Welcome to the Ellwood Audio Walking Tour. Explore the history of these grounds from the land's inhabitation by the Manahoac people to its transformation into a slave plantation. Discover how Ellwood went from being a place over which Civil War soldiers fought and died to a site that preserves the memory of past conflicts. What does this landscape teach us today? What stories are hidden from view?
This tour of Ellwood can be viewed at home or can be used as a guide onsite. If following this tour onsite, the distance covered will be less than half a mile and the tour will take about 30 minutes to 1 hour to complete.
This audio tour is also available via the National Park Service app (available at the Apple Store and on Google Play).
If you are onsite during the hours the house is open, you can begin this tour in the parking lot. If you are onsite when the house is closed, you can park outside the gate (please do not block the gate) and walk 0.4 miles up the driveway to the parking area.
First constructed in the 1700s, Ellwood is best known for its association with the Battles of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness during the Civil War. This tour explores the history of Ellwood from its initial development through its preservation by the National Park Service. At this stop, learn about the people who first inhabited this land and the ways that colonial settlement altered the physical landscape.
Ellwood Audio Walking Tour, #1, Introduction to Ellwood Grounds
Welcome to the Ellwood Audio Walking Tour. First constructed in the 1700s, Ellwood is best known for its association with the Battles of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness during the Civil War. This tour explores the history of Ellwood from its initial development through its preservation by the National Park Service.
Welcome to Ellwood. This audio walking tour includes five stops, covers less than half of a mile of ground, and will take approximately 40 minutes to finish. To begin the tour, start at the signs at the end of the parking lot. The two-story, red house to the east of you is known as Ellwood. Today, Ellwood is best known for its role during the American Civil War. During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s arm was buried in the family cemetery. The main house served as U.S. General Gouverneur Warren’s headquarters during the Battle of the Wilderness. This tour will explore the important events that took place here during the Civil War but will also uncover the lesser-known stories that help us understand Ellwood’s history.
Ellwood is located roughly 20 miles west of a geographic boundary in Virginia known as the Fall Line. At the Fall Line, rivers cross over hard bedrock onto softer sediment. To the west of the Fall Line, rivers are rockier and shallower. To the east of the Fall Line, rivers become wider and faster. The Fall Line defined settlement patterns for thousands of years, first by Indigenous tribes and then by European colonists. By 1600, the Fall Line marked the boundary between two Indigenous language groups. Algonquian-speaking tribes lived to the east of the Fall Line, while Siouan-speaking tribes lived to the west. The Manahoac, a Siouan-speaking tribe, lived in the vicinity of present-day Ellwood.
The Manahoac cultivated corn, beans, and squash and built massive burial mounds. They utilized rivers and waterways for fishing and transportation. All through the region, the Manahoac used axes and fires to clear fields within a mature forest. in 1607, few moved west of the Fall Line until 1690. By then, the Manahoac had largely disappeared, either due to disease spread by the Europeans or by their adoption into the Monacan tribe further west. When European explorers arrived in the region, they noted the presence of large clearings in the forest, evidence of the civilization that once thrived there.
In 1710, Queen Anne appointed Alexander Spotswood lieutenant governor of the Virginia colony. During his governorship, Spotswood took a particular interest in the region west of the Fall Line. He funded the creation of Fort Germanna, five miles northwest of Ellwood, and encouraged German settlers to live in the fort while he continued to expand his landholdings in the region. Colonists like Spotswood often thought of the area as a “frontier,” overlooking the many Indigenous communities that still inhabited the Americas and viewing the land as something to be taken and sold. Spotwood also saw natural resources as an opportunity for wealth. He opened iron mines and funded the construction of a large plantation, Salubria, for himself. Consider how Spotswood’s vision for this land differed from that of the Indigenous people who first lived here.
As development in the region continued, the colonial government established Spotsylvania County, named after Spotswood, in 1720. At the end of his governorship in 1722, Spotswood owned 85,000 acres of land in and around Spotsylvania County. He made contracts with colonists, allowing them to live on parcels of his land in exchange for annual tobacco payments. Iron mining and tobacco cultivation proved to be lucrative businesses and led to the establishment of Orange County, west of Spotsylvania, in 1734. Yet, iron mining and tobacco cultivation also depleted the soil and cost much of the region’s old-growth timber. A dense, second-growth forest took the place of a healthy, ancient forest. Colonists referred to the region as the Wilderness in response to the region’s changed landscape.
