Rearguard Action – Ordeal of the Wellfords wayside markers

Battle of Chancellorsville • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies

The Rearguard Action and Ordeal of the Wellfords wayside markers are on the Jackson’s Flank March Trail south of Catharine Furnace . They face each other on the west side of Jackson Trail East.

Rearguard Action wayside marker

Rearguard Action wayside marker along the Jackson Flank March Trail on the Chancellorsville Battlefileld

Text from the marker:

Rearguard Action

On May 2, 1863, as the tail end of Stonewall Jackson’s flanking column neared the Wellford place, Union infantry launched an attack. They struck Jackson’s rearguard (the 23rd Georgia) a half-mile to the north, at Catharine Furnace. From there, they fought a running battle to the Wellford farm. Confederate artillery unlimbered in the yard of the Wellford house to help repel a Union assault.

Outnumbered, the Georgians fell back to the protection of a railroad embankment, still visible inside the woods ahead of you. But Union sharpshooters outflanked the Georgians’ position and captured most of the regiment. The Federals pushed no farther, though, and Jackson’s march continued. By 5 p.m. his column lay poised opposite the Union army’s unprotected right flank, about three miles northwest of you. Jackson stood on the verge of his greatest success.

From the caption for the map:

Union leaders spotted Jackson’s column, assumed he was retreating and attacked. The 23rd Georgia tried to stop them. The fight ended only when the Georgians surrendered in the unfinished railroad, about 200 yards in front of you.

From the caption for the inset photo:

Colonel Emory F. Best, 23rd Georgia. Best would be court-martialed for abandoning his regiment before it surrendered.

Closeup of the Rearguard Action wayside marker along the Jackson Flank March Trail on the Chancellorsville Battlefileld

Ordeal of the Wellfords wayside marker

Ordeal of the Welfods wayside marker along the Jackson Flank March Trail on the Chancellorsville Battlefileld

Text from the marker:

Ordeal of the Wellfords

In December 1862 the Wellford family fled Fredericksburg to escape the ravages of battle. Five months later war found them again – here, in a commodious brick home that stood in the field in front of you. On April 30, Union troops arrived. “About 20 visited us,” wrote Evelina Wellford, “searching the house for arms and Confederates, shooting the fowls, and stealing provisions, of which we had a scant supply.”

On May 2, as Jackson’s flanking column passed by and the rattle of approaching Union battle lines neared, the Wellfords piled trunks into carts and “hurriedly took our departure for the woods, making as good time as you might imagine under the circumstances.” The Wellfords returned days later to a damaged home. “I think,” wrote Evelina Wellford, “a few more moves of the kind will just break us up entirely.”

From the caption to the photo in the lower left:

The Wellford house as it appeared in the 1930s. Confederate cavalryman J.E.B. Stuart made the yard his headquarters on May 1; the next day Jackson’s flanking column used the dirt road visible in the center of the image. The road has since been widened.

From the caption to the photo in the upper right:

Charles C. Wellford was a wealthy dry goods merchant and director of the Catharine Furnace Company, which owned the house here. His son Charles B. Wellford helped guide Jackson’s men during their famous flank march on May 2, 1863.

Closeup of the Ordeal of the Welfods wayside marker along the Jackson Flank March Trail on the Chancellorsville Battlefileld

Location of the marker

The marker is on the west side of Jackson Trail East. (38°16’48.1″N 77°38’45.1″W) It is about a third of a mile south of Catharine Furnace.

 

See more on the history of the 23rd Georgia Infantry Regiment in the Civil War

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