White Oak Church - Falmouth VA
N 38° 18.017 W 077° 22.543
18S E 292257 N 4241803
A simple clapboard church has survived through colonial times and the Civil War.
Waymark Code: WM8FT0
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 03/27/2010
Views: 3
White Oak Church was established in 1789 by the Stafford County Baptists. A simple clapboard structure, an attached shed was later added as a separate entrance for the black congregation, many of who were slaves at nearby
Chatham
.
During the Civil War in the winter of 1862-1863, 20,000 Union troops of the VI Corps set up encampment in the area. The church served as a hospital and a U.S. Christian Commission station where delegates distributed testaments to soldiers and conducted worship services and prayer meetings. Described by a soldier as a “miserable, insignificant structure, dilapidated and steepleless" and "like some ancient horse shed and barn that may be seen in some of our less thriving villages”*, the church appears very much the same today, although it has been refurbished.
There is a cemetery in the front of the church. The earliest burial appears to be in the 1890's (complete list
of burials).
Now known as White Oak Primitive Baptist Church, it was designated a Virginia Historic Landmark and named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Services are held the 1st Sunday and 3rd Sunday of the month. Although the church is privately-owned and not open to visitors, the grounds and cemetery are.
*From the U.S. Civil War Trails sign on location