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Wilderness Battlefield Page 2! |
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Wilderness Battlefield Page 2! |
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 The Higgerson Farm a part of the gap in Lee's Lines(7) "At Chickamauga there was at least a rear, but here there ain't neither front nor rear. It's all a ----- mess! And our two armies ain't nothin but howlin' mobs!" -- A Confederate prisoner to his captors Before you are the fields of the Higgerson Farm, one of only a few major clearings on the Wilderness Battlefield. On the afternoon of May 5, Union troops swept across this open space, bound for bewildering combat in the thickets to the north and west. When the Federals trampled her fence and garden Permelia Higgerson emerged from her house, berated the Yankees, and predicted their quick repulse. "We didn't pay much attention to what she said," admitted a Pennsylvanian, "but the result proved that she was right." After a succession of bloody clashes in the distant woods, the Federals retreated back across this field. Mrs. Higgerson taunted them as they passed.  Wilderness Run Bridge the gap in Lee's Lines(8)  The Wilderness Run(8)  Chewning Farm part of the gap in Lee's Lines(9) May 5-6 1864. The bluecoats of Crawford's Division emerged into the sunlight of this clearing, the Chewning Farm, on May 5 in a predetermined move toward Parker's Store on the Orange Plank Road. Lee's eastward thrust, however, changed all Union plans, and Crawford was withdrawn to the Turnpike sector. While Ewell's Corps on the Pike and A. P. Hill's on the Plank Road parried the powerful Federal army, the Chewning Farm remained a vulnerable gap between the two battles fronts, preasenting an opportunity which the Federals failed to exploit. A. P. Hill's Corps completely closed the gap on May 6.  The Widow Tapp Farm house(10) Lee's temporary headquarters was under a tree on the Widow Tapp Farm near the house. The tapp farm exemplified the lifestyle of most Wilderness residents. Catharine Tapp, age 55 in 1860, leased her land from the Lacy family who owned nearby Ellwood. The Widow Tapp sheared 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 anonymous places, the Civil War transformed this isolated homestead from loal obscurity into national recognition.  Widow Tapp Farm Confederate Artillery(10) |