On July 3, 1863, Brigadier General George Stannard ordered 900 men of his Second Vermont Brigade to strike the right flank of the final Confederate assault at Gettysburg, a decisive blow to Pickett's Charge by troops untested in battle that helped ensure Union victory in the Civil War's largest battle, widely regarded as its turning point. Stannard was severely wounded at Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and Fort Harrison, where he lost his right arm. After retiring from military service, he bought a farm in Milton to raise horses and cows, served as customs collector, owned area brickyards, sold the property in 1872, and lived the rest of his life in Washington, D.C. The farm had earlier been established by Dr. Calvin Deming of Waterbury, elected in 1814 as the first Secretary of the Vermont Medical Society and serving as West Milton postmaster in 1837, who moved to the West Milton-Checkerberry area and about 1840 built a wood-framed Greek Revival house of one and a half stories on a stone foundation as his home and medical office. In 1866 Stannard purchased the farm, whose barns were designed to accommodate the one-armed general. The property later belonged to the Sanderson family in the 20th century; its outbuildings burned in 1989, the house was moved in 2019, and in October 2020 the park was dedicated in celebration of Stannard's 200th birthday.