The Matthew Farm

In 1860, Martin Matthew owned a modest frame house on 123 acres, where he lived with his brothers Carson and Edgar while they cultivated wheat, corn, oats, and hay, raised the area’s unusually rare tobacco crop, and relied on woodlots for timber, fencing material, fuel, and livestock forage. During the war, the house stood behind the Federal lines and sheltered the wounded, including 2nd Rhode Island officers Colonel John Slocum and Major Sullivan Ballou, both mortally wounded, before they were transferred to the hospital at Sudley Church. The house survived the war but burned around 1901, and for local residents the fighting here began a thirteen month ordeal of contending armies, two major battles, and prolonged military occupation.

Virginia · United States