The Civil War at Ferry Farm

George Washington's Ferry Farm stood in the middle of the Union lines during the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. On December 11th, Union engineers began building a pontoon bridge at the ferry landing, but sniper fire halted the work until late in the day, when soldiers of the 89th New York crossed the river in pontoons and drove the Confederates back. The bridge was then completed, and artillery was placed to cover the Union army's crossing on its way to defeat at Fredericksburg. Pontoon bridges were also built here during the Chancellorsville Campaign in May 1863 and the Overland Campaign in May 1864. Soldiers serving here recognized Ferry Farm as George Washington's boyhood home, and their recollections joined the hardships of wartime movement along the steep ferry road with reflections on the contrast between Washington's early life there and the fratricidal strife that later engulfed the ground.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States