The Battle of Williamsburg gets lost in the shuffle of history.
Not only does it get less emphasis among Civil War historians, it also gets lost amid the city’s own storied history, according to historian and author Carson Hudson, who gave an illustrated lecture Friday evening to about 100 people at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.
And good luck finding the battlefield where it took place on May 5, 1862. Little of it is preserved and accessible to the public.
The battle began as Brigadier General Joseph Hooker’s Union division attacked the Confederate rearguard at Fort Magruder, an earthen fortification along the Williamsburg Road. That site, now just off of Penniman Road, is about a mile southeast of the restored Colonial Williamsburg. The Confederates had retreated from Yorktown, and would subsequently retreat to Richmond after the daylong rainy battle.
“The battlefield itself hasn’t survived very well, unlike other places where you have national parks,” Hudson said. “Colonial Williamsburg is kind of a mixed blessing.”
Hudson explained that when Colonial Williamsburg was formed, the town was frozen in time due to the 88 buildings dating to the 18th and 19th centuries which were saved.
“But because Colonial Williamsburg came in, the emphasis was on Colonial history and not Civil War history, and it’s kind of a shame,” Hudson said, “because to be quite honest with you, after working in this area for many years, I can tell you five times as many Civil War stories about the town as I can tell Revolutionary War stories about George Washington.”
Hudson said with Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg, most people other than Civil War buffs come to the region with an idea only of its Colonial history.
A number of those familiar with Civil War history happened to be in the audience. When Hudson asked about a specific slide in his lecture, there was someone ready to identify it accurately.
Others, however, like Denise Goode of Toano, knew less about the significance of the battle.
“I didn’t really realize Williamsburg was involved in the Civil War like it was,” Goode said. “Other Civil War battles I heard more about than Williamsburg. There were so many bigger ones in Virginia.”
Hudson said the battlefield virtually disappeared because no one cared about it, with building commencing on the wheat fields around the town, which was in bad shape after the battle and after the Union Army occupied Williamsburg during the war. It was rebuilt as a late Victorian town and, later, electricity and paved streets came along.
“With the history of Williamsburg, you have a series of different towns from decade to decade,” Hudson said.
While there were about 4,000 casualties among Confederate and Union troops during the battle, that gets overshadowed by bigger battles such as Gettysburg. However, Hudson said the daylong, rainy battle remains important because it prepared those soldiers for that calamitous fight in Pennsylvania.
Chuck Hassett of Williamsburg said Hudson’s presentation was a useful refresher for him.
“I’m not sure I learned a whole lot new because I’ve read a lot on the subject, but it brought it home so much for me being here,” Hassett said.
