White Oak Church

White Oak Church, built by Stafford County Baptists sometime after 1789, became an important Civil War landmark during the winter of 1862-1863. The simple weatherboard church was later enlarged with an attached shed and separate entrance for African-American members of the congregation. After the Army of the Potomac arrived in November 1862, the church stood at the center of one of the largest communities in Virginia, as 20,000 soldiers of the VI Corps camped nearby for seven months. During the encampment, the building served at different times as a military hospital, a United States Christian Commission station, and a photographic studio. Fifty-two soldiers who died there were buried on the church grounds before their bodies were later moved to Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

Virginia · United States