Fredericksburg Va- Americas Most Historic City

Fredericksburg has many Civil War connections. It was the site of four major battles and these alone make it one of America’s most historic cities but it is the Colonial connections that really charmed us.

Colonial

Mary Washington House: Mary is the mother of our first president but she was a self sufficient woman who ran her own farm for more than 20 years before her son George convinced her to move to the city.

Kenmore : This beautiful house was the home of Fielding Lewis and Betty Washington Lewis. It has some of the finest plaster work in this country.

James Monroe Museum: Probably our most under appreciated president is showcased in this museum on the site of his former law offices.

Ferry Farm: The childhood home of George Washington is an archaeological site well worth visiting if only to see the background that he was born into.

Chatham: The Fitzhugh family home spans history from colonial times when George Washington would have visited here to the civil war when it served as a hospital where both Clara Barton and Walt Whitman served the wounded.

Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop: Hugh Mercer fought in the Revolutionary War but before that he was doctor and apothecary. What you learn in this tour is what his practice would have involved. It really is amazing how similar many of our medicinal herbs are today.

Quick Tips:

Before you visit Fredericksburg check out their website at www.Fredericksburg.com . You may also want to visit the National Park Service at www.nps.gov/frspm and also www.Fredericksburgva.gov  the official Fredericksburg website.

There is a lot to see in Fredericksburg and you need to do your research if you want to see most of it. We spent 3 full days and we could have used one more. To find out what is going on while you are visiting try
www.simplyFredericksburg.com.

Your first stop in Fredericksburg should be the Visitor Center. You can purchase a pass that will get you two for one entries into many of the places I am suggesting. If you plan to visit all the locations on the pass, and we did, then it will be a very good buy. You can also take the trolley tour from the visitor center. It is a very good tour that takes you to all the major sites including the battlefield and the waterfront.

There are a few dining coupons available online. You will need to find them, I actually never used any of the ones I had printed out but it’s worth checking.
http://fredericksburg.com/StarDirectory/NewSearch/coupons/ Fredericksburg Coupons

Fredericksburg also has wonderful antiquing. We spent a whole morning on Caroline Street just going from one shop to another.

Best Way To Get Around:

Fredericksburg is a great walking city. The Visitor Center has a series of maps on walking each of the major streets. There is so much to see you won’t want to miss a thing. The historic downtown is relatively small and you can visit quite a few places in one day just on foot. As with many other cities the major obstacle here are the one-way streets. Parking is also an issue which is why we spent a lot of time walking. We didn’t have any trouble finding on street parking at Belmont. We also drove to Ferry Farm, Chatham, and Kenmore.

Chatham has one of the most beautiful settings anywhere. It hard to believe looking at the peaceful setting along the banks of the Rappahannock River that this was the site of so much bloodshed and pain during the Civil War.

The history of Chatham however goes back much farther, to the 1768 when William Fizhugh decided to build a Georgian Manor on the river near Ferry Farm. Chatham was a plantation in the grand manner with a whole supporting cast of buildings and the slaves that would be necessary to run the over 1200 acres farm. They were famous for the race horses that they raised here.

In the 1790s the Fizhughs moved to Alexandria to escape from the hundreds of guest who visited Chatham every year. The cost of housing and entertaining the guests were putting a strain on the purse of the aging planter. In 1796 after an ugly slave rebellion the house was placed up for sale.

It took 10 years to sell but the new owner Major Churchill Jones had been an officer in the Continental Army. Robert E. Lee was a guest of the Jones family during their 66-year- ownership of Chatham. There was a connection between the Washington and Fitzhugh families, Molly Fitzhugh married George Washington Parke Custis, whose daughter in turn married Robert E. Lee. The owner at the time of the Civil War was James Lacey who had married the niece of Churchill Jones. He left to serve in the Confederate Army and his wife and children remained until 1862 when the Union Army arrived and forced them to move.

Chatham became the headquarters of the Union Army and eventually an Army field hospital. In 1862 Abraham Lincoln met here with General McDowell giving Chatham the distinction of being one of only three houses where both Lincoln and Washington were guests. Clara Barton and Walt Whitman were both here nursing the wounded. Today there are grave markers on the grounds marking the burial sites of some of the patients who did not survive, most of the dead were moved shortly after that to the National Cemetery.

