Willis Hill Buildings wayside marker

Battle of Fredericksburg • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Armies

The Willis Hill Buildings wayside marker is at Stop One on the Fredericksburg battlefield Auto Tour. It is along the Marye’s Heights Trail next to the Confederate Artillery wayside marker. (see map below)

Willis Hill Buildings wayside marker on the Fredericksburg battlefield

Text from the marker:

Willis Hill Buildings

In December 1862 Confederate artillery on this hill rained shot and shell on attacking Union soldiers advancing out of Fredericksburg. Next to the guns was a small brick building, one of three that then occupied this part of the heights. “The little brick house, which was white at the beginning of the battle, was perfectly red with bullet-marks at its close,” wrote one Confederate. “There was an odd cooking-stove in front of the house. The balls striking it kept up a perpetual ‘bing, bing,’ equalling the varied notes of a hand-organ.”

This 1864 photograph, taken from about this spot, shows the Willis Hill buildings in ruins – wrecked by Union artillery during the fighting here. Confederate earthworks, now gone, creased the heights.

Location of the marker

The marker is along the Marye’s Heights Trail next to the Confederate Artillery wayside marker. (38°17’39.3″N 77°28’07.1″W)