Central Virginia Battlefields Trust

Capt. Shepherd Pryor, 12th GA, May4, 1863:"moved our line of battle closer up; consequently wee had to entrench in great haist. After we had been at work a fiew minutes the sharp shooters commenced fireing. I assure you it wasent long before we had breast works to fight behind.”

Pvt. Henry Kieffer, 150th PA, Wilderness: “On all sides, within and just without the hastily erected hospital tents, were the severely and dangerously wounded, while great numbers of slightly wounded men . . . were lying about the sides of tents or out among the bushes."

Writer John Trowbridge, Sept 1865, Wilderness: canteens, straps, buckles, cartridge boxes, socks, old shoes, rotting letters, desolate tracts of perforated and broken trees—all these signs, and other sadder still, remained to tell their silent story of the great fight.”

CVBT released its November 2026 "History Wire" e-newsletter last Sunday. This month’s post focuses on soldiers' accounts of wounds at Mine Run, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. If you missed it, it is available on the CVBT website at: bit.ly/48lraKg

Yesterday, 30 fortunate attendees to our "Becoming a Hell of a Regiment" talk and tour enjoyed learning from historian Jared Peatman about the 20th Maine's experience at the Battle of Fredericksburg. We sincerely appreciate Jared sharing his talents with us.

Henry Matrau, 6th WI, Mine Run: “To have charged those Heigts with the number of men we had would have been sheer murder & Gen. Meade knew it.”

Capt. Delavan Bates, 121st NY, Salem Church: “The minute we stopped the men fell faster and faster until at last the right commenced falling back and then the whole line went like sheep and the rebs after us yelling like devils. I . . . was taken [prisoner]."

CVBT released its October 2026 e-newsletter yesterday. If you missed it, it is available at: bit.ly/4dVAubc If you don’t want to miss future CVBT email newsletters, you can sign up for them at: bit.ly/3IElLAr cvbt.org/support-us/

Last Saturday CVBT hosted its annual Youth Community Service Day at our Nine Mile Run tract on the Chancellorsville battlefield. We had over 20 students, parents, and adult sponsors from area high schools, along with CVBT volunteers, staff, and board members all pitch in.

Wash. “Evening Star,” May 17, 1864: “Our Wounded:A Surgeon returning from Fredericksburg, reports the greatest difficulty in properly caring for the wounded. [If] not for the Sanitary and Christian Commission, it would be impossible for the wounded to be properly attended to."