Chewning Farm - Wilderness VA
N 38° 17.587 W 077° 44.661
18S E 259994 N 4241901
The Chewning Farm was a strategic point on the Wilderness battlefield.
Waymark Code: WM8MHH
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 04/19/2010
Views: 8
William Chewning owned a 150-acre farm between Orange Turnpike and Orange Plank Rd. in Wildnerness during the Civil War. It was one of the very few clearings in a densely overgrown battlefield and stood between the advances of the Union army and the Confederate army. On May 5 1864, Gen. Samuel Crawford's Union Corps held the Chewning farm, but abandoned the position to support Gen. Ambrose Burnside's troops who were bogged down in fighting on the Orange Turnpike.
On May 6, Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill took control over the farm. When Union troops returned to retrieve it, they were met by the Confederate lines and were unable to retake it. Later while Gen. Robert E. Lee was conferring with Gen. Hill on the front porch of the Chewning House, they watched the Union army leave Wilderness and move on to the Spotsylvania Court House. They would soon follow.
The Chewning Farm is located on Hill-Ewell Dr. on the Wilderness battlefield in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. There is a pull-off where you can access a farm road that leads to the Chewning House site and two exhibits. No driving, but it is a short easy quarter-mile walk.