Vermont Brigade - Wilderness VA
N 38° 17.984 W 077° 42.508
18S E 263154 N 4242542
Back among the trees near the intersection of Plank Rd. and Brock Rd. in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, sits a granite memorial to the Vermont Brigade who fought with Union Gen. Grant in these entangled, overgrown woods from hell on May 5-6, 1864.
Waymark Code: WM8M3V
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 04/17/2010
Views: 7
During the battle of the Wilderness, both the Union and Confederacy sought to gain control of this important crossroads. Both armies were hampered by the dense growth and briars and thickets which made visibility poor compounded by gunfire and many fires broke out. The Vermont Brigade or 'Old Brigade' helped to hold the southern flank when Confederate Gen. James Longstreet descended on the intersection driving Union forces back. The battle has been called “Vermont’s greatest moment in the Civil War”. Unfortunately, the Old Brigade suffered some of the heaviest casualties. They lost almost half their rank. Many of the dead and wounded were left in the woods of the Wilderness when the battle ended.
The monument is 17 tons of carved roughcut granite with two panels and topped by a silhouette of Camel’s Hump, a famous Vermont mountain, often referred to in letters from the Vermont soldiers.The front panel reads:
The Vermont Brigade
In these woods, during the Battle of the Wilderness
on May 5 and 6, 1864, Vermont's "Old Brigade"
suffered 1,234 casualties while defending the
Brock Road and Orange Plank Road intersection.
The rear panel reads:
"The flag of each regiment, though pierced
and tattered, still flaunts in the face of the foe,
and noble bands of veterans with thinned ranks,
and but a few officers to command, still stand by
them, and they seem determined to stand so
long as there is a man to bear their flag aloft
or an enemy in the field." Brigadier General Lewis A. Grant
brigade commander
The monument was debuted in VT on October 15, 2005 and was transported and installed at its present location in 2006.
There is a small parking area at the Plank Rd./Brock Rd. intersection with Civil War historical plaques and a sign indicating the direction to the Vermont Monument which is easily accessed via a short loop trail. All sites in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park are free and open sunrise to sunset.
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