The Todd’s Tavern – Union Army Headquarters wayside marker is at a pull-off on Brock Road at Todd’s Tavern, about 12 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, Virginia and halfway between the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields. (38°14’51.8″N 77°40’07.4″W; map) The pull off is across the highway from the site of Todd’s Tavern during the Civil War, now occupied by Todd’s Tavern Market.
From the marker:
Todd’s Tavern
Union Army Headquarters
Lee vs. Grant – The 1864 Campaign
En route to Spotsylvania, Union Gens. U.S. Grant and George Meade halted at Todd’s Tavern, a country inn that once occupied this site. Finding all the beds taken, the generals stretched out to rest on the dirt floor. In the morning, a military band struck up a tune outside, causing Grant’s staff to laugh. When the tone-deaf general asked what was so funny, they told him the band was playing an old camp tune called “Get Out of the Wilderness.”
Grant and Meade left Todd’s Tavern on the morning of May 8 and moved up the Catharpin Road (behind you) to Piney Branch Church. Union Gen. Winfield Hancock occupied the tavern for the rest of the day. At one point Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates threatened to attack Hancock’s line here, but when Early saw the Union earthworks he wisely broke off contact with the Federals and headed to Spotsylvania by another route. “Thus,” write Hancock’s adjutant, ” the great battle of Todd’s Tavern was never fought.”
From the captions of the inset photos:
Jubal Early
Winfield Hancock
From the quote at the bottom:
“Taking up our march, we change our direction to south-westerly, arriving towards noon at Todd’s Tavern, an unpretentious structure one story and a half in height, with no merits, architectural or otherwise, to warrant its becoming a conspicuous landmark in the history of this campaign. Here a halt had been ordered. Batteries were parked in luxuriant fields…. The infantry, having stacked arms, were stretched upon the ground; and, inshore, all – generals ad soldiers alike – lay carelessly about in the shade…. But suddenly all is activity…. General (Hancock) issues from the Tavern, leaps quickly into his saddle, and in a brief space of time the corps is in line again and moving promptly….”
– John D. Billings, 10th Massachusetts Light Artillery
From the caption to the painting:
George L. Frankenstein, a native German serving in the Union army, painted Todd’s Tavern sorely after the war.