Fairview - U.S. Civil War - Chancellorsville VA
N 38° 18.466 W 077° 38.526
18S E 268984 N 4243266
A family home caught in the crossfire at the Battle of Chancellorsville was turned into a hospital for the hundreds of Union soldiers who were wounded there.
Waymark Code: WMBNNP
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 06/06/2011
Views: 3
The Chancellor family home of
Fairview
was caught in the middle of the Battle of Chancellorsville at Hazel Grove on May 3, 1863. The Union had set up headquarters at the log house, but the Confederate army overwhelmed them with artillery. The Federals were forced to retreat leaving many dead and wounded men behind. The Confederates gathered up 500 wounded Union soldiers and brought them to Fairview where they laid suffering on the ground with no shelter or care for two days before Union surgeons arrived.
The doctors turned Fairview and its yard into a makeshift hospital and used the door of the house as an operating table. They worked for a week and still many soldiers were untreated. Finally on May 12, a Union ambulance, under a white flag of truce, arrived to take the wounded to hospitals.
The home burned down weeks later, but the site has been preserved. Today, four posts and an Ordeal of the Wounded historical sign mark the location of this Union field hospital. Fairview is on the Chancellorsville Battlefield which is part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
.