Maddensville Historic Site/USCT Monument

This granite monument and three interpretive markers were dedicated on November 6, 2021. The monument honors three United States Colored Troops (USCT) soldiers executed by Confederate cavalry on May 8, 1864. The three markers interpret the history of the USCT in the Civil War as well as the history of Madden’s Tavern and the Ebenezer Baptist Church. 

The first regiments of Black soldiers were organized in places like South Carolina, Louisiana, and Kansas under the Second Confiscation and Militia Act in 1862. The larger enlistment of African American men occurred after the Emancipation Proclamation which allowed Black men to serve in the U.S. Army. General Order 143 on May 23, 1863 created the Bureau of Colored Troops and over the next two years 166 regiments of USCT served in the Union Army. Approximately 200,000 Black soldiers served in the war, representing about one-tenth of the U.S. force.

On May 8, 1864, Private Byrd Willis of the 9^th Virginia Cavalry wrote in his journal: “We captured three Negro soldiers, the first we had seen. They were taken out on the road side and shot and their bodies left there.” Typically, the summary execution of soldiers was against the rules of war followed by both Union and Confederate forces. However, the Confederacy did not view USCT soldiers as legitimate combatants. Instead, the Confederate government and army viewed USCT soldiers as armed slaves in acts of insurrection, a crime that typically was punished with execution in the southern states.

On December 24, 1862, about a week before U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into effect, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued General Orders 111. His proclamation was largely due to the actions of Union General Benjamin Butler in New Orleans, which included organizing regiments of Black soldiers as the Louisiana Native Guard. Among the complaints in Jefferson’s proclamation he included the effects of the Confiscation Act and said “the African slaves have not only been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war-a war in its nature far exceeding in horrors the most merciless of the savages.”

Jefferson then turned his attention to President Lincoln’s upcoming Emancipation Proclamation: “And whereas the President of the United States has by public and official declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse submission to a foreign power after the 1^st day of January next, and had thus made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of just retribution.”

Jefferson listed four orders as retribution for the actions of the Union leadership. Two of them targeted enlisted Black soldiers and their officers:

3. “That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.”

4. “That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different States of this Confederacy.”

Confederate soldiers and officers viewed Black Union soldiers as armed slaves in rebellion and thus treated them outside the customary rules of war. The execution of the three USCT soldiers near Madden’s Tavern is an example of this. This Confederate policy also led to the killing of large numbers of USCT soldiers in battles such as Fort Pillow and the Crater at Petersburg. The refusal of the Confederacy to treat USCT soldier as legitimate U.S. soldiers also caused the breakdown of prisoner exchanges and led to the increasingly horrific prison conditions at POW camps such as Andersonville and Elmira.

Although the identities of the three soldiers killed at Madden’s Tavern are difficult to determine, it is likely that they were part of the USCT division in the Union Army of the Potomac. USCT regiments formed the 4^th Division of Brigadier General Edward Ferrero in the IX Corps under Major General Ambrose Burnside. The Division consisted of two brigades of Black troops: The First Brigade consisted of the 27^th USCT, 30^th USCT, 39^th USCT, and 43^rd USCT and the Second Brigade consisted of the 30^th Connecticut Colored Infantry, 19^th USCT, 23^rd USCT, and 31^st USCT.

The 4^th Division was largely kept to the rear during the Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, and the start of the Battle of Spotsylvania. It was during this point that the May 8^th incident at Madden’s Tavern would have occurred. USCT troops entered combat against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia for the first time on May 15, 1864 when the 23^rd USCT engaged in the Battle of Spotsylvania. The USCT regiments continued to fight in the Overland Campaign, most famously during the siege of Petersburg.

While the granite monument is specifically dedicated to the three nameless soldiers executed about 300 feet from the monument’s location, it is meant to also commemorate a larger history. Records show that more than 100 USCT soldiers marked Culpeper County as their birthplace on enlisting in the Union army, so this monument is meant to honor their service and the service of all USCT soldiers generally. 

Two of the markers commemorate the African American history of Maddensville: the Madden Tavern and Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The Madden Tavern still stands just down the road from the Maddensville Historic Site. The original tavern was built as a story-and-a-half log building around 1840 by Willis Madden. The western half of the building was the living space for the Madden family while the separate eastern section had a public room on the first floor and an upstairs room for guests staying overnight. At the time this intersection of roads was a crossroads for trade going to and from Fredericksburg, so the tavern provided a good stopping point. In addition to the tavern (which Madden operated without an official tavern license), there was also a campground for teamsters, a general store, and a Blacksmith/wheelwright. Madden’s Tavern was the only such business in central and western Virginia owned by African Americans prior to the Civil War. The original tavern is the northwest section of the current building. There was a two-story frame wing added in the early 1900s and a kitchen wing added in the rear in the 1930s.

