Union Occupation of Charlottesville

Q-22

On 3 Mar. 1865, after the Battle of Waynesboro, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's Union Army of the Shenandoah entered Charlottesville. As Bvt. Maj. Gen. George A. Custer's 3d Cavalry Division arrived, Mayor Christopher L. Fowler, local officials, and University of Virginia professors Socrates Maupin and John B. Minor, likely with rector Thomas L. Preston, met Custer on the University Grounds. Fowler surrendered the town and keys to the public buildings. The professors asked that the University be protected as a national asset. Custer agreed, posting guards during a three-day occupation. The University suffered little damage, unlike the Virginia Military Institute, which was burned in June 1864.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017 Department of Historic Resources, 2001

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Prepared Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott, 129 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), 65:126, 476-477; Anne Freudenberg and John Casteen, eds., “John B. Minor’s Civil War Diary,” The Magazine of Albemarle County History, 21 (1962-1963): 45-55; Philip H. Sheridan, The Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan (New York: Da Capo Press, 1888), 347 Refer to Marker file on this topic, to review further source material on this topic.