Growth in the Wilderness region remained slow due to the large amounts of land held by Spotswood and his heirs. By 1740, Governor Spotswood’s grandson, also named Alexander, created a clearing at Wilderness Bridge over a creek known as Wilderness Run. He funded the construction of a group of buildings just east of the bridge. Around 1771, brothers William and Churchill Jones traveled into the Wilderness. The younger Spotswood invited them to live on his land beside Wilderness Bridge.
The Jones brothers accepted Spotswood’s offer. They were among the hundreds of colonists who poured westward in the 1700s at the expense of the Indigenous people that once inhabited the land. Governor Spotswood’s success in transforming a once-inhabited forest into a lucrative settlement encouraged others, like the Jones brothers, to stake their claim in the Wilderness. The area’s dense woods served as a physical reminder of colonial expansion in Virginia.
The next stop on the tour is the site of the plantation service yard, an area of grass marked by an exhibit sign beside the main house. Leave the parking lot and walk to the left of the house until you reach an open area of grass marked with a sign, facing towards the ramp.
Walking Directions to the Ellwood Service Yard, Stop #2
The next stop on the tour is the site of the plantation service yard, an area of grass marked by an exhibit sign beside the main house. Leave the parking lot and walk to the left of the house until you reach an open area of grass marked with a sign, facing towards the ramp.
During the late 1700s, the Jones family funded the construction of Ellwood Plantation here in the Wilderness. This tour stop will explore what life was like at Ellwood during the Antebellum period. How did the lives of enslaved people differ from the lives of the Jones and Lacy families? What physical reminders of slavery remain on the landscape today?
Ellwood Audio Walking Tour, #2, Slavery at Ellwood
During the late 1700s, the Jones family funded the construction of Ellwood Plantation here in the Wilderness. At the second stop on the Ellwood Walking Tour, explore what life was like at Ellwood during the Antebellum period. How did the lives of enslaved people differ from the lives of the Jones and Lacy families? What physical reminders of slavery remain on the landscape today?
The space in front of you, now an open, grassy field beside the main house, was once the site of the service yard on the Ellwood Plantation. Slight depressions are still visible on the ground in places where outbuildings once stood. Enslaved people lived and worked here in buildings that no longer stand. When the Jones family moved into the Wilderness in the 1770s, they relied on the labor of enslaved people to turn this land into a working plantation.
Four years after their arrival in the Wilderness, William and Churchill Jones signed a lease with Alexander Spotswood for a 240-acre tract of land south of his Wilderness Bridge clearing. Around 1775, they built a house on the site and lived there with their wives. Then in 1777, William Jones signed a lease which added 400 acres to the land that he and his brother were leasing. The lease provided the Jones family with access to the buildings already present on the property, which included a house, kitchen, dairy, smokehouse, and well. The Jones brothers utilized enslaved labor to plant an orchard and cultivate the surrounding fields.
When the American Revolution began, Churchill Jones left the Wilderness to fight for the Continental Army. William, reputed to be home. Early on during the war, a fire destroyed the main house at Ellwood. The Jones family moved into a nearby house. While few military actions took place around Ellwood during the war, the Wilderness did receive a visit from the Marquis de Lafayette, who led a force of Continental soldiers. Lafayette’s men briefly camped within the vicinity of Ellwood in 1781 as they moved through Virginia. When the war ended, Churchill Jones moved to his own plantation in nearby Orange County. William Jones purchased Ellwood Plantation, ending his lease with Alexander Spotswood. During the 1790s, William funded the construction of a new house at Ellwood, the same house that stands today.
By 1799, Ellwood Plantation consisted of a house, kitchen, dairy, smokehouse, and enslaved quarters. The outbuildings stood here in a service yard just north of the house. Over the next twenty years, William Jones expanded Ellwood to nearly 2,000 acres. Utilizing enslaved labor, he added a brick oven, store house, barns, and additional enslaved quarters to his plantation. As the plantation grew, so did the number of enslaved people present to work the land. By 1820, Jones enslaved 107 people at Ellwood. Through the labor of those he held in bondage, William Jones became one of the wealthiest men in Spotsylvania County.
