A Tavern in the Midst of Battle

In 1864, war returned to the village of Spotsylvania Court House, and Sanford's Inn, positioned at the crossroads, served as an observation point for General Robert E. Lee, who surveyed the Federal lines from its upper windows facing north and east, while his headquarters tent stood on the Courthouse grounds across from the inn. At the inn on May 10, Lee held his last meeting with General James Ewell Brown Stuart before Stuart left the area, was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, and died on May 12th. On May 8th, artillery fire from Burnside's lines due east down the Fredericksburg Road began striking the inn. After the battle, Joseph Sanford collected a large oak stump from the Bloody Angle; Union troops confiscated it in 1865, and it was eventually placed in the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, where it remains. In 1865, Sanford and his son Lawrence contracted with General Sherman to remove the bodies of fallen Union soldiers and transport them to the new cemetery at Fredericksburg, receiving $15 for each body in a gruesome task that also led to the recovery of many Confederate remains once thought lost. Joseph Sanford later donated land for a cemetery near the earthworks that encircled the Court House, and in 1867 he became a founding member of the Ladies' Memorial Association established to oversee the Confederate Cemetery there. In 1909, the tavern was gutted by fire, and nine explosions occurred when embedded artillery rounds detonated in the extreme heat.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States