0049 Backside of Chatham Manor (Lacy House) at Fredericksburg,Va.

Chatham Manor is the Georgian-style home built between 1768 and 1771 by William Fitzhugh on The Rappahannock River in Stafford County,Virginia,opposite Fredericksburg.It was for more then a centruy of a large,thriving plantation.Flanking the main house were dozens of supporting structures: a dairy,ice house,barns,stables.Down on the river were fish traps.the 1,280-acea (5.2 km) estate including an orchard,mill,and a race track where Fitzhugh'horses vied with those of other planters for prize money.The house was named after British parlliamentarian Whilliam Pitt 1st Earl of Chatham,who was championed of many of the opinion held by American colonists prior to the Revolutionary War.

 

In January 1805,the plantation was the site of a minor slave rebellion.A number of slaves overpowered and whipped their overseer and assistants.An armed posse of white men quicky gathered to capture.One was killed in the attack,two died trying to escape,and two others were deported.

 

Fitzhugh owned upwards of one hundred slaves with any were from 60 to 90 being used at Chatham,depending on the season.most worked as field hands or home servants,but he also empoyed skilled tradsman such as millers,carpenters,and blacksmiths.Litte physical evidence remains show slaves livede;until recently,most knowlege of slaves at Chatham is from written records.

 

In January 1805,a number of Fitzhugh's slqaves rebelled after an overseer ordered slaves back to work at what they considered waso short an interval after the Christmas holidays.The slaves overpowered and whipped their overseer and four other who tried to make them return to work.An armed posse put down the rebellion and punished those involved.One black man was executed,two died while trying to escape,and two other were deported,perhaps to a slave colonny in the Caribbean.

 

A later owner of Chatham,Hannah Coulter,who acquied the plantation in the 1850s,tried to free her slaves through her will upon her death.She stated that,upon her death,her slaves would have the choice of being freed and migrating to Liberia,with passage paid for,or remaining as slaves for their new owner of Chatham.

 

That new owner,James Horace Lacy,took the will to court to challenge it and have it overturned.The court denied Coulter's slaves any chance of freedom by ruling that the 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court,had declared that slaves were property- without choice-and not person with choice.

 

The slave story at Chatham ended in 1865 with end of the Civil War,and passage of the Constitution Amendment abolishing the institution.

 

Has revealed a sketch made by a New Jersey soldier during the Civil War that showed other buildings at the Chatham site.Most slave dwellings were to be in the "rear",or non river side area of the estate,an area over cultivated an upon which had bullt 20th Century strustures.The sketchs show buildings to the south side of the manor house,in an area across a ravine away from the cental area of the property.The faint rooflines of the buildings in that area,thus indicating the possible location of heretofore unconfirmed slaves dwellings.More of the slave ere story at Chatham may now be discovered.

 

Fitzhugh was a friend and colleague of George Washington,whose family's farm was just down the Rappahannock River from Chatham.Washington's diaries note that he was a frequent guest at Chatham.He and Fitzhugh served together in the House of Burgesses prior to the American Revolution,and they shered a love of farming and horses.Fitzhugh 's daughter,Mary Lee,would marry the fist president's step grandson,george Washington Parke Custis.Their daughter wed the future Confederate General Robert Le.Lee.

 

That Thomas Jefferson and James Monre also visted at Chatham,begining a veritable "Who's Who" of important Americans who stopped in to enjoy Fitzhugh's hospitality.His feasts were legendary and included caviar the sturgeon in the Rapponnock.(They lasted in that habitat until the 1930s.)Fitzhugh trapped the fish in what essentially was a "caviar factory" on his river frontage.

 

In 1806 Major Churchill Jones,a former officer in the Continental Army,purchased the plantation for 20,000 dollars.His family owned the property for the next 66 years.

 

William Henry Harrison stopped by Chatham in 1841 on his way to be inaugurated as President.

 

The Civil War brought change and destruction to Chatham.At the time the house was owned by James Horace Lacy (1823-1906),a former schollteacher who had married Churchill Jone's niece.As a plantation owner and slaveholder,Lacy sympathized with the South,and at the age of 37 he left Chatham to serve the Confederacy as a staff officer.His wife and children remained at the house until the spring of 1862,when the arrial of union troops forced them to abandon the building and move in with relatives across the Rappahannock River in the beleagurered city of Fredericksburg.For much of the next thirteen months,Chatham would be occupied be the Union Army who would refer to the mansion as the "Lacy House" in their orders and reports as well as diaries and letters.

 

Northern officers initially utilized the building as a headquaters.In April 1862,Major General Irvin McDowwll brought 30,000 men to Fredericksburg.From his Chatham headquaters,the general supervised the repair of the Ricmond,Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and the construction of several bridges across the Rappahannock River.Once that work was complete,General McDowell planned to march south and join forces with the Army of the Potomac outside of Richmond.

