Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center, Spotsylvania

Perhaps one of the nicest visitor Center / mini museums I've been through. Loads of artifacts drawings paintings and miniatures describing the Carnage that happened here. Very sobering. Also some trails through the woods where you can see where the soldiers dug stitches to protect themselves. Definitely worth the trip

A great little museum that shows the history of the battles fought in the area. Lots of books that cover the different battles are also available. There are regulary scheduled tours given by the Park Rangers that you can take. There is a short movie that is shown multiple times a day that covers the local battles.

Visited on a Tuesday in late December after Christmas holiday around 3PM. The visitor center was pretty deserted. Every hour and half hour there is a 20 min video that plays in the auditorium. Highly recommend warching this first. It was created within the last decade and very informative. The ranger at the front desk was super friendly and knowledgeable. The exhibits look very nice and updated. It was very long narrow hallways that wrapped around the auditorium. It would be a little clostrophobic except that there was only one other family visiting at the same time we were. There is more to look at than you would think and a couple are interactive with lots of items and not just text on walls. The bathrooms were nice and clean and located on the right as you enter the vistor center. The park store pretty small and nice and had what we wanted (pins/patches). Older lady working behind the counter was very helpful and friendly to talk to. The national park stamps are to the left right as you wnter through the doors. There are no national park tokens here but at the Fredericksburg NPS store. There are specific pins and merchandise here that can't be purchased at the Fredericksburg store either and vice versa. So if you plan to visit both don't assume everything is avilable at both locations. The ranger also let us know they may be getting a actual junior ranger badge soon, maybe 2023, in addition to the patch and rockers. Junior ranger program here is very cool. They don't have the badges but have a center patch with 4 rockers. One for each of the sites. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Only Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville have vistor centers. The Fredericksburg location has the junior ranger book for spotsylvania as well. The Chancellorsville visitor center has books for the Wilderness. The are a couple short trails right outside the visitor center which is paved rubber trail. It took us about 1 hr to watch the video and walk through exhibits (without reading everything) and complete the junior ranger program. The ranger let us have the other rockers to conplete the other books later at home. We could've spent more time here but the vistor center closes at 5pm and we wanted to so at least a little bit of the driving tour. Definitly need to visit again and do the whole driving audio tour. Probably wouldn't visit again after the first time.

A perfect place to begin your visit to Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Courthouse. Lots of interactive exhibits including a short film. Gift shop has books, memorabilia, shirts, hats, toys, etc. Be sure to ask the Park Ranger about the Junior Ranger program for the kids. Plenty of parking and bathrooms are inside. The Visitor Center museum should take less than an hour.

The history of the Battle of Chancellorville was told in such an enthralling manner by the tour guide. So knowledge with insights to the happenings in and around the area that just aren't readily found. I wish we had more time to spend there. Will definitely be back!