A Battlefield Landmark

The Thomas J. West house stood as a prominent part of the battlefield scene, serving as a goal for attacking Confederates and a landmark along the Union line. Most of the fresh Federal troops marching to the front on July 1 passed this house and came under direct fire for the first time there. Behind the West house to the southeast stretched the Binford farm, while Union reserves crammed every corner of the field awaiting their chance. A Third Corps soldier recalled the spectacle of lines of battle formed almost as far as the eye could reach. As fighting swept the area, the family and some neighbors fled into the cellar in fear, and Chaplain Edward D. Neill of the 1st Minnesota Infantry remembered suggesting that red cloth from a dressing table be fastened to a long pole over the house in hopes of altering the range of the shots. The current house was built in the 1900s atop the foundation of the wartime West house.

Virginia · United States