The Jones family experienced many changes in the years 1822 and 1823. During that time, both William’s brother, Churchill, and wife, Betty, died. William took ownership of his brother’s two plantations, Woodville in Orange County and Chatham in Stafford County. He sold Chatham to his daughter and son-in-law, Hannah and John Coalter, a year later. In 1828, William married Lucinda Gordon. They welcomed their first and only child, Betty Churchill Jones, a year later.
William Jones lived out his life at Ellwood, dying in 1845 at the age of 95. He left Ellwood to his wife, Lucinda. His will stipulated that if Lucinda remarried, Ellwood would pass to their daughter, Betty. Lucinda remarried and gave up the property in 1847. The following year, Betty married James Horace Lacy (known as Horace), and the young couple took ownership of Ellwood Plantation. Over the course of the next decade, Horace and Betty lived at Ellwood, where they raised their children and enjoyed the quiet of the countryside at the expense of those they enslaved.
In states where slavery was legal before the Civil War, a person’s social and economic status was rooted in the institution of slavery. The Lacys’ enslavement of large numbers of people provided them with considerable wealth and power. The death of Betty’s sister, Hannah Coalter, in 1857 provided the Lacys with an opportunity to expand their wealth. Hannah’s will stipulated that the 93 people enslaved at Chatham would be freed at the time of her death. Seeking to prevent this, Horace and Betty Lacy turned to the courts. The Virginia Supreme Court decided in favor of the Lacys by ruling that the enslaved people at Chatham were to remain in bondage. The Lacys then bought Chatham. Ellwood and Chatham did not exist as independent plantations, but as part of a larger economic system with slavery as its foundation. From 1857 on, the Lacys spent winters at Chatham and summers at Ellwood. They moved enslaved people between their properties as they saw fit. By 1860, the Lacys enslaved more than 240 people between five plantations.
While details surrounding the Jones and Lacy families are well-documented, less is known about the hundreds of people who labored on the Ellwood Plantation for nearly 100 years. Today, the National Park Service is actively researching the lives of enslaved people at Ellwood. The story of Ann, an enslaved woman who lived at Ellwood, is one story that reveals the challenges that enslaved people faced. In 1826, Ann, at only 18 years old, set fire to a barn at Ellwood as an act of resistance. The judge for Spotsylvania County sentenced her to public sale, for which William Jones received $300.[xiv] What does Ann’s story tell u s about the options available to enslaved people? Why did Ann choose to resist against William Jones despite the potential consequences she would face? Searching for new information can help us understand the realities of life for enslaved people.
Today, Ellwood looks very different from its time as a working plantation. Compare the atmosphere that existed at Ellwood during Ann’s life with the quiet atmosphere today. Instead of seeing a stately house in a peaceful landscape, imagine Ellwood as the centerpiece of a massive work camp, run by people who labored by force. The buildings in which enslaved people lived and the cemetery in which they were buried have been lost with time. For much of Ellwood’s history, the plantation service yard was a place of work and hardship, but also a place for resistance against unfair treatment and enslavement. Today, we strive to remember the stories of everyone who lived here, and to ask difficult questions about our shared history.
Walking Directions to the Ellwood Manor house, Stop #3
The next stop on the tour is the plantation’s main house. Leave the service yard and walk to the front porch of the house, facing east. The building is open to the public during summer months when staffing is available.
Located in the Wilderness region, Ellwood Plantation became the site of a Confederate hospital and a U.S. headquarters during the Civil War. How were civilians impacted by the battles that took place in the Wilderness? What did the landscape around Ellwood look like at the war’s end? Check our Operating Hours & Seasons to learn if the building will be open during your visit.
Ellwood Audio Walking Tour, #3, The Civil War at Ellwood
Located in the Wilderness region, Ellwood Plantation became the site of a Confederate hospital and a U.S. headquarters during the Civil War. How were civilians impacted by the battles that took place in the Wilderness? What did the landscape around Ellwood look like at the war’s end?
