Watt Family Farm

Civil War armies chose battlefields without regard for the civilians who lived there, and the resulting death and destruction affected residents’ lives for decades. The Watt family had lived here for nearly 60 years before the battle, owning 523 acres and 28 slaves who tended fields of corn, oats, wheat, and potatoes. On June 27, 1862, nearly 100,000 soldiers fought within a two-mile radius of the farmhouse. Afterward, a visitor wrote that the walls and roof were torn by shot and shell, the weatherboarding was honeycombed by Minnie balls, and every pane of glass was shattered. Surgeons’ bloody work devastated the interior, fresh graves surrounded the house, and the rail fences, crops, and equipment needed to operate the farm were destroyed or carried away.

Virginia · United States