Battle of Spotsylvania • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The Landram House wayside marker is on the walking trail to Landram House about 830 yards from the parking area of Stop 3. It is next to the ‘Farm to Killing Field‘ wayside marker.
From the marker:
The Landram House
The rubble of two chimneys is all that remains of Willis Landram’s modest farmhouse, a building destroyed in the 1864 battle. The 65-year-old Landram, his wife Lucy, and five other family members chiseled a life of bare essentials from 170 acres. They raised wheat, corn, and potatoes. Five cows produced milk and 200 pounds of butter a year; two oxen plowed the fields; seven sheep gave the Landrams 20 pounds of wool each season; four pigs provided bacon and pork.
The unremarkable existence of the Landrams ended with the arrival of the armies in May 1864. Confederates ripped the staircase from the house to build nearby earthworks. Union generals used the building as a headquarters. When the family returned, only the walls and chimneys of their home remained. Earthworks scarred their fields, feathers from pillows and featherbeds covered the ground, and 28 Union soldiers lay buried in the yard. It would take the family years to reclaim a life shattered by just a few hours of combat.
From the caption to the painting:
The Landrams lived a life typical of many Spotsylvanians – occupying a four-room house, producing their own food, and generating extra income with a few cash crops, as shown in this artist’s conception. Unlike many of their neighbors, the Landrams did not own slaves.
