The Landram House

Only the rubble of two chimneys remained of Willis Landram's modest farmhouse after it was destroyed in the 1864 battle. The 65-year-old Landram, his wife Lucy, and five other family members had carved out a bare-essentials life on 170 acres, raising wheat, corn, and potatoes, keeping five cows that produced milk and 200 pounds of butter a year, two oxen to plow the fields, seven sheep that provided 20 pounds of wool each season, and four pigs for bacon and pork. That unremarkable existence ended with the arrival of the armies in May 1864, when Confederates ripped the staircase from the house to build nearby earthworks and Union generals used the building as a headquarters. When the family returned, only the walls and chimneys remained, their fields were scarred by earthworks, feathers from pillows and featherbeds covered the ground, and 28 Union soldiers lay buried in the yard. It took the family years to reclaim a life shattered by just a few hours of combat.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States