VA-Q22 Union Occupation of Charlottesville

Marker text: UNION OCCUPATION OF CHARLOTTESVILLE

On 3 Mar. 1865, Maj. Gen. Philip H. SheridanÕs Union Army of the Shenandoah entered Charlottesville to destroy railroad facilities as the 3rd Cavalry Division led by Bvt. Maj. Gen. George A. Custer arrived from Waynesboro. Mayor Christopher H. Fowler, other local officials, and University of Virginia professors Socrates Maupin and John B. Minor and rector Thomas L. Preston met Custer, just east of here. Fowler surrendered the town, and the professors asked that the university be protected, Òfor it would always be a national asset.Ó Custer agreed and posted guards during the three-day occupation. The University suffered little damage, unlike the Virginia Military Institute, which had been burned in June 1864.

Department of Historic Resources, 2001