What's a Battlefield?

 Over the past weekend I drove down to Virginia to visit the Morton's Ford battlefield. But there were NO markers around the area! Most of us are used to (for instance) Antietam, Gettysburg or Chickamauga. Those battlefields have plenty of markers, visitor centers and signs pointing to the area. Morton's Ford has none of these. So why is it considered a battlefield? After all it's not marked! 

    In 1990, Congress set up the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission (CWSAC) to identify important Civil War sites, determine their significance and the threats to their integrity. In it's report the CWSAC identified 384 battles of varying degrees of importance. Key battles such as Antietam, Gettysburg and Chickamauga received an A rating on a scale of A-D. D being the least significant. Morton's Ford however received a D. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why there aren't any historic markers or signs pointing to the battlefield location. 

Morton's Ford 

Morton’s Ford is at the middle of a considerable bend in the river, whose convexity is turned toward us. The point of land opposite is about 1 mile along the stream, and rising gradually from the river it is seen and commanded for about half mile by the ground on this side. About 1 mile from the river a high ridge is found which, encircling the point at the ford, joins the banks of the river above and below, while at these points the enemy have complete command of the ground on this side of the river. This ridge is also generally wooded and strongly intrenched. In these woods and behind these lines were two camps. He had complete control with his fire over the point of land our troops had gained on his side of the stream. Our troops then were in a kind of cul-de-sac—a focus of fire. 

- Gen. Gouverneur K Warren from The War of the Rebellion : a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies, Vol. 33. Copy available here

    I drove down to Morton's Ford the other weekend.  I started to read "Rebels Across the River", in America's Civil War by Bruce Trinque (September 1994) a few days before I left. I followed some of directions from the article on Civil War Traveler

 

 Struan through the trees

     (House was the headquarters of Gen. Warren)

 

Soldier's Rest cemetery mentioned in the link above was beyond this cornfield, at the top of the picture. There was a small road through the cornfield near the tree but it was on private property. Besides my car wasn't four wheel drive and the road was bumpy. The Rapidan river was beyond the cornfield. I couldn't see any sign of it through the corn.

House on the site of the former Buckner house, which 

was mentioned in the article on the Civil War Traveler blog 

 

From the pictures above, you can see there's no markers or even old earthworks left (at lease from what I can tell) so to someone familiar with Gettysburg, it doesn't really look  like a battlefield. But according to Congress, it's a battlefield. And I enjoyed seeing the area. Hopefully on day a Civil War Trails marker can go up in the area or at least a sign off the highway from the roads department. But until then with the directions and tips online, I was able to find this battlefield!