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La Vista
La Vista, 1858 (Encyclopedia of Virginia)Â Â Â Â Standing now for almost 165 years on what is now known as Guinea Station Road in eastern Spotsylvania County, La Vista is a living symbol of the Boulware...
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Richard Lewis Todd
Richard Lewis Todd while (Courtesy of Turnley Todd, Jr.)Â Â Â Â Charles M. Todd (1797-c. 1850) married Caroline Matilda Richards (1804-1885) in Spotsylvania County on March 2, 1824. Over a fourteen-year...
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The Story of General Jackson's Bed
The bed in which Stonewall Jackson died (National Park Service)Â Â Â Â The story of the bed in which General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died in May 1863 is a convoluted tale, full of unexpected twists...
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St. Julien and Bacchus White
Francis Taliaferro Brooke    Francis Taliaferro Brooke and his twin brother John were born at "Smithfield" in Spotsylvania County on August 27, 1763. During the American Revolution, Francis and John...
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Lewis Boggs and the Mule Incident at Livingston
Lewis Alexander Boggs (Ancestry)Â Â Â Â Hugh Corrans Boggs was born in County Donegal, Ireland on June 6, 1763. His family emigrated to the United States, where in 1789 he was ordained as an Episcopal...
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"He looked at me in a defiant manner"
Wilson Comfort (Courtesy of Tyler Talley) Â Â Thomas H. Comfort, a black citizen of Spotsylvania County, was born about 1862 to Wilson Comfort and Sarah Ann Brown. Thomas married Mary Woolfolk on...
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Fisticuffs on Princess Anne Street
Cardinal Richelieu Coleman (Library of Virginia)Â Â Â Â Cardinal Richelieu Coleman was born at "Alta Vista," a large farm in eastern Spotsylvania County, on November 19, 1878. His father, Solon T....
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The Harris Brothers Go To War
Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863Â Â Â Â In the early 1840s, Robert McCracken Harris moved his family from Warren County, New Jersey to Spotsylvania, where he had bought a 250-acre farm near Shady...
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William Aquilla Harris
William Aquilla Harris (Courtesy of Rich Morrison)Â Â Â Â He came from a distinguished family that arrived in Spotsylvania in the early 1840s, and during his long and useful life, William Aquilla Harris...
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John J. Wright
                                                                          John J. Wright   On November 18, 1863, John Julius Wright was born into slavery in Spotsylvania County at "the Blanton farm"...
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Thomas Evan Thomas
       Welsh immigrants began arriving in America in significant numbers by the end of the 17th century. Many who were attracted by William Penn's creed of religious tolerance came to Pennsylvania. By...
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The McCrackens
     For a number of reasons, not the least of which were the oppressive policies of absentee British landlords, the potato became the main source of sustenance for the rural poor in Ireland by the...
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Henry Robey and Hopewell Nurseries
  (Photograph of Henry R. Robey from Glen Holmes's compilation of "Robey Family History," Courtesy of R. Brooks Robey.)    Henry Richard Robey was born in Fredericksburg on July 26, 1810 to Richard...
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The Great Fire of Orange
 The ruins of Orange Baptist Church, 1908 (R. Duff Green)About 5:30 Sunday morning. November 8, 1908.   While making his customary rounds on the streets of Orange, the town's only policeman noticed a...
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Edgar Wilton Harrison
 Farm of Edgar Harrison, 1866 (National Park Service)    About the early life of Edgar Wilton Harrison I have been able to learn very little. He was born in Virginia about 1829, but I cannot say with...
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Reverend Elmer Grant Barnum
 Elmer Grant Barnum    Elmer Grant Barnum was born in New York near Lake Ontario in the farming community of Sanborn, Niagara County, on October 14, 1868. He earned a master of arts degree from the...
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"I may never see you all again"
 Salem Baptist Church, 1870s (Confederate Memorial Literary Society)    John C. Davis was born in 1837 on a farm in Limestone County, just west of Huntsville, Alabama. He was the oldest of fourteen...
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"I have arrested Mr. George E. Chancellor"
 George E. Chancellor at a breastwork near Ellwood, April 1866    Born in Spotsylvania County about 1842, George Edwards Chancellor was one of ten children born to Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor...
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Two Families, One Story
 William A. Jackson, 1850     In the early 1800s, there were three William Jacksons living in Fredericksburg--grandfather, father and son.    In 1770, William Jackson an eighteen-year-old stone mason...
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Dowdall's Tavern
 Dowdall's Tavern, April 1866    During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Dowdall's Tavern was located directly in the path of the charging Confederates of General Thomas J. Jackson's Second Corps as...
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Elizabeth Morrison and a History of Hazelwild
 Anna Elizabeth Morrison (Rich Morrison)    For 130 years, Hazelwild was owned by three generations of the Eastburn and Morrison families. Today this historic farm is probably best remembered because...
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The Jackson Monuments at Chancellorsville
 Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson, 1862    He had a few peculiarities, it must be said.    He was a lifelong hypochondriac who fretted endlessly about his maladies, both real and imagined. He...
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"I immediately took command"
 Carl Hermann Doerflinger (Findagrave)    Karl Hermann Doerflinger (whose name was spelled "Carl" after he came to America) was born in Ettenheim in the state of Baden in the German Federation on...
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Parmenas Pritchett
 Parmenas Bowker Pritchett, Jr. (Vickie Neely)    During his long and productive lifetime, Parmenas Bowker Pritchett, Jr., served his community in a variety of roles. His most lasting legacy, however,...
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Montgomery Slaughter, The War Mayor of Fredericksburg
 Montgomery Slaughter    William Slaughter of Culpeper County married Harriet "Hatty" Ficklen on December 24, 1813. They made their home at a farm called "The Hermitage" in Culpeper. William was a...
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