The Cunningham family built a granary, barns, a coal-and-wood house, an outhouse, and a chicken house in addition to the main house, creating a traditional central West Virginia subsistence farm. In 1861, Union fortifications were established at Bulltown on the Cunningham farmstead, and for much of the next four years Moses Cunningham, son of Henry Cunningham and a firm supporter of the Confederacy, saw his farming and family life disrupted by the presence of a substantial Union garrison. Although he was a noncombatant, he was wounded at the Battle of Bulltown; one account says he was shot in the backside when he ran into the line of fire shouting "Hurrah for Jeff Davis!" After Confederate forces broke off the attack and left the area, Moses Cunningham cared for a wounded Confederate, John Sumpter, who had suffered a broken leg in the battle. The farmstead is shown as it appeared in 1920, after electric and telephone service had been added and plowing was done by tractor, yet the house still lacked sanitary plumbing, water still came from a hand pump, and many tasks on the farm, including shucking and shelling corn, were still done by hand.