Braehead: Breakfast Before Battle

Located off of Lee Drive and nestled within the boundary of the Fredericksburg Battlefield sits Braehead, the 1859 home of John Howison. The home was only three years old when the Civil War literally arrived on Mr. Howison's doorstep.

Braehead, 2013, courtesy of Braehead Manor website

On the morning of the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee tied his faithful warhorse Traveller to the tree in front of Braehead and came inside to have breakfast.

The tree where Lee tied Traveller still stands.



The home was damaged during the Civil War and bears many scars, including grafitti, bayonet marks, bullet holes, and carvings. Braehead had been in the Howison family for almost 150 years. Graham Stephens, the last member of the Howison family to live there, decided to sell the home. I contacted Mr. Stephens in February 2008 and arranged a tour of the house with him.

Damage next to the door from a projectile

 

Initials carved into a doorframe
 

Seeing the tree where Traveller was tied was very cool. However, what I really wanted to see was the room where Lee ate breakfast. I wanted to stand where Lee stood and see what he saw. Near the end of the tour, Mr. Stephens took me into "The Room" ... and this is what I saw:

The room where General Lee ate breakfast

I stood there, silent and stunned. Surely he had to be joking. This room had a fairly modern black-and-white linoleum floor and was being used to store Christmas decorations, among other things. That's when Mr. Stephens told me what had happened to "The Room." Years before, water damage wreaked havoc on part of the house, including this room. The original wooden floor was completely destroyed and had to be replaced. In an effort to save some cash, the floor was replaced with cheap linoleum.

Ugh. My heart sank. I couldn't believe it. My visions of standing where Lee stood and seeing what he saw had been dashed against the rocks.

At any rate, the whole home was very neat and I really enjoyed the tour. It contained all of the original furnishings and even had some odd quirks - like a bathroom in a hallway from an ill-fated stint as a bed and breakfast in the 1990s. Seriously. The bathroom WAS the hallway; you had to pass through it to get to the rooms on the other side of it.

When I left Braehead that day, I had mixed feelings. I was honored to have toured the home, but I was unsure of its future now that it was up for sale.


My fears were short lived because Braehead was purchased by the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, and then sold to the first people to own the home outside of the Howison family, in 2011. They have turned the home into Braehead Manor, a very nice bed and breakfast. I have not stayed there yet, but the photos on the website show a home that, while very different in appearance from when I visited in 2008, looks wonderful. The restoration work was very well done and the home looks incredibly cozy and inviting.

So there you have it. My journey to see the room where Lee ate breakfast was crushed by linoleum, saved by a nonprofit, resurrected by a preservation-minded couple, and turned into a great B&B that will allow countless people to experience this gem of an antebellum home.