Battle of Fredericksburg • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Armies
The Ebert House and Store wayside marker is at Stop One on the Fredericksburg battlefield Auto Tour along the Sunken Road.
Text from the marker:
The Ebert House and Store
You could smell the gingerbread and candy when you went into the store. It was utterly quiet, the only noise was the ticking of a clock…and an elderly lady knitting and rocking.
A local resident
On this corner stood the home of the Ebert family, Henry and Sophia Ebert emigrated from Prussia in the 1840s, joining a growing and prospering community of German entrepreneurs in Fredericksburg. The Eberts opened a small grocery store in their home on this corner, catering to travelers entering or leaving Fredericksburg along the Telegraph (Sunken) Road. The Eberts, their children, and their grandchildren lived in and operated the store for nearly 100 years.
The Ebert house stood amidst a cluster of middle-class homes on the western edge of Fredericksburg. All of these families – Sisson, Ebert, Innis, Stephens, and Hall – lived lives largely disrupted by war. Before the battle on December 13, 1862, Confederate officers ordered the Eberts to leave their home. The family took refuge at Mrs. Ebert’s brother’s house several miles west of town. They returned days later to find dead bodies “all over the property” and their home badly scarred by eight hours of combat.
From the caption to the photo:
The Ebert House as it appeared in 1927. The Ebert family owned the house into the 1930s. It stood until the 1950s.
Location of the marker
The marker is on the Sunken Road Trail about 0.2 mile north of the Visitor Center and about 40 yards north of the Kirkland Monument.