When General Robert E. Lee's troops were battling the Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862, his cannons atop Lee's Hill and nearby Howison Hill had clear lines of fire. Today they'd be lucky to hit the proverbial broad side of a barn.

One-hundred-and-forty-five years had passed since Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded by "friendly fire" in the woods at Chancellorsville, and yet it might have been yesterday. Thick forest still hangs over the waning vestige of the Old Mountain Road where the general was riding, beyond the front lines, on the night of May 2, 1863, when members of the 18th North Carolina mistook him and his aides for a Union incursion.

May is a month that looms large in the annals of the Civil War. Battles fought in northern Virginia during that month had major implications for the war’s outcome. Today, visitors can walk the hallowed ground of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and reflect on the deeper meaning of the pivotal events, gallant deeds, and unspeakable suffering that took place there nearly a century and a half ago.

Somehow, the eight-room house survived the Civil War battle that swept across the Wilderness battlefield in Virginia. Now, master craftsmen are working to see that it survives the test of time.

There's an effort being launched to create a network of Civil War museums across the state of Virginia, and one might be located in Fredericksburg, home to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.