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Visited on a Tuesday in late December after Christmas holiday around 3PM. The visitor center was pretty deserted. Every hour and half hour there is a 20 min video that plays in the auditorium. Highly recommend warching this first. It was created within the last decade and very informative. The ranger at the front desk was super friendly and knowledgeable.
The exhibits look very nice and updated. It was very long narrow hallways that wrapped around the auditorium. It would be a little clostrophobic except that there was only one other family visiting at the same time we were. There is more to look at than you would think and a couple are interactive with lots of items and not just text on walls.
The bathrooms were nice and clean and located on the right as you enter the vistor center.
The park store pretty small and nice and had what we wanted (pins/patches). Older lady working behind the counter was very helpful and friendly to talk to.
The national park stamps are to the left right as you wnter through the doors. There are no national park tokens here but at the Fredericksburg NPS store. There are specific pins and merchandise here that can't be purchased at the Fredericksburg store either and vice versa. So if you plan to visit both don't assume everything is avilable at both locations. The ranger also let us know they may be getting a actual junior ranger badge soon, maybe 2023, in addition to the patch and rockers.
Junior ranger program here is very cool. They don't have the badges but have a center patch with 4 rockers. One for each of the sites. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Only Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville have vistor centers. The Fredericksburg location has the junior ranger book for spotsylvania as well. The Chancellorsville visitor center has books for the Wilderness. The are a couple short trails right outside the visitor center which is paved rubber trail. It took us about 1 hr to watch the video and walk through exhibits (without reading everything) and complete the junior ranger program. The ranger let us have the other rockers to conplete the other books later at home. We could've spent more time here but the vistor center closes at 5pm and we wanted to so at least a little bit of the driving tour. Definitly need to visit again and do the whole driving audio tour. Probably wouldn't visit again after...
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This site is one of the many Civil War sites I have visited over the past several years. This battle in my opinion was the high water mark of the Confederacy in particular the generalship of RE Lee, and the unfortunate wounding and death of his “right arm” Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee was at his most audacious; splitting his forces in the face of an enemy who outnumbered him by a 2:1 margin. Jackson’s forced march around the Union right flank and sneak attack pulverized the Union flank ....forcing it to fall back several miles to the East. But it came at a cost ....Jackson was wounded by friendly fire, the wound forced the amputation of his left arm....unfortunately as was the case with most wounds in this war, pneumonia set in and he passed away several days later.
The included photos show the Visitors Center Interior, which is full of great murals and information on the conflict. The monuments are in place to commemorate the spot where Jackson was wounded. Other pictures and plaques show various incidents which occurred during the conflict. Some pictures were taken on the 3.6 mile loop which starts from the Visitor Center and curls around to the Crossroads where Union General Joe Hooker had his headquarters. If you have the time it’s well worth the walk; the woods are filled with sign posts (Route is well marked - no chance of getting lost) and pints of interest in the latter parts of the battle when the Union was trying to avoid catastrophe.
In all a great site to visit if you’re in...
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This battlefield visitor center is hiding a very big secret. It was placed on the spot where Confederal General "Stonewall" Jackson was shot three times by his own men. There is a monument to him directly behind the visitor center and a marker shows the exact spot where he was shot (to the left of the visitor center if you are facing it). Below is what the historical marker says about this famous wounding:
--Near this spot around 9:15 p.m. on the night of May 2, 1863, the Confederate cause suffered disaster. As “Stonewall” Jackson and his party returned from their reconnaissance down the Mountain Road, Confederate musketry erupted south of the Plank Road (Route 3). The scattered fire rippled northward, directly across Jackson’s path.
A Confederate officer yelled, “Cease firing! You are firing into your own men!” Through the darkness, a voice shouted back: “Who gave that order? It’s a lie! Pour it into them, boys!” The flash from dozens of rifles illuminated the darkness. Two bullets crashed into Jackson’s left arm; a third pierced his right hand. Later that night his left arm would be amputated. On May 10, 1863, Jackson died in a farm office at Guinea Station.--
The center itself was closed due to COVID when I visited so I couldn't...
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