Battle of Spotsylvania • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The ‘In the Path of War’ wayside marker is on the northwest side of Courthouse Road across the street from the Courthouse in the Spotsylvania Court House Historic District. It is next to the “Historic District” wayside marker.
The marker looks across the street at Spotsylvania Court House. The original structure is still at the heart of the modern building. The Battle of Spotsylvania monument erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy is across the street next to the sidewalk.
Text from the marker:
Spotsylvania Court House
In the Path of War
At the time of the Civil War, Spotsylvania Court House was a small community of about one dozen buildings surrounded by woods and rolling fields. “It was not a town,” a chaplain in the 126th Pennsylvania noted. “It was composed of just the county building, the tavern, a house or two, and one or two country churches.”
The Civil War shattered Spotsylvania’s rural tranquility. In August 1862, Union troops raided the village, and nine months later Confederate authorities converted the courthouse yard into a temporary stockade to hold Union prisoners captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Worse was yet to come.
In May 1864, the Union and Confederate armies collided just outside the village. Spotsylvania was under fire for two weeks before the armies moved on. In their wake, they left battered buildings, miles of earthworks, and more than 30,000 casualties.
“The place looked quite desolate, very few persons remained and what few houses remained standing were pretty well riddled with shot and shell.”
– Union soldier, 1865.
Caption to the painting:
George L. Frankenstein, a native German who served in the Union army, painted this watercolor of Spotsylvania Court House shortly after the war.
Location of the In the Path of War wayside marker
The marker is in the Spotsylvania Historic District on the northwest side of Courthouse Road about 80 yards northeast of its intersection with Brock Road. (38°12’06.2″N 77°35’20.3″W)
(go to the main Spotsylvania Court House Historical District page)
(go to the main Battle of Spotsylvania Auto Tour page)