Fredericksburg, a city of Spottsylvania co., Virginia, pleasantly situated in a fertile valley on the right bank of the Rappahannock river, at the head of tide water, about 50 m. X. of Richmond, and 110 m. above Chesapeake bay; pop. in 1870, 4,046, of whom 1,331 were colored. The Rappahannock, besides supplying it with good water, which is distributed in pipes, is valuable for its motive power, available at the falls just above. A canal extending to a point 40 m. further up the stream affords means of transportation for the products of a rich farming country, and the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac railroad connects the city with the state and federal capitals. Marble and freestone abound in the vicinity. The city has considerable trade in grain, flour, tobacco, etc, and contains a national bank, an orphan asylum, four semi-weekly newspapers, six public schools, and Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. Just beyond the limits of the city an unfinished monument, begun in 1833, marks the tomb of the mother of Washington, who died here in 1789.