Heater Farm, Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park, 2016.

Despite not seeing active fighting, The Heater Farm, like most in the valley, were left in ruins. Caroline Heater had allwoed Union troops to use her home but they did not treat it kindly. Soldiers took oats for their horses, food for themselves, fences for firewood and livestock for subsequent meals while on the march. Farm implements, horses, wagons, cows and hogs were all gone. Hoping to be compensated for their losses, the Heaters applied to the Southern Claims Commission in 1871 for restitution in the amount of $12,993. Despite local citizens' affidavits for Caroline's allegience, she died before any restitution was paid. Sadly, the only surviving son of Caroline, Charles, who was 8 years old and at home during the war, was finally reimbursed in 1901 less than half of what the family requested to cover its losses: a meager $5,480. Today the farm belongs to the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation and stands as a monument to all of the small farm families that witnessed so much suffering and destruction in the Shenandoah Valley during the war.