Lee's Hill

Back across the Rappahannock River on even higher ground that Marye's Heights at a place once known as Telegraph Hill, we find Robert E. Lee's headquarters.  Not much here but a three-sided shed with interpretive boards.  The view of the whole battle area is spectacular - especially after some of Lee's men chopped down a few trees.  Wish I had my binoculars with me.

This is where Lee stood when he said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it," as he watched the slaughter at the Sunken Road. He was probably talking with his fellow generals when he said it.

Top left is "Jeb" Stuart, below him is "Stonewall" Jackson.  The other two "attended" Lee throughout the battle, Lee's "Old War Horse" James Longstreet and William Pendleton.  Before the war, Pendleton was an Episcopal minister.  After the war, Robert E. Lee attended Pendleton's church in Lexington.

Stuart and Jackson were killed in action during the Civil War; Longstreet was one of a very few generals to live into the 20th century, dying in 1904.

Lee was very nearly killed here - twice!  Once, a cannon firing it's thirty-ninth time blew up right beside Lee, and another time a Union shell landed in the earthworks next to Lee.

The interpretive sign right in front of me (yes, that's me in the top photo) shows the whole battle as seen from Lee's headquarters:

Notice top center the circle with a "v" underneath it.  That represents where a Union hot-air observation balloon was located!  I think that is really cool.  Below and to the left is Chatham Manor, the dark lines crossing the Rappahannock represent pontoon bridges, and you can easily see the open space marked by the arrow that Union troops had to cross in an attempt to take the Sunken Road.