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All the United States Virginia Fredericksburg Innis House
AO Edited

Innis House

A home that witnessed Civil War combat on the Sunken Road has the battle scars to prove it.

Fredericksburg, Virginia

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Sydney Rose
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Innis House.   Sydney Rose / Atlas Obscura User
An interior view of the Innis House and the original damage sustained during the Battle of Fredericksburg.   Something Original / CC BY-SA 3.0
The house is the only remaining Civil War-era home on the Sunken Road.   Sydney Rose / Atlas Obscura User
This 19th-century view shows the Sunken Road, stone wall and Innis House.   National Park Service
After the house was sold to the park, restoration work returned the house to its 1862 appearance. Work crews removed modern layers of wood and wall paper revealing hundreds of bullet holes like the ones seen here.   National Park Service
Innis House and the Sunken Road today.   Sydney Rose / Atlas Obscura User
Exterior damage.   Sydney Rose / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
Innis House   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
  Mark Loftin / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The tiny, wood-framed house stands alone beside a dry stone wall next to an unpaved road. Known as Innis (or Ennis) House, it is now part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The road that runs beside the house is the infamous Sunken Road, the site of the bloodiest military engagements of the First and Second Battles of Fredericksburg during the U.S. Civil War. Many of the over 12,000 Union casualties, of which roughly 1,900 were KIA, during the First Battle of Fredericksburg died at Sunken Road. 

Innis House is a modest building of only three rooms and 1-½ stories. Built sometime before 1850, the house was purchased by Martha Stephens in April 1861 and occupied by Stephens' son, John Innis, and several other presumed family members. Stephens also owned and resided in the house located next door. At the time of the Civil War, the property was on the outskirts of Fredericksburg in an area known as Marye's Heights.

On December 13, 1862, nearly 30,000 Union soldiers descended on the Sunken Road. They met and engaged 10,000 Confederate soldiers, who were sheltering behind the stone wall bordering the road and positioned on the surrounding heights. Innis House's residents had wisely decamped to parts unknown, and Confederate sharpshooters occupied the house's upper half-story.  The house found itself on the battle's frontline and in the direct crossfire of the combatant armies.

By day's end, bullets and mortar shrapnel perforated the house from top to bottom. In writing about the assault on Sunken Road, Confederate General Lafayette McLaws said that Innis House "had no space as large as two hands on it that had not been pierced." To add insult to injury, the sharpshooters occupying the house left graffiti scrawled on the upper-story walls.

After the war, Innis House resumed its duty as a domicile. Although Stephens replaced some of the damaged exterior wood, bullets remained embedded in the timber frame. The tiny house continued as a private residence until 1969 when the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) acquired it and the surrounding property. In 1985, after lengthy exterior restoration, work to return the house's interior to its wartime appearance commenced. By removing modern wood partitions and peeling off multiple layers of wallpaper and newspaper from the interior walls, conservationists discovered dozens of bullet holes and scars from artillery damage—preserved for almost 125 years. Newspaper pages also covered the second-story walls, and removal revealed wartime graffiti, including names, regiments, and the pencil drawing of a bird in a frame. Rather than repair or replace the damaged walls, the NPS left them unaltered. More than a century later, it is still shocking to see such graphic and tangible evidence of the 1862 conflagration on the Sunken Road.

Related Tags

Us Civil War Military History Parks Weapons Houses Civil War

Know Before You Go

The Park Service opens the Innis House to visitors on special occasions such as Memorial Day weekend and the battle anniversary. When the park is open, between sunrise and sunset every day, visitors can easily view the interior damage through the first-floor windows.

Community Contributors

Added By

Sydney Rose

Edited By

CarlN0130, Mark Loftin, breaingram, blimpcaptain

  • CarlN0130
  • Mark Loftin
  • breaingram
  • blimpcaptain

Published

January 6, 2022

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  • https://www.nps.gov/places/the-sunken-road.htm
Innis House
538 Willis St
Fredericksburg, Virginia, 22401
United States
38.29586, -77.468262
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