THE BROMPTON OAK

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We had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in Fredericksburg Virginia. One of my favorite places, because there is so much history in this town and the surrounding countryside. I located the Brompton Oak which was the sight of an iconic Matthew Brady picture taken of wounded soldiers and a nurse surrounding this oak tree. The following is an account of that day.

William Howell Reed, a medical worker for the Sanitary Commission, described the following in his book "Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac" (1866), within a chapter titled "Scenes in Fredericksburg," on May 23, 1864:

“We were assigned to the Ninth Corps Hospitals, reporting to Dr. Noyes, on Marie's [sic] Heights ... Monday, the 23d of May, 1864, was a most lovely day [at the mansion of John L. Marie (sic)]. The breeze came fresh and cool from the north; the air was pure and clear; the sky perfectly cloudless. … It was a day for the convalescents, and it seemed as if those who were near to death must be revived by the delicious softness of the bracing air. We moved them out of the stifling rooms to the lawn … Under a grand old oak, whose spreading branches gave shelter to nearly fifty men, was a Massachusetts lad, Joseph White ... An artery had been eaten away in the process of healing, and [White] was bleeding to death. There was no help; and he knew it [and calmly and courageously accepted it]...”





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