History in OurBackyard fleeing Fredericksburg: Jane Howison Beale’s Story

By tim talbot

As was the case with many of Fredericksburg's citizens when war appeared at their door, Jane Howison Beale fled the city. Unlike numerous others, Beale waited until the evening of December 11, 1862, to evacuate with her children. Fortunately, we do not have to imagine what thoughts raced through her head as she and her children tried to get from between the Union and Confederate armies. She tells us by the words she chose to use and recorded in her diary.

The author became aware of the painting in the 1960's as a collector of currency and member of the Virginia Numismatic Association that I was honored to be president from 1981 to 1983. On May 1, 1863 , the County of Mercer (Virginia) issued fifty cent note. This is now part of the State of West Virginia. The painting of the wounding of General Mercer by Peale was used as a print for many state and bank notes during the 1860's. John Turnbull (17561843) another famous artist also painted the wounding of Hugh Mercer. His painting like the one of Peale are also on display at Princton.

The Statue of General Mercer located on Washington Avenue was built by the United States Government in 1906. It was designed by the artist Edward Valentine who also designed the Lee memorial at Washington and Lee University. Valentine of Richmond was famous for his statues of Virginians such as Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Hotel.

Earlier in the day, Union forces were finally able to get pontoon bridges in place to get some of their troops from the Stafford County side of the Rappahannock to the Fredericksburg shore. Vicious blockby-block street fighting occurred as men from Confederate Brig. Gen. William Barksdale's regiments tried to hold back the Federal forces sent over the river. In effort to try to push Barksdale's men out of the Fredericksburg streets, Federal artillery on Stafford Heights threw solid shot and shells into the city. Although the bombardment caused significant damage, it ultimately had little effect on the Confederate defenders.

Seeking shelter from the bombardment in the basement of their Lewis Street home, Beale, her children, and enslaved servants headed downstairs. "We sought the room often used for a kitchen, and as Susan made us a good fire (the fuel all being at hand), we drew around it, with our hearts earnestly seeking the protection of heaven," Beale wrote.

While in the basement, a shell struck the house causing a "crashing of glass and splintering of timber close behind us." Her youngest son, Samuel, cried out that he was hit, but fortunately, "there was no terrible wound, only a deep redness of the skin about the shoulder and breast," Beale noted. The family waited for an opportunity to leave.

Finally receiving word from her brother, John that the window of opportunity to get out of town was narrowing, she explained, "We were shoved in the vehicle without much ceremony, and the horses dashed off at a speed that at another time would have alarmed me, but now seemed all to slow for our feverish impatience to be beyond the reach of those terrible shots which were still tearing through the streets of the town, one struck a building just as we passed it, another tore up the ground a short distance from us."

From Lewis Street, the party traveled in a commandeered ambulance over to Hanover Street, and then along the soon-to-be-famous Sunken Road-scene of such terrible fighting two days later.

Beale felt relief after proceeding beneath the Willis Hill Cemetery "As we passed beyond the line of the town and the turn in the road put the 'Willis Hill' Promontory of land, between us and the firing, a sense of security came into my mind and a deep and heartfelt thankfulness for our deliverance from this great evil, carried my spirit to the throne of Heaven in humble grateful prayer," she wrote.

Jane Beale and her children were among the fortunate. They found shelter in the home of the Mr. and Mrs. Temple, family friends. Fredericksburg refugees without such connections made do as best they could by making camps in the woods or took cover, if possible, in nearby countryside churches. But even when the armies eventually went away and the war was over, their lives would be forever changed by their experience.

Tim Talbot is the Chief Administrative Officer for Central Virginia Battlefields Trust

The story of our area didn't start with Fredericksburg's founding in 1728. Not even with the first Native Americans who lived here thousands of years ago. The story of life in Fredericksburg goes way, way back in time to the age of dinosaurs some 112 million years ago!

This is a good time to dispense with a silly myth. Contrary to what you saw in the 1966 movie One Million Years B.C., extinct mega-ddinosaurs and humans never lived together at the same time It sure makes for good entertainment though. By one million years ago - the setting for the movie - mega-dinosaurs had already been extinct for some 62 million years. Also, it's fairly apparent that Homo erectus, our human ancestor who was on the scene one million years ago, could never, ever, be confused with movie actors John Richardson and Raquel Welch.