Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park

Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation

Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield is part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (NMP), located in northeastern Virginia halfway between Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia. Covering over 7,000 acres, the park was designated by Congress in 1927 as a national military park for the purpose of preserving and commemorating the Civil War battles of Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania Court House, Wilderness, and Chancellorsville. The Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP is located approximately 7 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, north of the village historically known as Spotsylvania Court House. Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield is characterized predominantly by successional-growth forest surrounding historically open fields. Several small streams, including tributaries of the Ni River and wetland areas, cross the site. Resources within the site consist of Confederate and Federal earthworks; historic homesteads that are now archeological sites, including the McCoull, Landram, and Harrison house sites; buildings constructed by the NPS during the Civilian Conservation Corp and Mission 66 park development periods; and monuments and markers to commemorate the men who fought and died there. SIGNIFICANCE SUMMARY Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (NMP) Historic District is significant at the national level under National Register Criteria A, B, C, and D in the areas of Military, Commemoration, Health and Medicine, Conservation, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Archeology. The four battlefield units – Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania Court House, Chancellorsville, and Wilderness – and three discontinuous sites – Ellwood, Jackson Shrine, and Salem Church – that constitute Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP derive their primary significance as the site of military activity during the American Civil War from 1863-1864. The park is also associated with: defining moments in the careers of the generals responsible for planning and executing the battles; the care of wounded soldiers during and after the battles; national trends in battlefield commemoration and preservation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; antebellum plantation houses and landscapes that reflect design traditions from the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth century; visitor and park administrative facilities that reflect NPS planning and design principles; and for the data it has yielded, and has the potential to yield, about the experiences of the Union and Confederate armies during the battles, the evolution of the agrarian and industrial economy and landscape in antebellum Virginia, and the enslaved and free people who lived there. The park’s overall period of significance is 1768-1965, with the beginning of construction of Chatham, and extending to 1965, with the Civil War Centennial and associated commemoration efforts within the park. Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield is significant under all four National Register criteria in the areas of Military, Commemoration, Conservation, Landscape Architecture, and Archeology. The period of significance for the battlefield is 1864-1964, from the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21) through the completion of a visitor kiosk. The battlefield also meets Criteria Consideration F, which applies to the contributing commemorative monuments that possess significance engendered from their age, design, and symbolic values.

Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park

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