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By Marion Brooks Robinson There are several interesting “oral history” stories from the Civil War period in Falmouth that have been passed down through several generations of my family. One concerns the period after the Battle of Fredericksburg in the spring of 1863. Celebrations of the Confederate victory in December of 1862 had been private…

John Washington was “born enslaved” in Fredericksburg on May 20, 1838.  As the Union Army approached Falmouth and Fredericksburg on April 18, 1862, John M. Washington, a 24 year old Black man working in a Fredericksburg hotel, left his enslaver, walked along the Rappahannock River until he was directly across from Falmouth Beach. There Union soldiers…

In the spring and summer of 1862, as many as 10,000 slaves crossed the Rappahannock River to freedom. The Trail to Freedom retraces their route. Many slaves saw the arrival of the Union army in Stafford, opposite Fredericksburg, in April 1862 as a chance for freedom. During the Union occupation that spring and summer, slaves…

This was a typical sight at Aquia Landing.  Note the (U.S.M.R.R.) United States Military Railroad railcar, stacked rations boxes, and commissary clerks.

Early documents of Stafford County do not reveal any kind of courthouses. Some types of court sessions were held in private homes. In 1691, The House of Burgesses created a public port in Stafford County. A town known as Marlborough was created and served as a seat of government and port for Stafford County. A…

by Marion Brooks Robinson From the beginning of the Jamestown settlement until 1786, the Anglican or Episcopal Church of England was the “state” church in Virginia. Many dissenters, however, moved into the early colony. Many settled in what is now Stafford County. Chief among these groups were Catholics, Quakers, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodists denominations. The…

In 1919, Mr. John Lee Pratt, a King George County boy who would become a multimillionaire and owner of Chatham Manor in Stafford, was a General Motors engineer. He had originally worked for DuPont and was loaned to General Motors to assist in troubles they were having with refrigerator development in their “Frigidaire Department.” GM…

Eighteen U.S. Presidents have visited Stafford County — nineteen if you include FDR whose train carrying his casket slowed down when it went through Stafford’s Brooke Point.  Here are those that have visited/passed through on their way to other places: George Washington Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren (while Jackson’s…

Tavern—a place where travelers or local residents could go for alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, food, games, sharing news, visiting friends, etc. There were different taverns that served different socio-economic groups from laborers to gentry. Women rarely entered taverns. During the years leading up to the American Revolution, the pros and cons of separation from England…

On January 25, 1863, Major General Daniel Butterfield was appointed Army of the Potomac chief of staff. In command of a demoralized force, Hooker and Butterfield began a complete transformation of the army. Butterfield, considered an “idea man” and the “brains of the outfit,” was a key player in the army’s resurgence.

Postcards used from the collection of Tom Harris. In 1946, state-sponsored construction crews completed the Highway 1 by-pass around Fredericksburg. Now people could travel rapidly from New York to Florida via U.S. 1, which was first built in 1927, without slowing down to go through the town of Fredericksburg.. A new bridge crossed the Rappahannock…

Robert Campbell Rodgers was born in Ireland, the son of Robert Rogers (c.1780-1857) of Londonderry. Upon leaving Ireland, he landed first in Philadelphia where he took a job as a bookkeeper. Robert became a naturalized citizen around 1842 and settled in Stafford County, Virginia around 1848. The elder Robert Rogers joined his son in Stafford…