Today, the main house at Ellwood is the only structure from the 1700s that still stands. The building is a two-story, T-shaped, frame building clad in red weatherboard siding with a one-story porch facing east. Many important events took place here during the Civil War, forever changing the lives of the people who called Ellwood home.
By the close of the 1850s, the United States found itself divided over the question of slavery’s future. Discussions about slavery did not solely take place on a national scale. In individual homes and businesses, everyday Americans made choices that impacted the future of slavery in the United States. Here at Ellwood, the Lacys advocated for slavery’s continuation because they understood that their wealth and power would be lost if they could no longer force others to labor for them. Many pro-slavery advocates, including Horace Lacy, called for secession and war rather than face the possibility of slavery’s end. While the Lacys likely viewed the looming war as a crisi that threatened their status, enslaved people across the country understood that war could lead to freedom.
When the Civil War erupted in 1861, James Horace Lacy, a vocal supporter of secession and slavery, enlisted in the Confederate Army. Shortly after his departure, Betty and her children moved into the town of Fredericksburg, then to a farm in southern Virginia. The Lacys left Chatham and Ellwood in the care of overseers during the war. They brought a portion of the enslaved population with them to southern Virginia, and left a smaller number of enslaved people behind, trusting that they would remain, as Betty Lacy said, “faithful.”
With the Lacys gone, many of the remaining enslaved people at Ellwood Plantation sought their freedom. Charles Sprout, an enslaved man born at Ellwood, fled to U.S. lines early in the war and joined the U.S. Army. On January 1, 1863, the remaining enslaved people at Ellwood were freed through the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation, coupled with the arrival of the U.S. Army in the Wilderness three months later, provided enslaved people with a chance to leave Ellwood forever.
In late April 1863, the U.S. Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker, moved west from Fredericksburg into the Wilderness. General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia followed. The two forces clashed at Chancellorsville, five miles east of Ellwood. On the night of May 2nd, General “Stonewall” Jackson and his staff rode out in front of Confederate lines along the Orange Turnpike. As they returned, Confederate soldiers posted in the woods mistook General Jackson and his staff for U.S. soldiers and fired on them. Amidst the confusion, Jackson was badly wounded. Jackson’s chief engineer, twenty-five-year-old Captain James Keith Boswell, was killed. The surviving members of the party carried Jackson to a field hospital near Wilderness Tavern, where doctors amputated his left arm.
As General Jackson recovered, his chaplain, Beverly Tucker Lacy, took the amputated arm to Ellwood, his brother’s plantation, and buried it in the family cemetery. Accompanying Lacy was Jedediah Hotchkiss, Jackson’s cartographer, who buried Captain Boswell’s body in the cemetery. At the time, Ellwood served as a field hospital for the Confederate arm . A team of Confederate surgeons treated patients in the main house and on the plantation grounds. Before the Confederate Army moved away from Chancellorsville, they transported their remaining wounded soldiers from other field hospitals to Ellwood for further care. Ellwood made an ideal place for a convalescent hospital because it had plenty of indoor space that would protect soldiers from the elements. Doctors gathered ice, sheep, and milk from the plantation grounds, and beds from the nearby Wilderness Tavern. The hospital remained in operation through the fall. During its operation, medical staff buried twenty-four Confederate soldiers on the plantation grounds.
The armies returned to the Wilderness a year later. The upcoming presidential election and the introduction of the 13th Amendment in Congress added a sense of urgency to the war effort on both sides. Unbeknownst to the American people as they welcomed the close of 1863, the new year would become the bloodiest year of the war. Understanding the uncertainty of his reelection, President Abraham Lincoln looked for an opportunity to push the United States towards victory. He saw that opportunity in General Ulysses Grant. In March, Lincoln invited Grant to the White House and promoted him to general-in-chief of all U.S. forces.
Instead of remaining in Washington, Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Grant told the army’s commander, General George Meade, “wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." On May 4th, 1864, the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River and moved into the Wilderness. Their movement marked the beginning of a new campaign known as the Overland Campaign. As the U.S. Army moved down the Orange Turnpike on May 5th, they clashed with Lee’s army at Saunders Field, one mile west of Ellwood. The head of the U.S. Fifth Corps, General Gouverneur Warren, set up his headquarters at Ellwood. Around 1:00 p.m., Warren’s soldiers advanced through Saunders Field toward a line of Confederate entrenchments. By early afternoon, the Confederates forced Warren’s men to fall back. Fire spread through the field and added terrifying dimension to the battle, claiming many of the wounded .
