Amid Shot and Shell

During the battles for Spotsylvania Court House, Berea Church first served as a field hospital as fighting raged on the Brock Road on May 8th. On May 11th, it became the headquarters of General Jubal Early. On May 13th, artillery fire from Federal lines across the Fredericksburg Road struck the area, and a large artillery shell passed through the church’s front doors and lodged within one of the walls. Fire damaged the church in 1899, and after the July 3, 1899 fire the shell was discovered and donated to the Fredericksburg Museum of War Relics, though its location today is unknown. Different-colored brick visible in a circa 1910 photo shows the damage to the church. The muddy road shown in 1905 was unchanged from the war, with the County Jail, built in 1855, across the road, Courtland in the background, and the Courthouse at far right.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States