Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia achieved significant victories at Fredericksburg in 1862 and Chancellorsville in 1863, but suffered an irreparable blow at the end of the latter battle with the death of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson. In 1864 the Union and Confederate armies returned to the Fredericksburg area and met at the sanguinary battles at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park is preserved by the National Park Service in a 6,100-acre network of battlefield sites, including some thirty miles of earthworks, approximately forty monuments, and several buildings, including Lacy House/Ellwood in Orange County, Salem Church in Spotsylvania County, and the colonial mansion Chatham in Stafford County. In Fredericksburg, the NPS has preserved much of the property lining the Sunken Road, scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the first and second battles of Fredericksburg.

A 1976 update to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park nomination was approved by the National Park Service in 1978.
[NRHP Approved: 5/23/1978]

The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park Historic District consists of multiple discontiguous parcels of land in and around Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania, Stafford, Orange, and Caroline counties. A 2018 updated Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park nomination was approved by the National Park Service under the Civil War in Virginia Multiple Property Document.
[NRHP Approved: 5/23/2019]