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Harris Farm & Monument
A 1.737 acre parcel is preserved within a low density residential neighborhood.
The area known as the Harris Farm saw combat action on May 19, 1864 and became the last of the battles fought around Spotsylvania Court House. The CVBT owns a representative portion of this field. There are no trenches, but a line of trees marks a section of road and a monument to the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery stands where this unit experienced its baptism of fire.
As General Ulysses S. Grant shifted his forces in preparation for a march south, Robert E. Lee probed the Union position. Two Confederate divisions reconnoitered toward the Fredericksburg Road, but ran into the untested Union troops, newly arrived on the field. Fighting extended across the Harris, Alsop, and Peyton Farms, but the Federals held. The next day, photographer Timothy O’Sullivan exposed a series of the Confederate dead. The images are grim, but classics of the period and of great interest to historians.
The site was cleaned up with a grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation and is kept maintained for visitors.
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