Picture of the Sentry Box and street
Posted in 18th Century, 19th Century, All Markers, Buildings, Revolutionary War
April 17, 2018
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The Sentry Box

Picture of the sentry box State Marker

Inscription:

“The Sentry Box (ca. 1786) is an elegant specimen of late~Georgian~style architecture. Brig. Gen. George Weedon of the Continental Army, later mayor of Fredericksburg, built the house and named it to reflect his military career. Weedon’s wife, Catherine, invited the family of Gen. Hugh Mercer, who died at the Battle of Princeton, to live with them. The Mercer children later inherited the property and Confederate General Hugh Weedon Mercer was born here. In December 1862, the Union army built its middle pontoon crossing over the Rappahannock River just below the Sentry Box. Intense fighting occurred here, and the house was heavily damaged.”

Research:

The Sentry Box was the home of General George Weedon and Hugh Mercer. (1)

Weedon was an immigrant from Ireland who was once a keeper at the Rising Sun Tavern, and a Postmaster. (2)

George Weedon later owned the the Weedon Tavern in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Weedon was a Brigadier General during the American Revolution, and later became the Mayor of Fredericksburg in 1785. During this time Weedon and his wife Cathirine built the Sentry Box with the money earned form the Tavern. (3)

In 1862, it was the home of the Roy Mason Family. During the Civil War, the house was severely damaged, but was later restored. (4)

He Sentry Box was added to the National Registry of Historic Places on February 26, 1992. (5)

Sources:

(1) Alvin T.  Embrey, History of Fredericksburg, Virginia, (Richmond, VA: Old Dominion Press, 1937), 57.

(2)  John T. Goolrick, Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town. (Richmond: Higginson Book Company, 1998), 87.

(3) Harry Schenawolf, “Colonel Weedon’s Tavern, Fredericksburg, VA 1735-1807,” Revolutionary War Journal (2015), accessed April 23, 2018. http://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/weedons-tavern/

(4) John F. Cummings, Images of America: Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Court House, (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2002), 110.

(5) “Sentry Box” (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior; National Park Service, accessed April 23, 2018, https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Fredericksburg/111-0095_Sentry_Box_1992_Final_Nomination.pdf