After a day of brutal fighting, General Warren returned to his headquarters at Ellwood. His men recovered from the day’s events on the plantation grounds. Warren went into the main house and retired in the room to left of the front door. There, he reviewed casualty counts with his surgeon, John Milhau, and adjutant general, Frederick Locke. An onlooker, Lieutenant Morris Schaff, described the scene: Warren, an experienced soldier, worried that the high number of casualties would impact the morale of his soldiers and citizens back home. Unbeknownst to Warren at the time, the Wilderness was only the first in a long series of battles that lasted through the summer.
Warren’s men returned to battle the next day. This second day of fighting did not bring victory to the U.S. Army. Refusing to accept the battle’s outcome as a failure, Grant led his army southeast for Spotsylvania Court House, where the fighting resumed on May 8th. The Battle of the Wilderness altered the landscape around Ellwood. Patches of scorched ground, felled trees, graves, and entrenchments stood as evidence of a brutal struggle. At Ellwood, few things were left unchanged. The house, which sat vacant for the rest of the war, held reminders its of wartime occupants, and the family cemetery gained another grave. The grave belonged to 34-year-old Colonel Joseph Moesch of the 83rd New York, who was killed while leading his soldiers into battle. Moesch’s soldiers buried his remains in the Ellwood family cemetery before their departure. Colonel Moesch was one of nearly 4,000 soldiers killed during the Battle of the Wilderness, not including thousands of others who were wounded or missing.
The next stop on the tour is the family cemetery, located to the south of the house in the neighboring field. Leave the front porch of the house and turn right towards the trailhead. The trailhead is marked with a brown sign which reads “cemetery.” Follow the path to the cemetery. As you walk to the cemetery, think about the three burials that took place here during the Civil War. Consider why our nation chose to preserve this site as a reminder of the war.
Walking Directions to the Ellwood Cemetery, Stop #4
The next stop on the tour is the family cemetery, located to the south of the house in the neighboring field. Leave the front porch of the house and turn right towards the trailhead. The trailhead is marked with a brown sign which reads “cemetery.” Follow the path to the cemetery. As you walk to the cemetery, think about the three burials that took place here during the Civil War. Consider why our nation chose to preserve this site as a reminder of the war.
After the Civil War, life at Ellwood changed drastically. The Lacy family returned home and worked to memorialize the Confederacy. Through the work of former Confederates like the Lacys, Ellwood’s family cemetery became a tourist attraction. Today, the burial site of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s arm is one of the most recognizable features of Ellwood. What does the family cemetery and the burial of Jackson’s arm tell us about how our nation remembers the Civil War?
Ellwood Audio Walking Tour, #4, The Ellwood Cemetery and the Lost Cause
After the Civil War, life at Ellwood changed drastically. The Lacy family returned home and worked to memorialize the Confederacy. Through the work of former Confederates like the Lacys, Ellwood’s family cemetery became a tourist attraction. Today, the burial site of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s arm is one of the most recognizable features of Ellwood. What does the family cemetery and the burial of Jackson’s arm tell us about how our nation remembers the Civil War?
Located in front of you is the Ellwood family cemetery. Established in 1807, the cemetery contains the remains of fifteen members of the Jones family, including William Jones and Hannah Coalter. The cemetery is enclosed by a split rail fence. Depressions are visible on the ground, although only one marker is present. The stone marker, placed here in 1903, indicates the general location of Confederate General Thomas Jackson’s arm, which was buried here during the Battle of Chancellorsville. This marker also provides insight into how former Confederates chose to remember the Civil War.
At the war’s end, the Lacy family returned to Fredericksburg and took up residence at Chatham. The people once enslaved at Ellwood were freed by the outcome of the war. The Lacys struggled financially. According to Betty Lacy, a man moved into Ellwood during their absence. After removing the unwanted guest, the Lacys began renting Ellwood out to a tenant farmer, Benjamin Hites, who moved into the house with his wife and nine children. In 1866, Horace Lacy inventoried the remains of the Confederate soldiers buried on the grounds and organized their removal to Confederate cemeteries . Struggling to maintain numerous plantations, the Lacys sold Chatham in 1872 and moved to Ellwood. Upon their return, they made repairs to the house and funded the construction of a home for their tenants, which no longer stands.
