Battle of Salem Church
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| After the news conference at the Slaughter Pen Farm on Monday, and the
three hour tour afterwards, (which was exquisite - more on that
later) I went back to the battle wagon to head out. What had been
a full field of cars had indeed lessened in number somewhat, and I used
the opportunity to grab a pic. I mean, how often do you park in a
cornfield anyway?
Along the road in the distance at the edge of the cornfield, Gibbon's
men had deployed and dressed ranks before entering this field.
Coincidentally, back on that unseasonably warm December 13th 1862 (60
degree weather), this field would have been corn stubble as well. |
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| And so, with the time remaining I headed off hoping to do a quick bash
of the battlefield at the Wilderness. I figured I had about four
decent hours of daylight left. On the way, of course I passed Salem
Church, the center of the Confederate line facing Sedgwick on May
3rd, 1863, just 6 months after the Slaughter Pen struggle, at the
subsequent battle of Chancellorsville.
Needing pics of this site, and thinking it would be a good place to get a phone call I was expecting, I followed the signage, but impatiently
couldn't see the entrance and pulled an early U-turn and swung back
around into the entrance of the current Salem Church. If you've
driven through Fredericksburg, you might doubt the wisdom of this - I
think there was 6 lanes of traffic, all of them hungry, but I was in a
hurry.
I parked in the church parking lot (don't do this, it's just wrong,
they have a nice parking lot up by the battle church, and I just didn't
wait long enough to find it. However, I did say "hi," to
the nice Baptist lady loading her van with stuff.)
Anyway, I ended up approaching the church from the same direction as
the Yankees, the 23rd New Jersey regiment. Confederate
sharpshooters from the 9th Alabama filled the church, which was then
stuffed with furniture being stored by refugees from the badly damaged
Fredericksburg. |
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| The sharpshooters at this window seem to have particularly irritated
the men of the 23rd New Jersey, judging by the impact marks still
evident on the bricks. Anyway, they stormed the church and
captured the men inside it. The Union attack didn't last much past
this point though, as they briefly breached the Confederate line before
a counterattack drove them back and ended the assault. |
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| The church is pocked with bullet marks. This is from the corner
just below the window above, and to the left. There has to be a
couple of hundred visible, I didn't count them but they are on all sides
of the church, and especially clustered about the windows. (duh)
I headed out of here, thinking I should get a quick pic or two of
Fairview at Chancellorsville, but of course, the fog of war intruded -
I'll tell you more about that and the retired couple at the Thomas
Jackson monument that rather derailed my Wilderness Battle plans.
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Posted by Indiana Reb on: Tuesday 17th October 2006, 9:45 PM
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