Fredericksburg sits at the fall line of the Rappahannock River, the boundary between the Virginia Tidewater and the Piedmont interior, and that geography made it one of the most important logistics nodes in Revolutionary Virginia. Ships could reach the town from Chesapeake Bay; wagons could reach it from the Blue Ridge foothills. That combination made Fredericksburg the natural location for a munitions manufactory, an iron foundry, and the supply operations that fed Virginia's Continental regiments throughout the war.
PEOPLE
Hugh Mercer
Continental Army Brigadier General, Fredericksburg Physician, Scottish Jacobite Veteran
Betty Washington Lewis
Washington's Sister, Kenmore Plantation Mistress, Patriot Supporter
Fielding Lewis
Virginia Planter, Gunnery Manufactory Operator, Washington Brother-in-Law
Mary Ball Washington
George Washington's Mother, Fredericksburg Resident
KEY EVENTS
Hugh Mercer Killed at Battle of Princeton
Jan 1777
Fielding Lewis Opens Gunnery Manufactory
Oct 1775
Fielding Lewis Dies in Financial Ruin
Dec 1781
Hugh Mercer Organizes Virginia Militia
Jun 1775
Washington Bids Farewell to His Mother Before Yorktown Campaign
Sep 1781
Rappahannock Forge Produces Military Hardware
Jan 1776
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Man Who Spent His Fortune on a War
Fielding Lewis was not a soldier. He was a planter, a merchant, and George Washington's brother-in-law, and when the Revolution came he contributed in the way that wealthy men who were not soldiers co...
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Death of Hugh Mercer
Hugh Mercer had survived Culloden. He had survived Braddock's Monongahela disaster, riding away with two wounds while the army collapsed around him. He had survived twenty years of frontier medicine i...