"He smells a Rebel." It was hidden for 130 years, those signatures, drawings and comments by soldiers during the American Civil War. First Confederate and then Union soldiers wrote on the white plaster walls of what was then a pretty new building, using charcoal from the the fireplace as they recuperated from injuries or did admin duty.
Now dubbed the “Graffiti House”, the two-story frame building is a treasure trove of wartime graffiti and it’s open to visitors on weekends year-round. Lying five miles north of Culpeper, Virginia, the house was built around 1858 on the railroad tracks near what was soon to become significant events. The 1863 Battle of Brandy Station for one went down in history as the nation’s largest cavalry engagement with 17,000 of them doing battle leading into the Gettysburg campaign.
Confederates and Federals
Confederates used the building as a hospital for this and other local battles. Then the Federal forces came in and used the building as a headquarters during their winter encampment of 1863-64. Soldiers from both sides left their mark on the walls with inscriptions, signatures, drawings and messages to the other side.
After the war, the graffiti was covered with paint, layers of it over the years, and even wallpaper. It was discovered during a renovation in 1993. The Brandy Station Foundation purchased the property in 2002 and has since turned it into a tourist destination. Brandy Station’s Graffiti House is on the National Registry of Historic Places and is a Virginia Historic Landmark.
The Graffiti House is located at 19484 Brandy Road and is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday from April through October and Friday and Saturday in the colder months. There is an exhibit and gift shop on the first floor and tour guides knowledgeable in the building’s history staff the information center.