 

President Abraham Lincoln,journeyed to Fredericksburg to confer General McDowell about the movement,meeting with the general and his staff at Chatham.His visit gave Chatham the distinction of being one of three houses visited by both President Lincoln and President Washington ( the other two are Mount Vernon and Berkely Plantation).

 

Seven months after President Lincoln's visit,fighting erupt at Fredericksburg itself.In November 1862,Major General Ambrose E.Burnside brought 120,000 men Army of the Potomac to Fredericksburg.Using pontoon bridges,General Burnside crossed the Rappahannock River below Chatham,siezed Fredericksburg,and launched a series of bloody assaualts against General Lee's Confederates,who held the high ground behind the town.One of General Burnside's top generals,Major General Edwin Sumner,observed the battle from Chatham,while Union Artillery batteries shelled the Confederates from adjacent bluffs.

 

Fredericksburg was a disastrous Union defeat.General Burnside suffered 12,600 casualtties in the battle,many of whom were brought back to Chatham for care.For several days,army surgeons operated on hundreds of soldiers inside the house.Assisting them were volunteers,including pote Walt Whitman and Clara Barton,who later founded the American chapter of the International Red Cross.

 

Walt Whitman came to Chatham searching for a brother who was wounded in the fighting.He was shocked by the carnage.Outside the house,at the foot of a tree,he noticed "a heap of amputated feet,legs.arms,hands,ect -about a load for a one-horse cart.Several dead bodies lie near,'he added," each covered with its brown woolen blanket." In all,more that 130 Union soldiers died at Chatham and were buried on the grounds.After the war,their bodies were removed to the Frederciksburg National Cemetery.Years later when three additional bodies were discovered,the remains were buried at Chatham,in graves marked by granite stone lying flush to the ground.

 

In the winter following the battle,the Union Army camped in Stafford County,behind Chatham.The Confederate Army occupied Spotsylvania Court,across the Rappahannock River.Opposing pickets patrolled the riverfront,keeping a wary eye on their foe.Occasionally the men would trade newspapers and other articles by means of miniature sailboats.When not on duty,Union pickets slept at Chatham;Dorothea L.Dix of the United States Sanitary Commission operated a soup kitchen in the house.As the winter progreeed and firewood became scarce,some soldiers tore paneling from the walls for fuel.

 

Dr.Mary Edwards Walker served the wounded at Chatham.Dr Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor,the only women from the Civil War to be so recognized,for her meritorious service to the wounded during several battles.When the law for the Medal of Honor was changed to restrict the medal to combat veterans,she was asked to return hers.She refused and died with the medal in her possession.Her fammily continued to petition for the full restoration of the honor.In 1977,then-President JamesE.Carter signed the Congressional bill into law that restored Dr.Mary E.Walker's medal.

 

Military activvity resumed in the spring.In April 1863,the new Union commander,Major General Joseph Hooker,led most of the army uprive,crossing behind General Lee's tropps.Other portions remand in Stafford County,including General John Gibbon's divion at Chatham.The Confederates marched out to meet General Hooker's main force for a week fighting raged around a country crossroad known as Chancellorville.At the same time,Union troops crossed the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg and drove a Confederate force off of Marye's Hights,behind the town.Many of 1,00 casualties suffered by the Union Army in the engagement were sent back to Chatham.

 

By the time the Civil War ended in 1865,Chatham was desolate and severely damaged.Blood stains sportted the floor,graffiti marred its bare plaster walls and sections of the interior wood had been removed and used for firewood.In addition to the damage to the house itself there was a lot of damage to the grounds as well;The surrounding forests had been cut down for fuel,the gardens and several of the outbuildings where damaged or destroyed and the lawn had become a graveyard.In 1868 the Lacys returned to their home but were unable to maintain it properly and moved to another house they owned called "Ellwood",selling Chatham in 1872.

 

The property had a succession of owners until the 1920s,when Daniel and Helen DeVore undertook its retoration (and made significant changes).Their efforts can probably be credited with literally saving the house.In addition to restoration,the DeVore's re-oriented the house away from the river/West front and made the East entrance the main entrance.They also added a large,walled English-style garden on the East.As a result of their effords,Chatham regained its place among Virginia's finest homes.

 

Today the house and the 85 acres (340,000 m)of surrounding grounds are open to the public.The last owner John Lee Pratt purchased Chatham from the DeVores in 1931 for 150,000 cash.Chatham's distinction as a destination of note continued during his ownership.Serving as one of President Franklin D.Roosevelt's

"Dollar-a-Year" men,Pratt met and as vistors General of the Army George C.Marshall and General of the army Dwight D.Eisenhower.Upon Pratt's death in 1975,his will provided to the National Park Service.

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