. The Civil War brought change and destruction to Chatham. As discussed above, the house was owned by James Horace Lacy (1823–1906), a former schoolteacher who had married Churchill Jones's niece. As a planter, Lacy sympathized with the South, and at the age of 37, he left Chatham to serve the
Confederacy as a staff officer. He served on the staff of General
Gustavus W. Smith at the
Battle of Seven Pines, and also served as field transportation inspector in the Trans-Mississippi Department. His wife and children remained at Chatham until the spring of 1862 when Union troops' arrival forced them to abandon the building and move in with relatives across the river in soon-beleaguered
Fredericksburg, and after its fall later to
Pulaski County. For much of the next thirteen months, Chatham was occupied by the
Union army; orders, reports, and letters referred to it as the "Lacy House". Northern officers initially used the mansion as a headquarters. In April 1862, General
Irvin McDowell brought 30,000 men to Fredericksburg and supervised the repair of the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and construction of several bridges across the
Rappahannock River from Chatham. McDowell planned to use the new bridges to march south and join forces with the
Army of the Potomac outside
Richmond. President
Abraham Lincoln journeyed to Fredericksburg to confer with McDowell about the movement, meeting with the general and his staff at Chatham. His visit gave Chatham the distinction of being one of three houses visited by both Lincoln and Washington (the other two are
Mount Vernon and
Berkeley Plantation on the James River east of Richmond.) While at Chatham, Lincoln went to Fredericksburg, walked its streets, and visited a New York regiment encamped on what would become known as "Marye's Heights" during a later battle. Seven months after Lincoln's visit, fighting again erupted at Fredericksburg. In November 1862, General
Ambrose E. Burnside brought the 120,000-man
Army of the Potomac to Fredericksburg. Using
pontoon bridges, Burnside crossed the Rappahannock River below Chatham, seized Fredericksburg, and launched a series of bloody assaults against
Lee's Confederates, who held the high ground behind the town. One of Burnside's top generals,
Edwin Sumner, observed the battle from Chatham while U.S. artillery batteries shelled the Confederates from adjacent bluffs. Furthermore, a German Military Observer, Count
Zeppelin, from Chatham's lawn, sent up a reconnaissance balloon with a soldier to observe the battle, an incidence he later often recounted after starting his aircraft factory. The
Battle of Fredericksburg became a disastrous Union defeat. Burnside suffered 12,600 casualties, many of whom were brought back to Chatham and the nearby
Conway House (Falmouth, Virginia) for care. For several days, army surgeons operated on hundreds of soldiers inside the house. Assisting them were volunteers, including the poet
Walt Whitman,
Clara Barton (who later founded the American chapter of the International
Red Cross), and Dr.
Mary Edwards Walker (as of 2015 the only woman awarded the
Medal of Honor). Whitman had come to Chatham searching for a brother wounded in the fighting. The carnage shocked him. He later wrote a published description that, outside the house, at the foot of a tree, he noticed "a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, etc.-about a load for a one-horse cart. Several dead bodies lie near," he added, "each covered with its brown woolen blanket." More than 130 Union soldiers died at Chatham and were initially buried on the grounds. After the war, their bodies were removed to the
Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Years later, when three additional bodies were discovered, the remains were buried at Chatham at the outskirts of the again-famous gardens, in graves marked by granite stones lying flush to the ground. In the winter following the battle, the U.S. Army camped in
Stafford County, behind Chatham. The Confederate army occupied
Spotsylvania County, across the river. Opposing
pickets patrolled the riverfront, keeping a wary eye on their foe. Occasionally the men would trade newspapers and other articles using miniature sailboats. When not on duty, Union pickets slept at Chatham;
Dorothea Dix of the
United States Sanitary Commission operated a
soup kitchen in the house. As the winter progressed and firewood became scarce, some soldiers tore paneling from the walls for fuel, exposing the underlying plaster. Some of the soldiers' pencil graffiti is still visible, with additional scrawls deciphered by Park Service staff. Military activity resumed in the spring. In April, the new Union commander, General
Joseph Hooker, led most of the army upriver, crossing behind Lee's troops. Other portions remained in Stafford County, including
John Gibbons' division at Chatham. The Confederates marched out to meet Hooker's main force, and for a week fighting raged around a country crossroad known as
Chancellorsville. At the same time, Union troops crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and drove a Confederate force off
Marye's Heights, behind the town. Many of the 1,000 casualties suffered by the Union army in that 1863 engagement were sent back to Chatham, which again served as a hospital. ==Postwar years==