The Trostle House

As a part of my American Civil War Buildings for Sale project I have completed the companion to the Trostle Barn that I posted last week;  the Farm house and its summer kitchen.

The image above is the farmhouse captured in July 1863, shortly after the battle. The horse carcasses from Bigelow's 9th Massachusetts Battery that was positioned in the farm grounds are still strewn on the ground. 

The house was relatively new in 1863, built "a few years earlier" and was home to Abraham Trostle and his family. They were compelled to leave the house during the battle even leaving dinner in the table that the staff of the Union 3rd Corps ate when the house became the temporary headquarters for the corps. The house on the battlefield today (below) is about one-third larger after an extension, with an additional porch, was added to the northern face. 

The model is built with the adjacent summer kitchen, which from the various photographs was made of brick painted white, but I have chosen to model it in stone.

Again I went through the pain of applying more than 600 shingles. The picket fence was hand built and almost as painful. I considered using some plastic picket fencing from Renedra, but I had none on hand and it would have taken too long for an ordered set to arrive. Also, looking closely at the wartime photos, the fencing was irregular (unlike the fences on the battlefield today)...I like irregular...and it is the irregular had built fencing that was the final touch that really makes the model pop.

Still to be completed in this farm set are four small out-buildings - the carriage house, the ice house, the smoke house and the corn crib - together with some fencing.