Existing comment:
The well here was part of the Martha Stevens' house, which was here during the battle. Confederate sharpshooters fired from the house's windows and roof. The Union shell which killed General Thomas Cobb passed through the house before exploding. Legend holds that Martha Stephens stayed in her house during the battle and treated fallen soldiers. She died in 1888 and is buried in a plot here. The house itself survived until 1913 when it was destroyed by fire.
Water from this well refreshed and wounded and soothed the dying in December 1862. It quenched the thirst of both the Confederates in the Sunken Road and the Union wounded to whom Sergeant Richard Kirkland of South Carolina brought relief at the risk of his life. The well house is a modern reconstruction of the original wooden structure. |