A Tavern in the Midst of Battle

A Tavern in the Midst of Battle. Spotsylvania Court House National Historic District. , In 1864, the war returned to the village of Spotsylvania Court House. Sanford's Inn, because of its position at the crossroads, offered a point of observation for General Robert E. Lee, who surveyed the Federal lines from the upper windows facing north and east. Lee's headquarters tent was erected on the Courthouse grounds across from Sanford's Inn., It was here at the Inn on May 10, that General Lee had his last meeting with General James Ewell Brown Stuart. There is no record of what was discussed. Stuart departed the area and would be mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern and die on May 12th. On May 8th artillery fire started to strike the Inn from Burnside's lines due east down the Fredericksburg Road. Joseph Sanford collected a large oak stump from the "Bloody Angle" after the battle, it was confiscated by Union troops in 1865, and was eventually placed in the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, where it resides today., In 1865, Sanford and son, Lawrence, contracted with General Sherman to remove the bodies of fallen Union soldiers and transport them to the new cemetery at Fredericksburg. Sanford was paid $15 for each body. It was a gruesome task. However, in the process, many Confederate remains once thought lost were thankfully located. A man of integrity, Joseph Sanford donated a plot of land for a cemetery in close proximity to the earthworks, which encircled the Court House. In 1867, Sanford was a founding member of the Ladies' Memorial Association established to oversee the Confederate Cemetery on the land he donated., [Captions:] , A close up of the background photograph taken in 1866, shows local citizens gathering on the porch. Note the cannonball embedded at the base of the portico. Could Joseph Sanford be one of them?, Sanford later received $500 for the now famous 22 inch stump., A close up photograph of the porch, reveals the damage done by Union artillery fire. In 1909, the tavern was gutted by fire, punctuated by nine explosions. Embedded artillery rounds that exploded were detonated, due to the extreme heat of the fire.