Ellwood, as it is known today, was more commonly referred to as the Lacy House during the Civil War. Set on a knoll overlooking Wilderness Run, Ellwood was a simple farm estate covering some 642 acres. The house was a common "T" shaped design with several outbuildings, inclusive of a kitchen, barns, stables, and slave cabins. Corn and grains were the standard fare raised here and were sold in markets in Fredericksburg some fifteen miles away. The ritual
of farm life remained unbroken here until the outbreak of Civil War.
William Jones and his wife Betty built the house in 1799. William and Betty, along with William’s brother Churchill, traveled from Middlesex County in Tidewater Virginia to the Wilderness area around 1775. At that time they leased 262 acres from Alexander Spotswood grandson of Gov. Alexander Spotswood.
In 1777 Churchill Jones left to join the Continental Army. About that time, William leased an additional 642 acre parcel from the Spotswood heirs and subsequently purchased the land. This large tract would become the future site of Ellwood.
Family legend holds that "Light Horse Harry" Lee, Robert E. Lee’s father, wrote his memoirs in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It is interesting to note that as William Jones increased his land holdings he purchased 910 acres from "Light Horse Harry" Lee in 1798.
In 1824, revolutionary war hero Marquis de Lafayette dined at Ellwood during his triumphant tour of America.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ellwood’s owners, Betty Churchill Jones, William’s daughter, and her husband, J. Horace Lacy, used Ellwood as a summer home. The Lacy’s also owned Chatham, now Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park headquarters. The Lacy’s preferred Chatham for their main residence.
In May of 1863, The Union Army under the command of "Fighting Joe" Hooker battled Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia at the crossroads of Chancellorsville. Ellwood saw limited cavalry action on its boundaries. Although the house and grounds were used as a Confederate field hospital with wounded residing there well into November, a disastrous event in Confederate military history would make Ellwood famous.
The battle of Chancellorsville is renowned as Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson’s famous flank attack on the Union won the day. The cost for this victory would be severe for the Confederacy as the mighty "Stonewall" was cut down by fire from his own troops on May 2nd.
Having been moved to a makeshift field hospital a short distance East of Ellwood, His left arm would be amputated. The General’s chaplain, Beverly Tucker Lacy, brother of J. Horace Lacy owner of Ellwood, gathered Jackson’s amputated limb and carried it to his brothers estate. Lacy buried the arm in the family cemetery where it remains to this day. Jackson would die several days later.
After the Union victory over General Lee at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the armies retreated back to the banks of the Rapidan River. The Union Army, now under the command of General Meade, tried a late November action against the Confederates known as the Mine Run Campaign. Ellwood would again become involved in the war, as Union soldiers marching through the estate would find the time to ransack the house and its fine library.
In the spring of 1864 the final and most bloody portion of the Civil War would begin with the Wilderness Campaign. Ellwood would now be at the center of the war and the eyes of the nation fixed upon it.
General’s Gouverneur K. Warren and Ambrose E. Burnside, two of the Union army’s corps commanders would move into Ellwood. For a time Ellwood would serve as the headquarters of the Union Fifth corp. The building and grounds were teaming with staff officers and orderlies.
Four batteries of Union artillery were placed on the high ground around the house, as lead elements of the Fifth Corps would use the Parker’s Store Road, which traversed the property, to maneuver to the Orange Plank Road.
By the end of the battle Ellwood’s gardens were trampled, its fences were gone, used as firewood, and the floors were stained with blood. Graves would dot the grounds. The caretakers were arrested for fear of knowing Union plans and taken to Old Capital Prison in Washington.
Ellwood would remain abandon for the next eight years.
The Lacy’s again inhabited Ellwood in 1872 having sold Chatham to pay off debts incurred during the war years. The farm was finally sold to a Hugh Evander Willis in 1907. The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park acquired the house in 1977.
For some twenty years Ellwood sat quietly as one of the Park services best kept secrets. Without enough funding to open or interpret the site only those few who knew of its existence or were fortunate enough to be part of a rare special tour were introduced to Ellwood’s history.
The Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, worked diligently to change this situation and began writing the continuing history of Ellwood. The organization won a grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program to install five new interpretive markers around the house. The group also formed a volunteer interrupter Corp and was trained extensively by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park historians. In agreement with the Park, the Friends have opened Ellwood to the public for three summer seasons from 1998 - 2000 and have hosted nearly 6,000 thousand visitors on weekends alone. Coupled with new interior displays and well informed interpreters the program has been an overwhelming success.
Friends of Wilderness Battlefield also created an all-volunteer maintenance Corp that keeps the grounds looking pristine at all times.
