Bloomsbury Farm
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Coordinates: 38 ° 14 ′ 7 ″ N , 77 ° 33 ′ 58 ″ W.
Bloomsbury Farm (also known as Harris Farm ) is an 18th-century timber-framed residential building in Spotsylvania County , Virginia . The house was built between 1785 and 1790 by the Robinson family at a time that is no longer known today. The building is architecturally significant because of its eighteenth-century construction methods. The area is also historically significant as the site of the last clash between Confederate and Union forces in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 19, 1864. Bloomsbury Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 2000 .
Design and construction
The Bloomsbury Farmhouse has its origins in a one-room building from the late 18th century. At the beginning of the 1800s the floor plan of the house was changed and a central hall was created. Bloomsbury is a timber frame construction. The beams used were hewn and sawn. Hand-forged iron nails were used to connect the load-bearing parts of the original structure. The gaps within the frame structure were filled with bricks . The house has two external chimneys, the masonry of which is made by the Flemish Association . The foundation is made of field stones and uses sleepers to support the upstairs posts at the eastern end .
history
Benjamin Robinson inherited the land on which Bloomsbury Farm is located and built the house at an unknown time before his death in 1790. The farm remained in the ownership of his widow and her descendants until 1854, when it was sold to Clement Harris. During the time Harris owned the farm, tobacco, wheat, Indian corn and oats were grown here. The farm remained in the possession of the Harris family until Thomas Harris sold it to Charles and Charlotte Phillips in 1883. Harris bought the land back in 1888. In 1913 it was sold to a holding company and in 1917 Robert Purvis acquired the farm. James McGee bought them from him in 1927, and Bloomsbury was a dairy farm from then on.
McGee and his family sold milk under the name Bloomsbury Sanitary Dairy in Fredericksburg until they switched production to the sale of packaged milk in 1937. The family continued milk production until 1966, but then sold their Jersey cattle .
Skirmish on Harris' farm
On May 19, 1864, Bloomsbury Farm was the site of a clash between Union troops and Confederates when, during the skirmish on Harris' farm, Confederate soldiers commanded by General Richard S. Ewell attacked Union General Robert O. Tyler's artillery division near the farm . This skirmish was the last major action in the battle at Spotsylvania Court House , and it ended that evening with the retreat of General Ewell's troops. During the battle the house was used as a field hospital. More than 2,000 soldiers were killed or injured in the course of the battle. A 1,901-positioned here monument commemorates the fallen soldiers of the 1 st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d Bloomsbury Farm. (PDF; 668 kB) In: National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. Virginia Department of Historic Resources, accessed December 1, 2019 .
- ↑ a b National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved July 9, 2010.
- ↑ Engagement at Harris Farm (Bloomsbury) ( English ) In: Virginia Historical Highway Markers Search . Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on December 14, 2012. Retrieved on May 29, 2012.