Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park Digital Archive
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
(established as Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park) commemorates
and interprets four major battles of the American Civil War: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness,
and Spotsylvania Court House.
Located midway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, along the Rappahannock River,
the Fredericksburg area became the most fought-over ground of the war, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties and
devastation to the local communities.
The mission of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is to
“protect the historic resources associated with the four major Civil War battles fought near Fredericksburg,
to convey the significance of these events in the continuum of history, to provide a setting for contemplation,
and to inspire in the community and nation a commitment to preserve these places for future generations.”
The park was authorized by an act of Congress on February 14, 1927 (44 Stat. 1091).
By Executive Order 6166 in 1933, the park was transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior
to be administered by the National Park Service (NPS).
The Fredericksburg National Cemetery, which is also administered by the National Park Service, was established in 1865
to honor the Federal soldiers who died in the service of their country.
As digital archives are created with the park’s museum collection, they will become available on this portal.
For a description of what is currently available, please see below:
Sergeant Jerome Peirce Collection
This collection encompasses 274 letters predominantly written by, but also to, Sergeant Jerome Peirce.
He enlisted in the 36th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers on August 4, 1862. Peirce left his home in
Orange, Massachusetts, including his wife (Albinia, also known as Allie) and daughter (Lucy, also known as Lulu).
In addition to other engagements, the 36th Massachusetts was involved locally at the Battle of Fredericksburg,
the Battle of the Wilderness, and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
The primary date range is February 15, 1862, to October 12, 1864, encompassing 227 of the letters.
Peirce was among the 107 soldiers from the 36th Massachusetts killed on May 12, 1864,
during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House – that day is also known as the Bloody Angle.
Initially buried on the battlefield, he was later reinterred in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
Peirce’s descendants donated the letters to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in 2019.
This digital collection is also available at:
https://peirceletters.umwhistory.org
– a digital history project created by University of Mary Washington students.
About NPGallery
The NPGallery Digital Asset Management System is an enterprise system for storing,
organizing, and sharing photos and other digital files. NPGallery's central online repository offers
a place for the NPS to store digital assets, including photos, illustrations, audio files, videos,
and documents. The NPGallery platform lets parks and other programs easily store and organize all
of their digital files, and allows users access to easily find and retrieve specific files.
NPGallery is a premier solution for NPS parks and programs who have a need to manage and disseminate
large volumes of digital assets, with many people accessing and using those assets.
NPGallery supports a wide array of digital asset file types (images, MS office formats, adobe pdfs, audio files, videos).
Digital assets have control access to those files to ensure they are used properly.
NPGallery supports parks and programs with
digital asset hosting and delivery services.
Digital assets in the system can be provided for
public use, or locked for discovery only by internal NPS users.
NPGallery has terabytes of digital files of all types that are safely stored and quickly
retrievable for NPS business needs.
NPGallery provides a simple text search and search by state and park options,
or has the ability to “search more fields” for robust metadata searching.
Search results can be refined by filtering options.
NPGallery supports web services, support for embedded metadata, and integrated geospatial capabilities.
NPGallery also has a responsive user interface design, and the interface will gracefully
resize to match the size of the screen on your device, supporting mobile.
Web authors using the NPS.gov content management system(CMS) now use NPGallery as the
source for all photo galleries shown in the CMS.
Benefits of NPGallery to Parks & Programs
The NPGallery platform lets parks and other programs easily store and organize all of their digital files,
and allows users access to easily find and retrieve specific files.
These images and other digital assets have a direct URL link and can be used on program web pages.
Multiple file sizes of each digital asset are stored and available for use and download.
Contact the NPGallery staff to have us assist your park or program with your unique Digital Asset Management needs.
Email: NPGallery@nps.gov
NPGallery has continued working with individual parks and programs to create individual portals.
These semi-custom web pages allow NPS parks and programs to deliver digital assets from a
unique web page that highlights and shares photos, documents, audio files, and videos.
Searching the featured digital archive can be customized to help guide a user through discovering
the valuable digital assets unique to each park or program.