Chatham Manor

  • Also Known As: Lacy House

  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Building

Chatham Manor is a large Georgian mansion in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia. - AsNotedIn

Began my visits among the camp hospitals in the Army of the Potomac, under General Burnside. Spent a good part of the day in a large brick mansion [Chatham] on the banks of the Rappahannock, immediately opposite Fredericksburg. It is used as a hospital since the battle, and seems to have received only the worst cases. Outdoors, at the foot of a tree, within ten yards of the front of the house [probably the still standing Catalpa tree], I noticed a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, etc. -- about a load for a one-horse cart. Several dead bodies lie near, each covered with its brown woolen blanket. In the dooryard, toward the river, are fresh graves, mostly of officers, their names on pieces of barrel staves or broken board, stuck in the dirt.

The house is quite crowded, everything impromptu, no system, all bad enough, but I have no doubt the best that can be done; all the wounds pretty bad, some frightful, the men in their old clothes, unclean and bloody. Some of the wounded are rebel officers, prisoners. One, a Mississippian -- a captain -- hit badly in the leg, I talked with him some time ; he asked for papers, which I gave him. (I saw him three months afterward in Washington, with leg amputated, doing well.)

I went through the rooms, down stairs and up. Some of the men were dying. I had nothing to give at that night, but wrote a few letters to folks home, mothers, etc. Also talked to three or four who seemed most susceptible to it, and needing it.

Walt Whitman, The Wound Dresser


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Chatham Manor
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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1771/00/00 Ann Bolling Randolph Fitzhugh Home Chatham Manor built, 1768-1771, for William and Ann Fitzhugh.
1771/00/00 William Fitzhugh Home Chatham Manor built, 1768-1771, for William and Ann Fitzhugh.
1788/04/22 Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis Born Mary Lee Fitzhugh is most likely born at Chatham, in Stafford County, Virginia.
1798/10/27 Thomas Jefferson Visitor Thomas Jefferson visits the Fitzhughs at Chatham.
1806/00/00 Churchill Jones Home Major Churchill Jones buys Chatham plantation for $20000.
1857/00/00 Betty Churchill Jones Lacy Home J Horace and Betty Lacy buy Chatham Manor
1862/12/11 Clara Barton Hospital Volunteer Chatham Manor is used as a Union Army Hospital during the Battle of Fredricksburg Battle of Fredericksburg
1862/12/21 Walt Whitman Hospital Volunteer Whitman spends a good part of the day at Chatham camp hospital on the banks of the Rappahannock, recording his thoughts and experiences on scraps of bloodstained paper that he folded over and stuck together with pins. Battle of Fredericksburg

Data »

Particulars for Chatham Manor:
Sight Category Building
Owner Federal
Level of Significance National
Criteria Person
Historic Use Single dwelling



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration: 12th October 1978

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name: Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
Registry Address: 1.5 mi. W of Danville
Registry Number: 07001198
Resource Type: Building
Owner: Federal
Contributing Buildings: 2
Contributing Structures: 1
Certification: Date received-pending nomination
Nominator Name: National Historic Site
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: National
Area of Significance: Literature
Applicable Criteria: Person
Associated People: O'Neill, Eugene
Historic Function: Domestic
Historic Sub-Function: Single dwelling
Current Function: Recreation and Culture
Current Sub-Function: Museum

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