Sitlington's Hill

Sitlington's Hill was heavily wooded with thick underbrush and several rocky slopes, making it hard ground to fight over. During the 1862 battle, both armies used ravines that ran around and through the hill. The top of the ridge had a knoll to the left, a knoll to the right, and a depression in the middle. A Confederate soldier likened it to the back of a Bactrian camel, with two humps rising 800 feet and 1,200 feet above the bottomlands below; broad but rugged, with many sharp ridges and ravines on its surface. In front, a smooth slope dropped sharply to the Bull Pasture River about 500 feet below, and the hill stood on a ridge running north and south at right angles to the turnpike. The hill remains much as it appeared during the battle, and some Confederate reinforcements may have used the path here. One Union soldier called it a position almost impregnable if defended with reasonable skill and courage.

Virginia · United States