In the aftermath of the war, former Confederates such as James Horace Lacy sought to redefine the Confederacy’s reason for fighting and memorialize places associated with Confederate leaders like “Stonewall” Jackson. This type of work resulted in the creation of a narrative known as the Lost Cause, which celebrates the ideals of the Confederacy and claims that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War . The Lacys contributed to the Lost Cause narrative in many ways. Betty joined the Fredericksburg chapter of the Ladies’ Memorial Association and helped create two Confederate cemeteries in the area. The organization did not solely focus their efforts on cemeteries, but also on celebrating the ideals of the Confederacy and providing places for former Confederates to gather and hold events. Horace traveled through Virginia and other states giving speeches rooted in Lost Cause rhetoric. Within his speeches, he advocated for white supremacy and opposed equal rights for Black Americans. He also served a term in the Virginia House of Delegates, running as a candidate for the “White Man’s party.” Though the Lacys lost some of their wealth at the war’s end, they still retained their power and influence.
During the early 1900s, James Power Smith, a former aide to Stonewall Jackson and Horace Lacy’s son-in-law, traveled through the region and organized the creation of stone markers in places associated with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. In 1903, Smith placed this granite marker in the Ellwood family cemetery, marking the general location of Jackson’s arm. The marker reads, “Arm of Stonewall Jackson, May 3, 1863.” The story of Jackson’s wounding and death became a central feature of the Lost Cause narrative. Many former Confederates ignored the true reasons for the Confederacy’s defeat and claimed that the Confederacy would have won the war if Jackson had lived. This marker is one of many created to memorialize the final moments of Jackson and build support for a false explanation of the war’s events. It stands as
Many stories and rumors have surrounded Jackson’s arm since its burial in 1863. One story posits that U.S. soldiers dug up and reburied the arm during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. Another suggests that U.S. Marines visiting the area in 1921 also dug up and reburied the arm. Though these stories are difficult to substantiate, they confirm that Jackson’s arm has become a point of curiosity over time. In 1998, archaeologists working for the National Park Service investigated the area but did not find a specific burial site. What can be determined from the arm’s burial site today is that former Confederates found it worthy of remembering in 1903.
While former Confederates directed their attention to people like “Stonewall” Jackson, U.S. veterans remembered people like Colonel Joseph Moesch. The men who first buried Moesch here in 1864 came back for his remains in 1887. They reburied Moesch in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery and dedicated a large monument in his honor. Today, the National Park Service aims to present sites such as the Ellwood cemetery within their full context, including discussions of the Lost Cause and Confederate memorialization.
Since the creation of a marker to Jackson’s arm in 1903, our country has continued to wrestle with the memory of the Civil War. The Ellwood family cemetery has long existed as a tourist stop for those curious about the war and about “Stonewall” Jackson. As time passed, new families moved into Ellwood and made additional changes to the property. Why did Ellwood’s last private owners call for its preservation? What lessons can we learn from Ellwood’s story today?
The last stop on the tour is the brooder barn. Follow the trail back to the main house. Turn left toward the parking lot and stop in front of the barn.
Walking Directions to the Ellwood Brooder Barn, Stop #5
The last stop on the tour is the brooder barn. Follow the trail back to the main house. Turn left toward the parking lot and stop in front of the barn.
In 1907, the Lacy family sold Ellwood, which ushered in a period of great change. The final owners of Ellwood transformed the former plantation into a modern farm. How did the surrounding region change during the 20th century? What steps did the National Park Service take to preserve Ellwood when the surrounding area was developing rapidly? How should we manage Ellwood today?
Ellwood Audio Walking Tour, #5, Plantation to Farm
In 1907, the Lacy family sold Ellwood, which ushered in a period of great change. The final owners of Ellwood transformed the former plantation into a modern farm. How did the surrounding region change during the 20th century? What steps did the National Park Service take to preserve Ellwood when the surrounding area was developing rapidly? How should we manage Ellwood today?