When the Laceys returned after the war the house was in shambles. They sold the house in 1872. It wasn’t until the Chatham was purchased by Daniel & Helen Devore in the 1920s that an attempt was made to preserve it. The final owner of the house John Lee Pratt willed it to the National Park Service which maintains the house today.

We toured the house which has almost no furniture with our Ranger Jaime. There are large plaques in each of the rooms introducing us to Chatham and the many people who had a part in its history.

The grounds are quite lovely with gardens on one side and slopping lawns down to the Rappahannock on the other. Since Chatham was the launching point for the Battle of Fredericksburg you will see one of the vessel that the Union Army used.

First let me warn you, if you think that you are going to come to Ferry Farm to see the house where George Washington spent his childhood, you are going to be disappointed. Ferry Farm is an archaeological project. The original farm is long gone. Having said that it is still a very interesting place to visit.

You begin your visit at the Visitor Center. This is where you are going to paint the picture in your head that will carry you through the grounds. We arrived on a rainy Saturday afternoon and we had the site to ourselves. Even had we decided not to walk around the grounds there would have been plenty to read and enjoy in the Visitor Center. Ferry farm is included on the Passport but if you haven’t purchased one be sure to ask for the AAA discount.

The exhibit in the visitor center entitled "George Washington, Boy before the legend". We learn that he moved here in 1738 at 6 years old with his father Augustine, his mother Mary, and his younger brothers Samuel, John, and Charles, and his sister Betty. His older half brothers were off in England getting their formal education. On Christmas Eve 1740 the house burned down. Then in 1743 his father died. His elder half brother Lawrence inherited the main family home Mount Vernon.

At age 15 he went off into the far reaches of Virginia with Lord Fairfax and it was the beginning of his career as both a surveyor and a soldier. Much of his reputation was being developed during this period. He was the quintessential gentleman, as a young man he copied the "Rules of Civility, a guide to gentlemanly behavior. In many ways it became the benchmark that he modeled his life upon. He was an elegant dancer, he loved to gamble, to fence, to foxhunt, and he was a superb horseman

I could continue for an hour with all we learned in the visitor center but do take a walk out into the grounds. It was October so the archaeological dig was closed for the year but there is plenty of evidence left uncovered. There is ongoing research on the property. They have not yet discovered the exact location of the house built after the 1740 fire. They also know that there were several warehouses, a kitchen, and at least one slave quarters. They have excavated more than 500 exploratory holes. The items removed from the holes are being identified and when they have more information that will begin large scale digs.

You can take a walk that goes along the Rappahannock and goes to the site of the Ferry crossing which gave the farm its name. It also played a vital part in the battle of Fredericksburg. If you are interested in George Washington this is a must visit and even if your not it is a fascinating look at mid-18th century life.

Hugh Mercer was born in Scotland in 1725. He was a field surgeon at the Battle of Culloden Moor on the side of Bonnie Prince Charlie so it became expedient for him to flee after the defeat. He worked as a doctor on the frontier in America. He joined the Pennsylvania militia and served as a Col. In the French and Indian War. It was here that he first met George Washington. It may even have been George who suggested that he make his home in Fredericksburg.

Now if his story had ended here, it would have been a fascinating tale but it is just the beginning. He opened a medical practice in Fredericksburg in 1761 and when we enter the front door of his shop the year is 1774. All visits are done on a guided tour and you are assigned a guide.

Our guide was Rosie Morris and she loves her job, her enthusiasm was contagious. We begin our tour by learning about some of the herbs that the typical apothecary would have used. Amazingly, many of them are things we still use today in a more refined form. Not for the faint of heart the medical practices of yesteryear and Hugh Mercer was very much a man of his time. We are shown instruments that look like they belong in a torture chamber. We learn that he was able to remove a cataract from an eye, and when you realize that this was in the days before general anaesthesia you get a small idea of how much pain this would have caused.

Soon we become familiar with terms that must have brought terror to the people of the 18th century, cupping, purges, enemas, inoculations, leeches, yuck. I bet you leeches were used to draw blood, well yes they were but if you had an ear infection they put a leech on a string and lowered it into your ear. Talk about the cure killing you.

Some of the practices seem barbaric to us today, we got a whole lesson on amputation, which was one of the leading causes of death in battles, it wasn’t the wound that killed you it was the infection from the amputation.

It is a fascinating if a bit disturbing tour. After we visit the shop and the office, we visit the upstairs on a self-guided tour. There are some interesting displays including an account book belonging to General Washington.

