Spotsylvania Court House Historic District

Spotsylvania Courthouse is a census-designated place (CDP) and the county seat of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Fredericksburg. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place (CDP), the population was 4,239 at the 2010 census. During the American Civil War, the crossroads community became a Union objective during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, fought May 8–21, 1864. The battle, which ended in stalemate, included a brutal 20-hour struggle over a section of the Confederate defenses that became known as the "Bloody Angle". The site of the Bloody Angle and other portions of the battlefield are preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park and administered by the National Park Service. The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park includes three cemeteries. Over 15,000 Union soldiers, many unidentified, are buried in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. The other two cemeteries are dedicated to fallen Confederate soldiers.

Kenmore, (also known as Kenmore Woods), is a historic house in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1829 by Samuel Alsop, Jr. (1776–1859) for his daughter Ann Eliza and her husband, John M. Anderson. The home bears the same name as the home of Fielding and Betty Lewis (Betty was the sister of George Washington) in nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia. To distinguish the houses, Kenmore in Spotsylvania County was renamed Kenmore Woods. Samuel Alsop, Jr. designed a number of homes in Spotsylvania County. In addition to Kenmore, he also designed and built "Oakley" for another daughter as well as his own home, "Fairview". In all, Alsop designed and built 10 homes.

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's army disengaged from Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and moved to the southeast, attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions. Elements of Lee's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of the Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and began entrenching. Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864, as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line. In the end, the battle was tactically inconclusive, but both sides declared victory. The Confederacy declared victory because they were able to hold their defenses. The United States declared victory because the Federal offensive continued and Lee's army suffered losses that could not be replaced. With almost 32,000 casualties on both sides, Spotsylvania was the costliest battle of the campaign. On May 8, Union Maj. Gens. Gouverneur K. Warren and John Sedgwick unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson from Laurel Hill, a position that was blocking them from Spotsylvania Court House. On May 10, Grant ordered attacks across the Confederate line of earthworks, which by now extended over 4 miles (6.4 km), including a prominent salient known as the Mule Shoe. Although the Union troops failed again at Laurel Hill, an innovative assault attempt by Col. Emory Upton against the Mule Shoe showed promise. Grant used Upton's assault technique on a much larger scale on May 12 when he ordered the 15,000 men of Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's corps to assault the Mule Shoe. Hancock was initially successful, but the Confederate leadership rallied and repulsed his incursion. Attacks by Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright on the western edge of the Mule Shoe, which became known as the "Bloody Angle", involved almost 24 hours of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, some of the most intense of the Civil War. Supporting attacks by Warren and by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside were unsuccessful. Grant repositioned his lines in another attempt to engage Lee under more favorable conditions and launched a final attack by Hancock on May 18, which made no progress. A reconnaissance in force by Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell at Harris farm on May 19 was a costly and pointless failure. On May 21, Grant disengaged from the Confederate Army and started southeast on another maneuver to turn Lee's right flank, as the Overland Campaign continued and led to the Battle of North Anna.

Bloomsbury Farm (also known as Harris Farm) was an 18th-century timbered framed house, one of the oldest privately owned residences in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The house was originally built by the Robinson family sometime between 1785 and 1790. It was architecturally significant for its eighteenth-century construction methods and decorative elements. The surrounding location is also significant as the site of the last engagement between Confederate and Union forces in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 19, 1864. Bloomsbury Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 2000. The house was demolished in December 2014 by Leonard Atkins, a nearby resident who purchased the property in November 2014 ostensibly to restore it. Atkins cited the building's supposedly poor condition and public safety as the reasons for the abrupt demolition, and he planned to replace the historic house with a new one commensurate in style and value with the modern houses in the surrounding development in which he lives. The farm was removed from the National Register in 2017.

Courtland High School is a public high school located in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Founded in 1980, Courtland currently has 1,174 students (2021-2022 school year).

Snell is an unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Alsop is an unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County in the U.S. state of Virginia. Alsop is located along Shady Grove Road (VA 608) to the west of Spotsylvania Courthouse.

Spotsylvania County is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the July 2021 estimate, the population was 145,300. Its county seat is Spotsylvania Courthouse.

Leavells is an unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Massaponax Baptist Church is a Baptist church built in the Greek Revival style, located in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist congregation that built the church was established in 1788 at a small church near Massaponax Creek. When that building became too small to hold the growing congregation, the church was moved to its present location at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and State Route 608 (Massaponax Church Road). The new church was a small, frame building which was also outgrown. In 1859, the current brick building was constructed on the site. Kilns in a nearby field fired the bricks for the exterior walls. By October 1859 the new church was completed at a cost of $3,000. Joseph Billingsly was the first pastor in the new building. An addition was built in 1949 and a brick cottage for the pastor, was built near the church in 1956. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in January 1991.Not long after the new church was occupied, the American Civil War began. Black members of the church were given letters of dismissal. Several small churches were established for the disenfranchised blacks.Church services ended for the duration of the war. During that time, the church was used as a stable, hospital, headquarters for planning strategy. Soldiers used the interior walls to draw scenes of battle, write messages, and leave names of troops, companies, and soldiers. The walls were whitewashed after the war to cover the graffiti. In 1938, during renovation work, the writing on the walls was exposed. Portions of the graffiti are now visible behind plexiglass frames. On May 21, 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General George Meade, other generals and their staffs met at the church after the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Also present was Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana. During the meeting, Grant ordered his troops to carry church pews outside to provide a place for the generals to rest and plan strategy. The meeting was photographed from the second floor of the church by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, a noted 19th-century photographer of the Civil War and, later, of the Western United States.

Old Trap is an unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County, in the U.S. state of Virginia. Old Trap has an elevation of 289 feet.

Massaponax is an unincorporated community of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, United States. The name Massaponax comes from a native American village that existed before and during the early colonization of Virginia. It means "corn as tall as man".