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Sunken Road surveyed
March 8, 2004 1:09 am
By JESSICA ALLEN
Jane Ketch and her husband, Dave, saw history in the making this weekend.
The Lake of the Woods couple were among the spectators who watched archaeologists excavate Fredericksburg's Sunken Road and expose what could be its original Civil War-era surface.
"It's great to relive history like this," Jane Ketch said.
The Ketches, who are history buffs, said they were glad to learn that the National Park Service plans to rebuild part of the road to approximate its appearance during the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.
"Obviously, one can read about the battle, but there is something special about standing on the site and visually seeing the remains," said Greg Mertz, the supervisory historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
The Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center at the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and Sunken Road is one of the stops tourists make when learning about the area's Civil War history. The site includes the National Cemetery atop Marye's Heights, where the Union dead from the area's four Civil War battles are buried, and a walking trail beside Sunken Road.
The stone walls along the road played a crucial role in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
On the lane's downhill side, toward the Rappahannock River, the wall formed a natural entrenchment that protected Confederate troops from the attacking Yankees. The Union lost more than 12,000 soldiers in the fighting; the Confederacy lost fewer than half that number.
Now, the park plans to reconstruct a missing section of the easternmost stone wall, restore the landscape and install new interpretive exhibits.
The portion of Sunken Road between Lafayette Boulevard and Hanover Street will be permanently closed to automobiles and opened to pedestrians.
The Park Service hopes to begin the project in late spring and to complete it by year's end, Mertz said.
The remains of the Civil War-era roadbed will not be disturbed.
Instead, that archaeological evidence will be used as a guide when the Park Service builds the replica road above it, said Clarence Geier, professor of anthropology at James Madison University.
"This would've been I-95 in the mid-19th century because it had heavy traffic from Fredericksburg to Richmond," Geier said of the historic Sunken Road.
Seven archaeologists and three student volunteers from the professor's class started excavating the road Friday to find the surface that travelers used during the Civil War. They expect to resume their excavations today at 8 a.m., ending at 5 p.m.
The JMU group, which has been working on archaeological projects at the Fredericksburg battlefield since 2000, dug two 2-foot-wide, 25-foot-long trenches across Sunken Road near the visitor center.
The excavations revealed pieces of container glass, broken jars and plates, made mostly of whiteware and ironstone. The items are believed to be remnants of trash that was thrown out on the street during the 1920s.
The archaeological team also found fragments of two Union bullets--minie balls--below Marye's Heights.
The group learned that the Civil War-era road was about 20 feet wide and ended near the sandstone wall that stretched from Hanover Street to Lafayette Boulevard on the river side.
Most of the walls, which kept livestock off the road and held back earth on the Marye's Heights side, were removed after the war.
Sections of the wall still stand below Brompton, the historic house where the president of Mary Washington College resides. The stone wall that stands nearest the visitors center was constructed in the 1930s as a replica.
Geier said yesterday that he believes archaeologists have uncovered the Civil War-era road surface, but isn't absolutely certain.
"I can't imagine not being 6 inches to a foot away from the original road if we are not already on it," he said.
Today, the team plans to use a backhoe to dig another ditch across the road in hopes of determining if there are any other roadbeds underneath, he said.
Originally, Sunken Road was known as Telegraph Road--for the wires strung along it to carry telegraph messages. It was later called Courthouse Road because people used it travel to Spotsylvania Courthouse, said Eric Mink, the park's cultural-resource management specialist.
Its name was changed after the war to Sunken Road because the road near Hanover Street had sunken below the surrounding land, Mink said.
The Park Service has owned the road since the 1930s, but the city retained rights for automobile traffic.
Three years ago, the City Council agreed to close the road so the Park Service can restore the historic thoroughfare to its Civil War-era appearance.
March 8, 2004 1:09 am
By JESSICA ALLEN
Jane Ketch and her husband, Dave, saw history in the making this weekend.
The Lake of the Woods couple were among the spectators who watched archaeologists excavate Fredericksburg's Sunken Road and expose what could be its original Civil War-era surface.
"It's great to relive history like this," Jane Ketch said.
The Ketches, who are history buffs, said they were glad to learn that the National Park Service plans to rebuild part of the road to approximate its appearance during the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.
"Obviously, one can read about the battle, but there is something special about standing on the site and visually seeing the remains," said Greg Mertz, the supervisory historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
The Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center at the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and Sunken Road is one of the stops tourists make when learning about the area's Civil War history. The site includes the National Cemetery atop Marye's Heights, where the Union dead from the area's four Civil War battles are buried, and a walking trail beside Sunken Road.
The stone walls along the road played a crucial role in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
On the lane's downhill side, toward the Rappahannock River, the wall formed a natural entrenchment that protected Confederate troops from the attacking Yankees. The Union lost more than 12,000 soldiers in the fighting; the Confederacy lost fewer than half that number.
Now, the park plans to reconstruct a missing section of the easternmost stone wall, restore the landscape and install new interpretive exhibits.
The portion of Sunken Road between Lafayette Boulevard and Hanover Street will be permanently closed to automobiles and opened to pedestrians.
The Park Service hopes to begin the project in late spring and to complete it by year's end, Mertz said.
The remains of the Civil War-era roadbed will not be disturbed.
Instead, that archaeological evidence will be used as a guide when the Park Service builds the replica road above it, said Clarence Geier, professor of anthropology at James Madison University.
"This would've been I-95 in the mid-19th century because it had heavy traffic from Fredericksburg to Richmond," Geier said of the historic Sunken Road.
Seven archaeologists and three student volunteers from the professor's class started excavating the road Friday to find the surface that travelers used during the Civil War. They expect to resume their excavations today at 8 a.m., ending at 5 p.m.
The JMU group, which has been working on archaeological projects at the Fredericksburg battlefield since 2000, dug two 2-foot-wide, 25-foot-long trenches across Sunken Road near the visitor center.
The excavations revealed pieces of container glass, broken jars and plates, made mostly of whiteware and ironstone. The items are believed to be remnants of trash that was thrown out on the street during the 1920s.
The archaeological team also found fragments of two Union bullets--minie balls--below Marye's Heights.
The group learned that the Civil War-era road was about 20 feet wide and ended near the sandstone wall that stretched from Hanover Street to Lafayette Boulevard on the river side.
Most of the walls, which kept livestock off the road and held back earth on the Marye's Heights side, were removed after the war.
Sections of the wall still stand below Brompton, the historic house where the president of Mary Washington College resides. The stone wall that stands nearest the visitors center was constructed in the 1930s as a replica.
Geier said yesterday that he believes archaeologists have uncovered the Civil War-era road surface, but isn't absolutely certain.
"I can't imagine not being 6 inches to a foot away from the original road if we are not already on it," he said.
Today, the team plans to use a backhoe to dig another ditch across the road in hopes of determining if there are any other roadbeds underneath, he said.
Originally, Sunken Road was known as Telegraph Road--for the wires strung along it to carry telegraph messages. It was later called Courthouse Road because people used it travel to Spotsylvania Courthouse, said Eric Mink, the park's cultural-resource management specialist.
Its name was changed after the war to Sunken Road because the road near Hanover Street had sunken below the surrounding land, Mink said.
The Park Service has owned the road since the 1930s, but the city retained rights for automobile traffic.
Three years ago, the City Council agreed to close the road so the Park Service can restore the historic thoroughfare to its Civil War-era appearance.
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