This stately brick Federal-style home on a high knoll was built around 1811 by Adam Rogers and was his family’s home during the Battle of Richmond. Besides being the Rogers home, it served as a roadside inn for many years.
The house originally had four rooms around a center passage and stairway. The kitchen stood separately, directly behind the house, as was common at the time. Other outbuildings, including slave quarters, were almost certainly on the property, but their locations have been lost to history. The Rogers family owned several hundred acres on both sides of the Old State Road, which ran in front of the house close to where Battlefield Memorial Highway (US 25/421) runs today. The 1860 census shows the Rogers family owning more than 20 slaves.
For several weeks before the battle, the house saw a great deal of military activity on the Old State Road. Fighting on August 29, 1862, took place several hundred yards north of the house, and Federal units camped in and around the area. Federal Brig. Gen. Mahlon Manson is believed to have used the house as his headquarters.
On August 30, the house was 700 to 1,000 yards north of the original Federal line. The 12th and 66th Indiana Infantry were posted 100 to 150 yards south of the house to steady the crumbling Federal line near Mt. Zion Church, and the Federals briefly rallied here during a lull in the battle. They then reorganized and fell back about half a mile to the intersection of the Old State Road and Duncannon Road, where the second phase of the battle was fought in the early afternoon, well within sight of the house. The Rogers House was literally surrounded by some of the most intense fighting of the Civil War in Kentucky.
The house served as a hospital for several weeks after the battle, caring for troops from both sides, and there are several accounts of the dead, wounded and dying in and around it. Some of the brick repair still visible on the south side may be the result of Confederate artillery fire, though this is not certain.
Adam Rogers died in 1866, and the property passed out of the family. It went through a succession of owners until the early 1940s, when the U.S. government bought it as part of the Blue Grass Army Depot. For many years the home, designated Quarters 29, was the depot commander’s residence.
The Army closed the house in 2000, and it sat empty for several years. In 2005, citing its historical significance, the Army transferred the property to the Madison County Fiscal Court, which completely renovated it. The Battle of Richmond Visitor Center opened to the public in October 2008.
Hours of operation
Battle of Richmond Visitor Center
Currently closed for renovation.
Richmond Battlefield Park
Every day, 6 AM to 8 PM
Pleasant View Home
Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 2 PM