Blenheim: A House Full of Soldier Voices
Near Dc Northern Virginia, Virginia
Blenheim was a Greek Revival farmhouse built around eighteen fifty-nine in what is now Fairfax. During the early part of the Civil War, many Union soldiers camped here and turned its walls into a diary. They scratched names, hometowns, units, dates, poems, and drawings in charcoal, graphite, and crayon on every available surface, from the attic down to the ground floor.
Later layers of paint and wallpaper covered the graffiti, unknowingly preserving it. Many of the soldiers have been identified by name from the markings. Conservators eventually uncovered the layers, and the house now stands as one of the most remarkable first-person Civil War documents in the country, the soldiers themselves speaking from the walls.