Willis Madden’s mother was Sarah Madden, a woman of mixed race who had been indentured until the age of 31 to George Fraser of Fredericksburg and Col. James Madison, Sr. (father of the president). After her indenture finished, Madden and her children settled in Spotsylvania County, eventually living as a tenant on the farm of John Barnes. The Barnes property was in litigation and passed through several owners between 1800 and 1830, but in 1835 Willis Madden purchased 87 acres of the Barnes estate. Madden was a free Black man and had worked a variety of jobs in order to save enough funds to purchase the property (the property his family had lived one and where his mother was buried). He continued farming and doing a variety of jobs, but also constructed the tavern. The tavern business was severely damaged by the impact of nearby railroads eliminating much of the road trade to Fredericksburg, and then the Madden property was largely destroyed during the Civil War. Despite that, Madden built his farm to several hundred acres. Willis Madden passed away in 1879, but the Madden property remained in the family until 2017. In 1984 the Madden Tavern was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and during the 2000s the tavern and almost 200 acres were permanently conserved with an easement. The current owners, the Tingler and Hawkins families, granted access to the Freedom Foundation for the construction of the Maddensville Historic Site.

One of the new markers commemorates the history of Ebenezer Baptist Church, across the street from the site. The church property was originally owned by Willis Madden, part of the large farm property he acquired due to the prosperity of this tavern and associated businesses. Prior to emancipation there were legal restrictions on both free and enslaved African Americans gathering to worship without white supervision. After the Civil War, when African Americans gained new freedom to worship, Madden donated the land and building materials to establish the Ebenezer Baptist Church in August 1867. It was originally named the African Ebenezer Church and it was one of the first Black churches constructed in the county after the Civil War. The church also served as a school, another very important institution for the Black community after the Civil War. The original church burned down in 1884 and was rebuilt close to the first location by Thomas Obed Madden Sr, Willis Madden’s grandson.

Efforts to erect the monument and markers were led by The Freedom Foundation of Virginia. The Freedom Foundation focuses on preserving and promoting the history of USCT soldiers born in Culpeper County, VA, as well as the larger history of the USCT and the history of other Culpeper County residents who helped secure freedom for African Americans in the Civil War. The project was done in collaboration with Civil War Trails and the Piedmont Environmental Council, who assisted with navigating bureaucratic hurdles and raised $25,000 for the site.

Howard Lambert, president of The Freedom Foundation of Virginia, chose this location to honor the USCT history of the county, calling it “arguably one of the most intriguing, if not historical locations in Culpeper County, not just for the obvious reasons that colored troops were killed here. It’s a physical intersection, yes, but it is also an intersection of culture and way of life.”

Lambert continued: “Because what we have here is pre-Civil War with Madden’s Tavern in 1852, and we’ve got 1863 and 1864 when colored troops were allowed to join the union army and they come down this road by the thousands with the 4^th Division 9^th Corps towards the Battle of the Wilderness and then on to the Battle of the Crater, and then we’ve got post-Civil War, the church—by virtue of the Civil War people of color were allowed to practice our religion as we wanted to. Indeed, the Madden family shaped this portion of Culpeper County, so to be able to put a historical site here, the Maddensville Historic Site, is very, very special It is the physical coming together of all three, and another thing that makes it special is that if you look around here, not much has changed on the lands from that time.” (Sabato, PEC)

“023-0029 Madden’s Tavern.” Virginia Department of Historic Resources. December 22, 2020. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/023-0029/.

“4^th Division, 9^th Corps, May 1864.” The Civil War in the East. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://civilwarintheeast.com/us-army-may-64/aop-may-64/9-corps-aop-may-64/4-div-9-corps-may-64/.

Basileo, Maria. “Gone, but not forgotten: Culpeper monument honors Black Civil War soldiers.” Culpeper Times. November 11, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.insidenova.com/culpeper/gone-but-not-forgotten-culpeper-monument-honors-Black-civil-war-soldiers/article_0977f102-430a-11ec-b67a-33dc8857cbe2.html.

Henderson, Steward. “The Role of the USCT in the Civil War.” American Battlefield Trust. October 27, 2020. Accessed November 18, 2021. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/role-usct-civil-war.

Hernandez, Jackie Llanos. “U.S. Colored Troops honored near site of executions in Culpeper County.” Virginia Mercury. November 8, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/11/08/u-s-colored-troops-honored-near-site-of-executions-in-culpeper-county/.

“National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form: Madden’s Tavern.” Accessed November 16, 2021. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/023-0029_Madden's_Tavern_1984_Final_Nomination.pdf.

“Proclamation by the Confederate President.” Freedmen and Southern Society Project. Accessed November 19, 2021. http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/pow.htm.

Sabato, Cindy. “Maddensville Historic Site, Civil War Memorial, is dedicated before a crowd of 200 in Culpeper.” November 9, 2021. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.pecva.org/resources/press/maddensville-historic-site-civil-war-memorial-is-dedicated-before-a-crowd-of-200-in-culpeper/.

Sabato, Cindy. “New Monument to honor United States Colored Troops and African American contributions in Culpeper County.” Piedmont Environmental Council. October 29, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.pecva.org/resources/press/maddensville-historic-site-civil-war-memorial-is-dedicated-before-a-crowd-of-200-in-culpeper/.

Seidel, David. “Historic Culpeper County Crossroads to get Monument to Black Soldiers.” Radio IQ|wvtf. November 5, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.wvtf.org/news/2021-11-05/historic-culpeper-county-crossroads-to-get-monument-to-Black-soldiers.

“Our Mission.” The Freedom Foundation. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://freedomfoundationva.org/.