Battle of the Wilderness • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The marker is at Tour Stop 5 of the Wilderness Battlefield Auto Tour on the south side of Hill-Ewell Drive. This marker dates to the 1950s and the first postwar wave of vacationers visiting the National Parks. They were made of aluminum with a sturdy wooden frame, and were designed to be read from a parked auto.
Text from the marker:
Wilderness Campaign
May 5-6, 1864. The bluecoats of Crawford’s Division emerged into the sunlight of this clearing, the Chewning Farm, on May 5 in a predetermined move toward Parker’s Store on the Orange Plank Road. Lee’s eastward thrust, however, changed all Union plans, and Crawford was withdrawn to the Turnpike sector. While Ewell’s Corps on the Pike and A.P. Hill’s on the Plank Road parried the powerful Federal army, the Chewning Farm remained a vulnerable gap between the two battle fronts, presenting an opportunity which the Federals failed to exploit. A.P. Hill’s Corps completely closed the gap on May 6.
United States Department of the Interior – National Park Service.
Location of Tour Stop Five
The marker is at Tour Stop 5 on the west side of Hill-Ewell Drive 1.9 miles south of Virginia Route 20 and about 1.4 miles west of Orange Plank Road, Virginia Route 621. (38°17’45.2″N 77°44’39.4″W)