Sunken Road: Fredericksburg, VA

Sunken Road 1862

Sunken Road 2017

Site Name:
   Sunken Road, Fredericksburg

Date of Construction:
    September 1862

Reason for Construction:
     Confederate soldiers needed a place to hide during battle, particularly the Battles of Fredericksburg and Antietam. They dug a trench in what is now Sunken Road, though it was also known as the Bloody Lane due to the nature of the battles that were fought there.
Site History:
    The site where the Battle of Antietam was fought is known as "the Cornfield" and it was located in Maryland and parts of Northern Virginia. Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and over 23,000 soldiers were either killed or wounded in the Cornfield. The Sunken Road itself was designed to be a trench near the Confederate fort in Fredericksburg. During the Battle of Antietam it was a key turning point of the battle in favor of the South after they rose from the trench to take out the front ranks of the approaching Union Army. In the end, it was a technical victory for the South after General McClellan failed to follow after General Lee when he lead his troops out of Fredericksburg. In addition, on this site, there is a house known as the Innis house where a woman named Martha Stevens lived during the Civil War. She is known to have stayed in her house during the battle and provided aid to the soldiers who were wounded.
Area History:
     Fredericksburg itself was the site of the Battle of Fredericksburg and was a pretty important place during the Civil War. In addition to the war, however, the town has a very strong Irish presence and there are a lot of centers for Irish culture that can still be found in the downtown Fredericksburg area.
What about the site has changed?
    Obviously, the road is no longer used as a war trench, but rather as a historical site and a walking trail where people can come to walk along the road and read about its history. The road is now paved and has a stone wall along the side of it to recreate the wall that was built along the trench. In addition the graves of General Thomas Cobb and Martha Stevens can also be found along the trail.
What about the area has changed?
      Fredericksburg is still very much an old-fashioned-looking town, but it is obviously more modernized and has plenty of restaurants, thrift stores, and art galleries to visit in the downtown area. All the buildings, however are still Civil War Era houses and buildings. The downtown Fredericksburg area also has a lot of train stations because it's a very common method of transportation to get to Washington D.C from the town.
Reflection:
     I chose this site because I was born in Fredericksburg and know a lot about the history of this site. I've always found it really interesting so I wanted to look into it a bit more and provide people with some more information about a very important Civil War site that they may not have known. I really enjoyed being able to go back to a historical site that has some significance to me and research it more. I also learned a lot about the site that I didn't know even though I had done research about it before.
Author:
     Lilian Price
Sources:
     Bowman, Tom. "Antietam: A Savage Day in American History." NPR. September 17, 2012. Accessed March 20, 2017. http://www.npr.org/2012/09/17/161248814/antietam-a-savage-day-in-american-history.