2mm buildings for Altar of Freedom

After a bit of Googling I have come to the conclusion that I need to scratch build some of the buildings I will need as no one seems to have all the buildings I want and some of the ones which are available may be incorrect.  Beware, what follows is the result of entire minutes of detailed web surfing so may not be accurate! 

That warning aside lets look at the first building I'm interested in Henry Hill House from the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run.  A number of models of this house are available in different scales and mediums.  Below is the Leven Miniatures 6mm version in resin.

From the Leven catalogue - Henry House as most models show it

As with all Leven models it really is a lovely casting but sadly it is too big for 2 or 3mm use and it may not be as the house looked in 1861.  That is no reflection on Mick at Leven,  as every other model of this house is the same.  In fact I used the Leven version as an image as it is such a nice item.  Until an hour ago I would have unflinchingly accepted those models as accurate (damn you Google search).

All of the models I have seen are based on the building which sits on the site now.  The original was very badly damaged during the battle and demolished sometime before 1870.  According to the US Library of Congress >>Link<< the existing building was built on the site of the original property in 1870.  The Library of Congress site says that it was "Built of wood frame construction on a fieldstone foundation, the Henry House originally consisted of two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs, with an external chimney centered on the north gable. By 1883 an addition had been constructed at the north end of the house, adding another room to each floor, and including a cellar." 

The chimney is the key as the modern property has the additional two rooms beyond the location of the chimney.  Photo's of the present building clearly show that there is a join at that point with the pre 1883 extension to the left in the photo below.  So it looks as if the original house was smaller than the current one and so smaller than the available models. 

You can see the join in this shot.

Another factor is that several Civil War websites also have the drawing below listed as a drawing of the damage to the Henry House after the battle.  If that is accurate it does have the chimney on the outside of the gable but there are no windows to the upper floors as the roof comes down to sit level with what would be the ground floor rooms' ceiling.  (Source is the Civil War Wiki).  The upstairs rooms would have had to be in a loft or attic space.  Its side doesn't look like the Robinson House which has a prominent extension to the roof forming an attached rear room and porch and the only period photo I have found doesn't have windows in the end elevation of the building.

Is this really the Henry House after the Battle?

There is also this photograph which is also  described as the Henry House after the battle  But I'm not convinced by this either as it has two chimneys.  Clearly at least one of them must be wrongly identified and possibly both are wrong.

I'm almost certain that Henry House only had the one chimney not two, so where is this?

It can't be the Stone House as, .......well,  its clapboard not stone.  That leaves Sudley Sulphur Springs House which I don't know anything about so can't compare to this image. Of course it could be a different house on a different battlefield altogether.  Its a bit of a puzzle really.  So where does that leave me?  Personally I would go with the design of the current house but shortened and with an external chimney effectively removing the 1880's extension and be very happy with that.

In other small scale news I ordered the Brigade models pack of ACW buildings in 3mm yesterday so I will wait to see how those look and scale to the figures I made before deciding what to do.  All of which simply proves that sometimes I'm far too much of an accuracy nerd for my own good.