Hugh Mercers joined the Continental Army and fought at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. He was 55 years old. Had he lived, he would have been remembered as one of the great leaders of the American Revolution. He passed his military prowess onto his Great, great, great grandson George Patton. Be sure to visit his statue which is located close to Kenmore on Washington Avenue.

This is a surprisingly entertaining stop. You can’t eat here so plan your lunch at a different time. This house was originally built by George Washington’s brother Charles in 1760. He lived here for 20 years before moving to Charlestown West Virginia. It was the second family who owned it who turned it in to a tavern.

You must tour the tavern with a guide. The good news is the tours are continuous so you can join in at anytime and just continue on to pickup anything you might have missed. This is one of the funniest and interesting tours we have ever taken. We learned all about what it would have been like in a tavern in 1790 or so. Our costumed tour guide tells us that she would wear a mob to keep her brain from freezing

We begin our tour in the office. None of the furniture in the building is original, it is only of the period. The innkeeper is also the postmaster. In this time period the sender didn’t pay for the mail, the receiver did. The postmaster would have opened it to see how important it was, so much for privacy. Common men slept with their boots on, gentlemen took them off, or rather a convenient wench or bootjack removed them. The staff would then take the boots to clean. The boots were identical so the right boot was placed standing up and the left boot upside down, thus getting off on the right foot in the morning. Your boots were returned to you when you paid your bill.

Our next stop is the taproom where no self respecting woman of this period was allowed to venture. Women had their own separate ladies retiring room. Not much fun to be had there, there was a bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and a woman’s necessary chair (men had to use the privy). In the tap room the men could play droughts or checkers. It became known as the barroom because the alcohol and glasses were kept behind bars to prevent breakage.

Beyond visiting the building itself and seeing the guest rooms, which I have to admit were quite an eye opener. If you were rich you got to have your own room, most people were not rich and they slept in a common room and it was pretty darn common.

Many of the terms we use today have their origins in the tavern. Patrons were given a free chew of tobacco with their meals and told "don’t bite off more than you can chew." Mind your P’s & Q’s meant keep track of your pints and quarts. Two fisted drinker was drinking from a stirrup cup with two handles and drinking like a fish meant whoever saw the fish on the bottom of the drink bought the next round. These and many more entertaining facts will keep smiling throughout your entire tour.

James Monroe Museum & Memorial Library

"a better man there cannot be" - Thomas Jefferson

Everyone should visit this museum. I have never considered James Monroe as anything but the 5th President and the writer of the Monroe Doctrine, but to limit him to these two is a sad miscarriage of justice. In actuality he has to be the most under appreciated man in American history. I was previously unaware that we really owe the Louisiana Purchase to his negotiations with Napoleon and also that he had fought in and been wounded at the battle of Trenton.

What we have here is James Monroe’s personal collection of papers as well as papers belonging to other Monroe family members. They were passed down through the Monroe family for generations before finding a home here. Some of them date to the early 17th century and include maps and newspapers as well as books, manuscripts, and documents. His collection of 3000 books was however, sold after his death. This constitutes the Library portion but it is the museum that really fascinates.

James Monroe moved to Fredericksburg to work in his uncles law office in 1786. He purchased the land where the museum is located in 1786 but he didn’t live on it, he lived with his uncle. We don’t know where the law office was located, it may have been on this location but that is only supposition. His uncle’s home is still standing at 30 Caroline Street. The building that houses the museum was built after the American Revolution. The museum was founded by his great granddaughter, Rose Gouverneur Hoes and her sons in 1927, and it was given to the State of Virginia in 1964.

This is a self-guided tour however, there are docents available and ours was very enthusiastic. Almost to the point of being annoying however his excitement with his topic was commendable and he just wasn’t used to someone knowing about history in general. I have to admit that he for the most part was dead on though I caught him embellishing a couple of times much to my amusement.

I was however enthralled by his wife Elizabeth who I really knew not a thing about. She was
exceptionally beautiful as well as talented and was a great favorite of the French. Napoleon referred to her as the "beautiful American". It was through James' and her influence at the French Court that Lafayette and his wife were released from prison and he never forgot it. He and the Monroes were friends for over 50 years.

