The landscape before Fredericksburg appeared much as shown in a photograph taken the year after the Battle of Fredericksburg, with the town atop the ridge in the distance and the spire of St. George's Episcopal Church dominating the skyline. Before the war, much of this open ground had been Fredericksburg's fairgrounds, enclosed by fences and dotted with sheds, but those features were swept away during the December 1862 battle. For eight hours on December 13, 1862, these open fields became a killing ground. After the war, the dead buried here were disinterred, and the town slowly grew westward. The neighborhood now on this ground was built between 1890 and 1930.