Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
Around 1912, the A. P. Hill Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, began placing stone markers on the battlefields.  A granite marker, believed to have been one of those put up by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, commemorates John W. (Jack) Hare, who in July 1864 as a member of Sturdivant's Battery shelled his home, which was being used by Union soldiers.
  
The home, owned by Otway P. Hare on his estate "New Market," included Hare Hill where Fort Stedman was built in 1864.  His dwelling, dating from the 18th century, was a 2-1/2 story frame structure with five gables placed directly above the five second floor windows. The house stood in a grove of oaks, with a nearby garden. There were two outbuildings, one of which was a stable.  Initially situated within the Confederate defenses north of Petersburg, the suddenness and nearness of the Union troops’ attack on June 15, 1864, forced the Hare family to quickly abandon their home, leaving behind nearly all their belongings.  Union troops then erected temporary earthworks on the Hare House property.  The house itself was much too close to the lines to be used as a headquarters, or for any other military function.
  
Late in the day of June 18th, the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery attacked the Confederate forces, but received such intense Confederate firepower in response that the charge became a disaster within ten minutes.  As a result of this assault, the 1st Maine lost 632 men, the highest casualty loss for a single regiment in a single action during the Civil War.  Although the fighting on Hare House hill ended for that day, over the next few days, the Hare House property was again subjected to artillery fire and was explored and ransacked by Union soldiers from the 17th Maine Infantry and 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery units.
 
A soldier of the Sixth Maine Battery recalled that the home was “…an elegant residence, formerly occupied by Mr. O. P. Hare, a southern gentleman of wealth, who was ‘not at home’ when we arrived. The men, in their customary style of protecting secesh property, procured some very elegant horse-trappings and equipments from his establishment.  His furniture was sadly ‘demoralized,’ and some distributed along the works. Costly stuffed chairs, and sofas of plush and damask; and a fine rosewood piano, which a rebel-shell had ‘played upon,’ was made to do duty in a portion of the works we had thrown up across his garden.”
 
A Massachusetts soldier’s account, later published more fully in a Boston newspaper, read: 
 
FUN IN THE HARE HOUSE. Many of the men occupied the Hare house. In the parlor was a piano which was played by the boys to the accompaniment of the music of cannon and musketry. Some donned women’s clothing found in the closets and made merry, dancing a cotillion as shells tore through the roof and bullets broke glass in the windows. One boy was struck in the face by a minie ball while he sat in a rocking chair, just after he had said: "What do you think the folks at home would say to this?"
 
By late July of 1864, the main house and outbuildings of the Hare property had been destroyed.
 
The monument was dedicated in 1912 and is located near where the Norfolk & Western Railroad bridge 39 now crosses the Hopewell Road (State Route 36).