Last updated: May 27, 2026
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Guinea Station History: Fairfield During the Civil War
In the decades before the Civil War, the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad made Guinea Station a thriving plantation town. The railroad helped plantation owners transport their goods to important markets easily and cheaply. The 100-mile line stretched from the US capital in Washington, D.C., to the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia. That same railroad, however, put Guinea Station directly along one of the most contested stretches of land in the entire Civil War.
A Critical Transportation Hub
In May 1862, parts of the US Army temporarily camped near Guinea Station. The First Corps of the US Army, then commanded by General Irvin McDowell, had advanced to Fredericksburg in April. By May 28, General John Gibbon's brigade of midwesterners made camp in the area. By May 29, however, McDowell pulled the probing troops back to Fredericksburg.1
After Union forces left, their presence continued to impact Fairfield. In October 1862, Chandler reported that in June, eight people he enslaved escaped to freedom behind federal lines. The freedom seekers were Jim, age 55; Henry, age 45; Edward, age 19; Billy, age 18; Jacob, age 14; Tim, age 11; Polly, age 35; and Isabella, age 17.2 These eight joined a larger movement, as over 10,000 enslaved people escaped during the spring and summer of 1862 when federal troops occupied Fredericksburg.3
In November 1862, General Robert E. Lee moved the Army of Northern Virginia to Fredericksburg. He aimed to block General Ambrose Burnside's advancing Army of the Potomac. Guinea Station became crucial for the Confederate supply chain. Almost everything Lee needed traveled up the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad through Guinea Station.
In just one day, workers could process up to:
- 13,000 pounds of bacon
- 19,000 pounds of salt beef
- 195 barrels of flour
- 3,300 pounds of rice
- 2,300 pounds of peas
- 1,500 pounds of salt
- 250 gallons of vinegar
- 300 gallons of molasses
- 8,700 pounds of sugar4
Nearly half of the people maintaining this logistical backbone of the Army of Northern Virgina were enslaved African Americans.5
After the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the Confederate Army settled in for winter. The US Army did the same across the Rappahannock. Many troops from "Stonewall" Jackson's 2nd Corps camped at Guinea Station and Fairfield. The winter of 1862-63 was hard for Lee's Army.6 Despite the thousands of pounds of supplies flowing through Guinea Station daily, the Confederates often found themselves short on food.7 These shortages were a direct result of the southern economy.
Slave state agriculture focused on inedible cash crops grown by enslaved people. In free states, food dominated agricultural production. The Confederacy also lacked efficient, long-distance railroads to move food where it was needed. To supplement domestic production, the Confederate government tried importing food from Europe. Blockade runners preferred to load up more profitable cargo like weapons or ammunition. As a result, much food bought by the Confederate government rotted on the docks. By late winter and early spring of 1863, Lee sent most of General James Longstreet's 1st Corps further south to ease the logistical strain on Guinea Station.
The Chancellorsville Campaign – 1863
In late April, the Army of the Potomac went on the offensive again in the Chancellorsville campaign. Jackson's Corps pulled out of their winter camps around Fairfield and marched north to confront the US Army. Guinea Station continued to serve as a vital supply base for Lee's Confederates. Supplies streamed north up the railroad while casualties and captured federal troops were marshaled here for transport south.
On May 4, Lee worried that Federal cavalry might strike Guinea Station. This could cut off his link to Richmond. He ordered the Confederates to "hold Guinea at all hazard if you can." The attack on Guinea never happened, but Union cavalry cut the railroad line south of Guinea Station. The Confederates fixed the lines just a few days later. This temporary loss of supplies had little effect on the Battle of Chancellorsville. The brief halt of the railroad trapped the wounded "Stonewall" Jackson at Guinea Station long enough for him to die in the Fairfield Plantation office. Whether or not the delay impacted Jackson's survival is impossible to know, but it likely had a greater impact on where he died than when or how he died. For more details on Jackson's wounding and death at Fairfield, see Death of “Stonewall” Jackson.8
Like Jackson, thousands of other wounded Confederates waited for transport to Richmond. Unlike Jackson, most did not have a dry, warm building. They were left exposed to the elements while the overwhelmed railroad struggled to accommodate them. The Confederate Army operated field hospitals at Guinea Station into June and buried an unknown number of its dead in the area.
The Confederates also brought captured Federals to Guinea Station. Confederates transported US officers by train to Richmond, where many were held at Libby Prison. The enlisted men had to march to Richmond on foot, though many were exchanged for Confederates captured by the US.
Guinea Station continued to serve as a Confederate supply base until May 1864. During that time, Thomas Chandler readily cooperated with the Confederate Army. Chandler sold thousands of dollars in supplies to Lee's Army from May 1862 to May 1863, and his home and office were used as makeshift field hospitals.9
The Overland Campaign – 1864
The 1864 campaign season opened violently but inconclusively with the battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. After Spotsylvania, the Army of the Potomac tried again to outmaneuver the Confederate Army. Moving to the southeast of Spotsylvania brought the Army of the Potomac to Guinea Station and Fairfield. US cavalry scouted the route to Guinea Station on May 18, finding the area still used by the Confederates as a supply base and telegraph station. The troopers captured the telegraphs and their operators. They then destroyed the Confederate supplies staged at the railroad.10
The rest of the Army of the Potomac began their march on May 20, 1864. Union cavalry once again arrived ahead of the main body of the army, this time to secure the two bridges over the Mattaponi River. Confederate cavalry resisted the move, and the US troops only secured one of the two bridges. On May 21, the US Army 5th Corps arrived at Guinea Station to find Guinney's Bridge held by the 9th Virginia Cavalry. US General Meade, not wanting to wait for the 5th Corps, ordered Provost Marshal General Marsena Patrick to secure the bridge with his headquarters guard. The 114th Pennsylvania Infantry and parts of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry advanced, led by Colonel Charles Collis of the 114th. They waded across the river, pushed back the Confederate defenders, secured the crossing, and extinguished a fire set by the 9th Virginia Cavalry to destroy the bridge.11
Although the bridge was now in US hands, the delay meant General Grant spent the night at Guinea Station. Initially, Grant established headquarters behind the nearby Motley House. While waiting for his tents to be set up, Grant started smoking a cigar on the Motley House porch. Mr. Motley took offense at the ash and embers Grant dropped on the porch. In response, Grant excused himself and went to the Chandler House on the Fairfield Plantation instead. Here, he found a less oppositional place to smoke, even conversing with Mrs. Chandler. The following day, the Army of the Potomac continued its march to the southeast.12
When the Army of the Potomac left Fairfield and Guinea Station in May 1864, the war had finally moved on from the area for good.
Besides the impact of the war coming to their doorstep, the Chandler’s participated in the conflict in other ways. Thomas Chandler's three eldest sons all served in the Confederate military. William Chandler served in the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Thomas Chandler also joined the 9th Virginia Cavalry and later the 30th Virginia Infantry. Joseph Chandler worked as a military doctor. He was assigned to Caroline and Spotsylvania counties by Virginia Governor John Letcher.13
In March 1865, Thomas Chandler moved his family from Fairfield to another plantation property he owned nearby called Lake Farm. At the same time, Edgar McKenney, who had bought Fairfield in 1863, finally moved to Guinea Station.