Battle of the Wilderness • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The Widow Tapp House wayside marker is along the walking trail in Tapp Field at Stop 6 on the Wilderness Battlefield Auto Tour. (see map below)
Site of the Tapp house
Text from the marker:
The Widow Tapp House
The Tapp Farm exemplified the lifestyle of most Wilderness residents. Catherine Tapp, age 55 in 1860, leased her land from the Lacy family who owned nearby Ellwood. The Widow Tapp shared her modest 1-1/2 story log home with five relatives and a laborer. She owned no slaves.
The Tapps operated a subsistence farm, planting corn and keeping a few pigs and milk cows. A crib, stable, and small orchard were the property’s other improvements.
Although it survived the Battle of the Wilderness, the Tapp House fell into disrepair and eventually disappeared. Archeologists located the house site in 1989. Like so many other anonymouse places, the Civil War transformed this isolated homestead from local obscurity into national recognition.
From the caption to the photograph:
Archeological students discovered the Widow Tapp House site based on historical research, sophisticated remote sensing technology, and traditional archeological methods.
Caption to the painting:
An 1865 painting of the Tapp Cabin by George Leo Frankenstein.
Location of the marker
The marker is on the west edge of Tapp Field along a walking trail about 430 yards from Stop 6. It can also be reached by a trail about 370 yards from the pullout along Orange Plank Road. (38°17’30.1″N 77°43’34.3″W)