Carr W Seay - Carr's residence

Carr W. Seay purchased 207 acres at Post Oak on the Ta River as evidenced by deed dated November 7, 1818 and recorded in Deed Book V, Page 266, Spotsylvania Court House. This 207 ac tract of land was known as the old Benjamin Head home place and contains a cemetery for the Head family. Carr purchased it from James and Nancy Long and held it to this death in 1860. It remained in Seay Family until conveyed to Susan M. Martin (or Mastin) in 1867.

Carr's farm should not be confused with the 260 acre Cold Hill Farm owned by Carr's son, William Anthony Seay. The Cold Hill Farm lies on the South side of Glady Run, off of the old Mill Road, formerly known as Brent's Mill Pond Road (now Curtis Lane extended) to Talley's Mill (now Jennings Pond) and well to the North of Carr's old farm. The Cold Hill Farm was purchased by Carr's son, William Anthony Seay as evidenced by a deed dated November 13, 1860 and recorded in Deed Book RR, Page 427, Spotsylvania Court House. It has a cemetery original made for the Cammack Family, but many a Seay were later buried there as well, including William Anthony Seay and William Waller Seay and many others. This farm is shown as "W. Seay" on an 1863 map of Spotsylvania County made under the direction on Captain A. H. Campbell (easy map to find on line). The Cold Hill farm was lost to foreclosure in 1873, but by 1878 James B. Seay (son of William A. Seay and Nancy Crawford Seay) was able to buy back the front tract of the Cold Hill Farm, and by 1880, William Waller Seay (another son of William A. Seay and Nancy Crawford Seay) was able to buy back the back 75 acres. It is this 75 acre tract which remains in the Seay Family today. At least one yankee and one southerner were buried in the old Cammack-Seay Cemetery.

It is believed that on May 10, 1864, a confederate division of Henry Heth, under Jubal Early, marched down the old Mill Road,near or through the Cold Hill Farm where it encountered a Union recon force led by Major James C. Briscoe of Birney's Division (Hancock's Corp). This is known as the battle of Waite's Shop or the Battle of the Po River while the armies raced from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania Courthouse. It is through oral tradition from my Great Grandfather, William Waller Seay to his son, Dr. Thomas Waller Seay (my Grandfather) to his son, my Uncle, Judge Thomas Waller Seay, Jr.: That William Waller Seay, being about 11 years old at the time, was put in charge of hiding all the livestock, down near Talley's Mill. Talley's Mill (now Jennings Pond) is where the fighting started to get heavy as Heth pushed Briscoe back along the old wagon road from Talley's Mill to Waites Shop community at the Robert E. Lee Road, formerly the old Shady Grove to Courthouse Road.