Inside and out, Ellwood appears much as it did during the Civil War. The property also hosts a cemetery. file/MIKE MORONES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Historic house on Wilderness battlefield in Orange County selected as state's top Civil War site

by Clint Schemmer

Date published: 9/1/2008

by Clint Schemmer

A new spotlight is shining on one of The Wilderness's lesser-known gems.

Ellwood, a historic home slightly off the battlefield's beaten path, has been named "Favorite Virginia Civil War" site by the readers of Cooperative Living.

Subscribers overwhelmingly chose Ellwood in an informal survey sponsored this month by the magazine, which circulates to 390,000 households in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, editor Bill Sherrod said Thursday. It was the fourth-annual Readers' Choice Awards contest sponsored by the periodical.

Published by a trade association for electrical utilities, including Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Cooperative Living is distributed across Virginia, from Cumberland Gap to the Eastern Shore and Northern Virginia to North Carolina, Sherrod said.

"We're so pleased and happy that Ellwood has gotten this recognition," said Spotsylvania County resident Carolyn Elstner, chairwoman of the Historic Ellwood Project. " We hope it helps persuade more people to see what they've been missing, and to learn all about it."

Russ Smith, superintendent of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, said the award honors the private group, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, whose volunteers interpret the site off State Route 20 for visitors and are restoring the house.

"We're just thrilled for the Friends," he said. "They're the ones who deserve all the credit."

The only house at The Wilderness to survive from the war, Ellwood serves as a kind of gateway to the battlefield where Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first clashed.

Union Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, who commanded the Fifth Corps that fought along the Orange Turnpike (now Route 20), made his headquarters there.

The room that Warren occupied has just been returned to its 1864 appearance, complete with camp cot, officers' folding chairs and brass candlesticks. That effort is part of the Friends group's ambitious effort to restore the house, which the National Park Service acquired in 1971.

"I visited it two or three years ago, and it's a pretty amazing place," Sherrod said. "I understand a lot has been done there since, under a public-private partnership.

"When I was there, an army of people showed up to mow the grass and take care of the place. I thought it was really neat that people give of their own time to help do things like that."

Ellwood, built circa-1790 by William and Betty Jones, has witnessed several eras. The Marquis de Lafayette and his army camped there during the Revolutionary War; he later stopped by for breakfast in 1825. The home has also hosted "Light Horse Harry" Lee; his son, Robert E. Lee; and Union Gens. U.S. Grant, George Meade, Gouverneur K. Warren and Ambrose Burnside. During the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederates used the house as a field hospital. Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's left arm, amputated at Wilderness Tavern when he was wounded by his own troops, is buried in the family cemetery. During the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, Ellwood served as a Union Army headquarters.

Date published: 9/1/2008