Widow Tapp’s Field
Battle of the Wilderness
Few families of modest means became so famous. In this field lived widow Catherine Tapp, who with other family members eked out an existence from the poor soil. The Tapps occupied a lopsided log cabin about 300 yards in front of you – seven people living in a space perhaps 30 by 20 feet. A corncrib, log stable, and a few fruit trees surrounded the house. Four milk cows and seven pigs wandered the property.
Catherine Tapp’s net worth barely exceeded 100 dollars. She owned no land; she owned no slaves. A kitchen garden and small patch of corn, potatoes, and wheat likely provided much of the family’s food. The war that so devastated others in Spotsylvania County could do little to diminish the Tapps; they had little to lose.
Marker is on Hill-Ewell Drive, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