Located in front of you is the brooder barn. The brooder barn was b uilt around 1950 and used for raising poultry. It is one of many buildings added by the property’s last private owners. Over the course of the 1900s, Ellwood transformed from a plantation into a modern farm, then into a protected historical site. The catalyst for these changes was the end of the Lacy ownership.
As the Lacy children reached adulthood during the late 1800s, they moved away from Ellwood. In 1896, Horace and Betty moved to a house in Fredericksburg and left Ellwood under the management of another tenant farmer, Robert Duvall, who lived and worked at Ellwood until 1899. The Lacys hired farmer David Dempsey in Duvall’s place. After the deaths of Horace and Betty Lacy in 1906 and 1907, their children sold Ellwood to Hugh Evander Willis of Vermont. Willis’ goal was to transform Ellwood into a modern farm. In 1909, he invited his parents to take over the farm. In preparation for their arrival, Hugh renovated the house and removed the old outbuildings in the main service yard, including the former quarters for enslaved people. The Willis family raised many types of animals at Ellwood, including cattle, sheep, chickens, turkeys, and hogs.
During the 1920s, the Wilderness region experienced a period of rapid growth and development. The United States Marine Corps held a large demonstration on the Wilderness Battlefield in 1921. President Warren Harding traveled from Washington to observe the exercises. During the three-day event, soldiers made their way to Ellwood and stopped by the family cemetery. The Marines’ usage of the battlefield fits within a larger trend to preserve Civil War battlefields at the time. Local veterans began the process of preserving land during the 1890s, but their goal to transfer land to the federal government had not been realized. Finally in 1927, Congress established the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park under the War Department. The War Department transferred the park to the National Park Service in 1933.
During the development of the military park, the federal government took 96 acres of land from Hugh Willis under eminent domain. Willis tried to sue for his land but lost. No longer wanting to spend his retirement at Ellwood, Blanche moved into Ellwood with her husband, Leo, and son, Gordon. The Jones family, of no relation to the first owners of Ellwood, transformed Ellwood into a livestock farm, known as Ellwood Manor Farm. Through the 1950s, Leo Jones added numerous agricultural buildings to the farm, including this brooder barn, which he used to raise chickens. Also present nearby were two large laying houses, where chicken eggs were collected for sale.
Around the same time that farming operations at Ellwood ended, the state highway department made major changes to Routes 3 and 20, which encouraged additional development in the area. Developers built two large subdivisions nearby, impacting the rural landscape of the Wilderness Battlefield. Taking into consideration this development and his parents’ advanced age, Gordon Jones approached the National Park Service to plan for Ellwood’s future. In 1970, Gordon Jones sold Ellwood to the National Park Service, with the
The park carried out two restoration projects on the house and grounds, but additional work was required before the house could be opened to the public. In 1995, ten local residents formed the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield organization to assist the National Park Service in maintaining Ellwood and the Wilderness Battlefield. Through their generous efforts, the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield helped bring Ellwood to its present state. The park opened Ellwood to the public in 1998. Since 1998, people from around the world visit Ellwood each year to learn about its history.
Over the course of 400 years, the land on which Ellwood stands today has undergone periods of rapid change. Settlement and industry transformed this landscape from a mature forest into a region of dense woods known as the Wilderness. The Jones family built their plantation here, relying on enslaved labor to clear and cultivate the ground. During the Civil War, U.S. and Confederate armies fought through this formidable region and left behind signs of a deadly struggle. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the Lacy family helped mark the landscape with reminders of the war as they saw it. The final private owners of Ellwood changed this former plantation into a modern farm. These periods of change are not equally represented on the landscape today. Think about the features that you observed and the stories that you heard as you walked Ellwood’s grounds. Consider the missing features that prevent us from learning more information.
Ellwood’s story provides us with an opportunity to reflect on many harsh realities about our nation’s history. Today, we can learn from these past mistakes with hopes of improving our future. The more that we learn from those with different opinions and backgrounds than our own, the more knowledge we can impart on future generations. Today, the National Park Service aims to recognize its own missteps and strives towards telling the full story of Ellwood.
