University of Mary Washington

Fredericksburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,982. It is 48 miles (77 km) south of Washington, D.C., and 53 miles (85 km) north of Richmond. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg with neighboring Spotsylvania County for statistical purposes. Located near where the Rappahannock River crosses the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, Fredericksburg was a prominent port in Virginia during the colonial era. During the Civil War, Fredericksburg, located halfway between the capitals of the opposing forces, was the site of the Battle of Fredericksburg and Second Battle of Fredericksburg. These battles are preserved, in part, as the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. More than 10,000 African-Americans in the region left slavery for freedom in 1862 alone, getting behind Union lines. Tourism is a major part of the economy. Approximately 1.5 million people visit the Fredericksburg area annually, including the battlefield park, the downtown visitor center, events, museums, art shops, galleries, and many historical sites.Fredericksburg is home to Central Park (as of 2004, the second-largest mall on the East Coast). The Spotsylvania Towne Centre is located in Spotsylvania County, adjacent to the city. Major employers include the University of Mary Washington (named for the mother of George Washington, who lived here), Mary Washington Healthcare, and GEICO. Many Fredericksburg area residents commute to work by car, bus, and rail to Washington, D.C., and Richmond, as well as Fairfax, Prince William, and Arlington counties.

Hugh Mercer Apothecary was an apothecary founded by Hugh Mercer in the mid-18th century. Mercer was a doctor who fled Scotland after the Battle of Culloden. He travelled to Pennsylvania, where he met Colonel George Washington during the French and Indian War and later moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Washington's advice to practice medicine and operate an apothecary. The building that housed the apothecary has been restored by Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) to demonstrate 18th Century medical treatments. It also includes a small exhibit on Mercer's life and contributions to the American Revolutionary War.In mid-2012, Preservation Virginia signed an agreement passing ownership to the "Washington Heritage Museums" group beginning in 2013. The museum is located at 1020 Caroline Street in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, included futile frontal attacks by the Union army on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders along the Sunken Wall on the heights behind the city. It is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle as a "butchery" to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Burnside's plan was to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the Confederate capital of Richmond before Lee's army could stop him. Bureaucratic delays prevented Burnside from receiving the necessary pontoon bridges in time and Lee moved his army to block the crossings. When the Union army was finally able to build its bridges and cross under fire, direct combat within the city resulted on December 11–12. Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a strongly fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye's Heights. On December 13, the Left Grand Division of Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin was able to pierce the first defensive line of Confederate Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson to the south, but was finally repulsed. Burnside ordered the Right and Center Grand Divisions of major generals Edwin V. Sumner and Joseph Hooker to launch multiple frontal assaults against Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's position on Marye's Heights – all were repulsed with heavy losses. On December 15, Burnside withdrew his army, ending another failed Union campaign in the Eastern Theater.

St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church is located in Fredericksburg, Virginia and is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington. Its grade school is Holy Cross Academy.

Washington Avenue Historic District is a national historic district located at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The district includes 36 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site (the Gordon Family Cemetery), and 4 contributing objects in the city of Fredericksburg. It includes substantial, high-style residences that line both the east and the west sides of Washington Avenue reflect the various domestic styles that were popular at the turn of the 20th century. Notable dwellings include the Samuel W. Somerville House (1896-1897), Shepherd House (1910-1911), and Mary Washington Monument Caretaker's Lodge (1896). The four commemorative works are the Mary Washington Monument (1893), General Hugh Mercer Monument (1906) by Edward Virginius Valentine (1838-1930), Jefferson Religious Freedom Monument (1932), and the George Rogers Clark Memorial (1929). Located in the district is the separately listed Kenmore.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Brompton, originally known as Marye House, is an historic house located on heights overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The house was built in 1838 by John Lawrence Marye. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1979.The house sits atop an area of Fredericksburg known as 'Marye's Heights'. The town was about 400 yards from Brompton and was a Confederate stronghold against repeated Union Army assaults on the slope during the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862–1863). Confederate General James Longstreet maintained his headquarters at Brompton.Brompton currently serves as the residence of the President of the University of Mary Washington.

The Second Battle of Fredericksburg, also known as the Second Battle of Marye's Heights, took place on May 3, 1863, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as part of the Chancellorsville Campaign of the American Civil War.

The Rowe House is a historic home located at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was built in 1828, and is a two-story, four-bay, double-pile, side-passage-plan Federal style brick dwelling. It has an English basement, molded brick cornice, deep gable roof, and two-story front porch. Attached to the house is a one-story, brick, two-room addition, also with a raised basement, and a one-story, late 19th century frame wing. The interior features Greek Revival-style pattern mouldings. Also on the property is a garden storage building built in about 1950, that was designed to resemble a 19th-century smokehouse.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Kenmore, also known as Kenmore Plantation, is a plantation house at 1201 Washington Avenue in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Built in the 1770s, it was the home of Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis and is the only surviving structure from the 1,300-acre (530 ha) Kenmore plantation. The house is architecturally notable for the remarkable decorative plaster work on the ceilings of many rooms on the first floor. In 1970 the property was declared a National Historic Landmark.Kenmore is owned and operated as a house museum by The George Washington Foundation (formerly George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation), and is open daily for guided tours. The Foundation also owns nearby Ferry Farm, where George Washington lived as a child.

James Monroe High School is located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It is a four-year public high school in the Fredericksburg City Schools system. The school is named after James Monroe. The current school building opened to students in September 2006. James Monroe High School is part of the VHSL AA Battlefield District. The Virginia State Department of Education fully accredits James Monroe High School.

The Matthew Fontaine Maury School (also known as Maury School), in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is an historic school building noted for its Colonial Revival architecture and design as well as its significance in the entertainment and cultural life of Fredericksburg. The architect of the building was Philip Stern. Built in 1919-1920, the school was used from then until 1952 for both elementary and high-school students. After the construction of James Monroe High School, the building was used as an elementary- and middle-school. The school was closed in 1980. Maury School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2007.

Elmhurst is a historic home located at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was built in 1871, and is a two-story, three-bay, double-pile, L-plan, brick dwelling in the Italianate style. It is topped by a hipped roof over a low-pitched, pyramidal and shed roof with a large belvedere and eaves supported by large, elaborate brackets. It has a 1+1⁄2-story kitchen wing added in 1900 and a 2+1⁄2-story addition and porch built between 1912 and 1921.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.