and later as Lipstick Valley. Much of Rt. 218 was a corduroy road made of logs laid side by side, covered with 6 inches of brush and then 6 inches of dirt. The railroad track once ran along what is now Cool Springs Road, where Falmouth Station stood as President Lincoln’s arrival point in April 1863. Between Nov. 1862 and May 1863, 100,000 to 130,000 Federal troops camped in wooden huts in Stafford after the Union defeat at Fredericksburg.

Virginia · United States