- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Known before and during the Civil War as Larrick's Tavern, the Wayside Inn was built in stages beginning in 1742 through the 1920's and currently serves as a bed-and-breakfast and local restaurant serving the area around Middleton, Virginia. Located on the main street which was successively the Valley Turnpike and now U.S. 11, at the time of the war this one-time stagecoach stop marked the northern edge of the small Shenandoah Valley community and witnessed action in Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign in 1862 and the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864.
Wayside Inn still welcomes visitors to its spacious lobby just as it did when it witnessed a parade of both Union and Confederate commanders during the wartime years. I had the pleasure of staying and dining there during both my visits to the Valley earlier this year. On the first occasion they were hosting a local wedding party on a rainy afternoon; the second time, a reunion for members of the family of Isaac Hite, founder of nearby Belle Grove Manor which served as Union headquarters before and after the Battle of Cedar Creek.
Dining is generally country casual featuring some local dishes such as my personal favorite, cream of peanut soup. Breakfasts for the B&B are served buffet style in the rear of the spacious dining room.
Below from left to right, Confederate generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Jubal A. Early, Robert E. Rodes, and Stephen D. Ramseur.
According to the record provided by Union artist-correspondent James E. Taylor who reported on the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign of Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan, Larrick's Tavern was host to generals of both sides as well as Taylor himself. While staying here he talked with the owner who showed him the room on the second floor where she told him they were always put up. Notable Confederates included all those pictured above associated with the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, as well as others who participated in the several campaigns occurring in the Valley.
Although the room shown in the photo above where I stayed is located on the third floor which wasn't added until sometime in the Twentieth Century, the BED with the unusual acorn finials atop its posts is very obviously the same one pictured by Taylor in a sketch showing Gen. Early seated at his desk in the room where the generals usually stayed and was likely used by at least a few of them!
Union commanders of note who stayed here included from left-to-right above, Brig. Gen. Louis Blenker and Maj. Gen.'s Franz Sigel and Horatio G. Wright; Col. Charles Russell Lowell was mortally wounded right outside the hotel as described on the historical monument on the lawn below. During the final phase of the Battle of Cedar Creek Lowell was leading his Reserve Brigade of Sheridan's cavalry in a charge up the Valley Pike when he was hit; he died two days later in a house which is still standing just across the street.
The view below shows well the various stages in which the rambling structure was built and added to over the years; the small section at right of center is the oldest.
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