What you will see are personal items, Elizabeth’s necessary case, the desk which Monroe used to write and sign the Monroe Doctrine, his eye glasses, court rapier and many other personal items. It is a very enjoyable museum and there is a small garden in the rear.
This museum will be of interest to the younger set as well, they offer a scavenger hunt to keep them occupied.

If you only visit one thing in Fredericksburg it just might have to be Kenmore. Not that it is the most perfect, most beautifully furnished, most historic, though it will be all of these things. It is a house in the process of being renovated and watching the work in progressive is absolutely fascinating.

In 1752 Fielding Lewis bought the first parcel of land that would make up his eventual plantation. In time, through inheritance the size would rise to 1300 acres. The main house was constructed in 1775. The only buildings that survive from the Fielding period are the house and a store by the river. The other building which would have been numerous were wooden. There is archaeological work going on at the site to determine where and what some of the buildings which didn’t survive would have been.

Betty Lewis was George Washington’s sister, that of course is part of the attraction of visiting here. You begin your visit in the visitors center where you can watch a short video about the work that is ongoing. At the moment the gift shop is non existent but it will be back soon. Tours of the house are guided and take place every 45 minutes. In the visitor center there is a museum with furniture, pictures and other items from the Fielding/Washington families. You will find Betty’s resemblance to her brother George striking, she was a statuesque woman with distinctive features.

The name Kenmore was not applied to this property until it was owned by the Gordon family in the 1820s. Fielding Lewis spent most of the money he had in the cause of the Revolutionary War. He died shortly before the war ended and the plantation was sold after Betty’s death by his eldest son John Lewis Over the years, through several different owner the plantation became Kenmore Farm and was subdivided. The house was used as a hospital during the Civil War and did sustain some damage especially to the plaster work. In 1881 Kenmore came into the possession of the Howard family who lived here for several generations. In 1922 in danger of being torn down some very determined Fredericksburg women raised the money to purchase the house and history was preserved. The work has been ongoing but they are presently in a major renovation of the house to return it to the days of the Fieldings.

What the tour will show you is how the work of restoration is progressing. The plaster work is amazing and just learning about the re-mortaring of the brick exterior is interesting. Our guide was Becky Toney, and she gave an excellent tour. There were 10 people on our tour and you need to be able to climb stairs.

The Four Season ceiling is amazing and the glimpses that we can see into the life of Betty and Fielding Lewis are worth the price of admission which by the way is $6.

Mary Ball was no wilting flower even though as a young woman she had been known as the Rose of Epping Forest. She married a widower, Augustine Washington 14 years her senior when she was 23. At his death, 12 years later, her 11-year-old son George inherited Ferry Farm. She remained there running the farm for 29 years. It was only at the importuning of George that in 1772 she allowed him to buy her a house in Fredericksburg and she moved their to be closer to her only daughter Betty Fielding.

In an age where women were encouraged and expected to remarry quickly Mary was a standout, not only did she not remarry quickly, she never remarried. She was financially independent through inheritances from both her parents and brother and she cherished that independence.

The house that George purchased for her was a two room cottage on a half acre of land. He purchased an additional half acre of land, added the porch and greatly increased the size of the house. When Mary moved from ferry farm she brought with her a cow, a dog, two horses, and six servants. Actually they were six slaves and at her death she still had six slaves which she willed to members of her family.

The house must be visited on a guided tour, and since it was a rainy day they escorted us to the rear veranda overlooking the garden to await the beginning of our tour. The garden was redone in the late 1960s to be an English Garden. The sundial in the garden made of Acquia stone belonged to Mary and came with her from Ferry Farm.

After Mary died in 1789 her daughter Betty held a public auction to sell the items in the house. The list of the items auctioned still exists and it has help the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities identify items to be acquired for the house. Some things have been donated back to the house and some have been purchased and some are on loan. Everything else is of the period.

After Mary’s death the house was turned into a school for boys, and the Association purchased the house in 1890 to keep it from being dismantled and taken to the St. Louis World’s Fair for $4,050. It took 40 years to open it as a museum.

We begin our tour in the parlor where we are shown the chair rail and the crown molding made in the candle and flame pattern by indentured servants. Mary’s original teapot is in the parlor. Upstairs there is a case of personal items as well as the Washington family genealogy.

The most historic room in the house is Mary’s bedroom. George came here to get her blessing shortly after he was elected president and shortly before she died. She was too sick to understand the significance. In that room be sure to look for her "very best dressing glass ".