Help Save 56 Acres of Second Fredericksburg Battlefield
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust is collaborating with Downtown Greens, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster community involvement and growth through collaborative environmental stewardship and experiential education, to save 56 acres of farmland in the Battlefield Industrial Park in Fredericksburg. This property contains wetlands, mature timber, and nearly 20 acres of the last working agricultural space in the city. This land is also important hallowed ground where troops from the Army of the Potomac's VI Corps marched and took fire from Confederates along the Howison Hill and Telegraph Hill ridgeline on May 3, 1863. These acres will also provide an important access and future interpretation point for visitors to learn more about the often forgotten story of the Second Battle of Fredericksburg.
Yes, Let's Save Second Fredericksburg Acres!
The Vermont Brigade
During the Battle of Second Fredericksburg, May 3, 1863, regiments from the Army of the Potomac's Vermont Brigade marched and fought across the land that CVBT and Downtown Greens are working to preserve. Organized in 1861, the Vermont Brigade earned an early reputation for tenacity during the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days' Battles. Possessing excellent leadership and determined soldiers, the Vermont Brigade continued to prove itself during the Overland, 1864 Shenandoah Valley, Petersburg, and Appomattox Campaigns.
Among the Vermont Brigade units to march across the ground that CVBT seeks to preserve with Downtown Greens were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th Vermont Infantry regiments. In a letter to his parents following the battle, Pvt. Hiram H. Tilley, 2nd Vermont, explained, "We charged across the open field to the foot of the Heights where we had to cross 'as best we could' a wide ditch partly full of of muddy water after which 'under a heavy fire of muskets' we charged up the Heights. . . ."
Today's fundraising effort will help CVBT continue to fulfill its mission to preserve this area's battlefield land and tell the stories of the soldier's who fought there.