As the 1864 Overland Campaign shifted from the Wilderness toward Spotsylvania Court House, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee successfully bottlenecked the Federal army just outside the village. Undeterred, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent part of his forces on a wide flanking maneuver to attack Confederates from the east. Lee scrambled to block them. Thus the Civil War came to the property now known as Stevenson Ridge. Traces of the Bloody Struggle: The Civil War at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania Court House tells the story of Spotsylvania’s forgotten front: the fighting along the Fredericksburg Road. During the two-week battle, three-fourths of the Union army occupied and crossed over Stevenson Ridge as Grant looked for ways to break Lee’s defenses. Today, Stevenson Ridge is one of the most historic properties in Spotsylvania County. Extensive earthworks crisscross the landscape. Stories abound. Traces of the struggle remain everywhere. Located on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia, Stevenson Ridge is an 87-acre historical property that offers a premier special events facility as well as lodging in restored antique structures dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Only a short drive from historic Downtown Fredericksburg, Lake Anna, and all of the major Civil War battlefields in the area—Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania—Stevenson Ridge also boasts some of the best-preserved Civil War trenches in private hands. www.stevensonridge.com
