The Battle of Harris Farm was fought on May 19, 1864 about 2.5 miles northeast of Spotsylvania Court House. (see map) It is about a mile east of the preserved Spotsylvania Battlefield Park. Most of the Harris Farm battlefield has been developed into an upscale subdivision of winding streets and tall trees. One monument and two wayside markers on a hillside and a marker on the main highway are the only physical reminders of a fight that saw 2,400 casualties in an afternoon:

Monument to the 1st Massachusetts Heavy  Artillery
Baptism of Fire wayside marker
Harris Farm engagement wayside marker
Engagement at Harris Farm Virginia historical marker

The Battle of Harris Farm was the last battle around Spotsylvania Court House. Grant had begun to disengage the Army of the Potomac from the Confederate earthworks and move it to the east towards Richmond. Lee responded by ordering Lt. General Richard Ewell to locate the Union right flank.

Ewell chose to take his entire Second Corps on the reconnaissance. After the intense fighting in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania he had barely 6,000 men, roughly the size of a division the year before at Gettysburg. Ramseur’s North Carolina Brigade led the way.

He was opposed by a newly arrived Union division made up of heavy artillerymen who had spent the war manning the forts around Washington. The “Heavies” fought as infantry, and in their first action the inexperienced troops “got a little mixed up,” in the words of a Union officer, “but they fought confounded plucky.”

The “Heavies” stood their ground, suffering 1,500 casualties but inflicting 900 on Ewell’s veterans, who withdrew. Ewell had accomplished his mission of finding the Union flank, the “Heavies” earned their place as veterans, and the fighting finally moved away from Spotsylvania Court House.