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Of all these properties it
is a real shame that this house is gone as
it hosted some very special guests.
General Robert E. Lee was taken to Belvoir
in March of 1863 when he first showed
signs of heart problems and "Stonewall"
Jackson and his lovely wife Anna spent a
week there, with their newborn daughter
Julia, just before he departed for the
Battle of Chancellorsville.
According to an article by
John Hennessy titled Belvoir: The Thomas Yerby
Place,
Spotsylvania County: Built
before 1820 (and perhaps as early as 1790)
by planter William Herndon, Belvoir was a
plantation of some 800 acres along the
banks of Massaponax Creek. "The land is
all flat and well adapted to the culture
of corn, tobacco, and wheat," read an 1827
advertisement for the property, "and a
portion of it is woodland, well timbered,
and as rich as any in the county. There
are good orchards, containing a choice
collection of fruits." The house, the
advertisers asserted, was "a large and
spacious brick dwelling...conveniently
arranged, with all necessary out houses,
good water, and an ice house, inferior to
none in the county. It is a healthy
situation in a very genteel neighborhood,
and has always been considered as a highly
desirable residence.
Today, the ruins of this
house are still visible to those who are
looking for it. Sections of the stone
foundation are still standing. Seventy
yards southeast of the house site is the
well-preserved Yerby family cemetery,
which contains seven marked graves and at
least eleven unmarked ones. During the
time of the Civil War, Belvoir was a
thriving plantation with more than a dozen
buildings scattered across 800 acres that
were worked by as many as 41 slaves. What
I find fascinating is the fact that there
were only 45 people living on the entire
property.
Because this land was
located close to 'Hamilton's Crossing,'
which is adjacent to the battlefield, it
was an unwilling participant in the
action. On Dec. 13, heavy fighting erupted
there near Prospect Hill and the
Confederate wounded was taken to Belvoir.
It is recorded that a Tennessee surgeon
used one of the outbuildings as an
operating room. Several wartime accounts,
describe the horrors that were witnessed
in the main house's parlor that day. One
stated, "So many wounded were brought into
this room that the floor was stained so
that thereafter it had to be covered with
carpet."
William Colston of
"Stonewall" Jackson's famous brigade
recalled that he was carried into one of
the property's barns with the most
grievously injured. He wrote that "My
friend, Doctor Straith, came every little
while to see me and I could tell from the
expression of his face that he had little
or no hope for me. He gave me a drink of
whiskey and afterwards a cup of strong
coffee, both of which stuck. I have never
made up my mind whether it was the whiskey
or the coffee which saved my life, but
have always given the former the benefit
of the doubt and therefore have never been
a prohibitionist." Remember that all you
Irish coffee drinkers out there.
Perhaps the most important
event witnessed by Belvoir following the
battle was the death of Gen. Maxcy Gregg.
Gregg, pictured in the upper corner here
was a stubborn South Carolinian, who had
been shot in the back when the Union army
broke through Confederate lines. He was
taken by ambulance to the hospital that
had been established at Belvoir. Shortly
after his arrival, Gregg looked intently
into the surgeon's face and said, "Dr.
when I received my wound I thought it was
mortal. I was so completely paralyzed, but
now I feel a degree of reaction." After a
moment's silence, he continued "with great
calmness": "Dr. if you think my wound
mortal, I wish you to give me an opiate to
prevent excessive pain." The surgeon did
so.
His division commander,
A.P. Hill, visited him, quietly walking
into the darkened room, standing silently
over Gregg for several minutes, then
leaning down and kissing him on the head
before leaving without a word. Gen.
Jackson came too. He and Gregg had had a
disagreement in past days, but Jackson
reassured him, "The doctor tells me that
you have not long to live. Let me ask you
to dismiss this matter from your mind and
turn your thoughts to God and the world to
which you go." You may remember that scene
played out in the Ron Maxwell film
Gods and
Generals. Despite the
best efforts of his attendants Maxcy Gregg
died on December 15th.
He was not the only ill
Confederate General to stay at the house.
On March 30, 1863, Robert E Lee came down
with a severe repertory infection. He was
given the upstairs of Belvoir and stayed
there for several days while he recalled,
"the surgeons "tapping me all over like an
old steam boiler before condemning it."
This was the event that I mentioned on
Lee's HQ roadside marker. He of course
stayed here until strong enough to
continue with his duties.
By far though, the most
endearing story to come out of Belvoir
Plantation is that of the Jackson family's
stay in May of 1863. The subject of Thomas
Jonathan Jackson is what one would
probably call a 'specialty' of mine. You
could say that I have a great affinity and
attachment to him. My first book ever
published was a Christian-biography on the
General. I am a co-founder of The Jackson
Society. My license plate says "STOWNWL"
and I just named my 4th child (born in
Dec) Jackson. I am very impressed with the
guy and I must say that as I researched
his time here at Belvoir, I found the
story to be both very touching and very
sad.
Without getting too far
off track it is important to know that
Thomas Jackson's first wife and child had
died from complications at childbirth. And
that his daughter with his second wife
Anna had passed away a few weeks after she
was born. In addition young Thomas had
lost his father, sister, and mother,
tragically as a child. Therefore you can
imagine Jackson's elation when his
daughter Julia Laura Jackson was born in
December of 1862. Still, as his duties on
the battlefield took priority, he had no
opportunity to see her until the following
spring. On April 20, Jackson rode to
Guinea Station to greet his young wife and
infant daughter.
Anna recalled, "His face
was all sunshine and gladness." When young
Julia caught the glowing look of her
father, "she beamed her brightest and
sweetest smiles upon him in return, so it
seemed to be a mutual fascination." On
April 23 the Jacksons had Julia baptized
at Belvoir. Fredericksburg Presbyterian's
own Rev. Beverley Tucker Lacy, Jackson's
chaplain, presided over the ceremony in
the parlor. Julia's mother wrote, "The
child behaved beautifully and was the
object of great interest to her father's
friends and soldiers." Needless to say,
the Jackson family shared a wonderful week
at the estate.
And there is one very
famous - physical memento of Jackson's
stay at Belvoir. It is his final
photographic image. This picture has been
used everywhere (including my book cover)
and was commissioned my Mrs. Jackson
herself. She said, "He [Thomas] had never
presented a finer appearance in health and
dress." Anna was referring to him wearing
the handsome uniform that was given to him
by the very flamboyant and fashionable
J.E.B. Stuart. Mrs. Jackson arranged her
husband's hair, and he took a seat in the
main hall of Belvoir and the resulting
image would become popular with Jackson's
soldiers, but Mrs. Jackson found it
imperfect. As the photographer worked, a
wind blew through the hallway into
Jackson's face, "causing him to frown, and
giving a sternness to his countenance that
was not natural."
This portrait, pictured
here in the bottom corner, is the result
of that sitting. On April 29, a messenger
climbed the front steps of Belvoir. He
saluted and announced that, "General
Early's adjutant wishes to see General
Jackson." Jackson announced a battle was
imminent, and directed his wife to pack up
and leave Belvoir for the safety of
Richmond. A week later, following the
Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson would
be reunited with his family while on his
deathbed.
So whatever happened to
Belvoir? Why are so many other manors
still standing and it lies in ruins? By
April of 1865, Spotsylvania Country (and
the rest of the South) was battered and
scarred from years of war. Thomas Yerby,
the patriarch of Belvoir, lost much of his
property and died in 1868. The estate
remained in the Yerby family until 1904,
but in 1910 it burned to the ground after
a fire caused by a crack in the chimney
ignited the wall behind a
fireplace.
CONTINUED
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