The Willis Hill Buildings

In December 1862 Confederate artillery on this hill rained shot and shell on attacking Union soldiers advancing out of Fredericksburg. Next to the guns was a small brick building, one of three that then occupied this part of the heights. One Confederate wrote, "The little brick house, which was white at the beginning of the battle, was perfectly red with bullet-marks at its close," and recalled an odd cooking-stove in front of the house whose repeated hits kept up a perpetual "bing, bing," equalling the varied notes of a hand-organ. An 1864 photograph taken from about this spot shows the Willis Hill buildings in ruins, wrecked by Union artillery during the fighting here, while Confederate earthworks, now gone, once creased the heights.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States