“Located just west of the West Woods, scene of savage fighting on the morning of Sept. 17, 1862, this log cabin was used as a Confederate aid station. After the battle, dead of the 15th Massachusetts were buried on the northwest side of the Mary Locher cabin (foreground) in a trench that was "25 feet long, 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep," 15th Massachusetts Private Roland E. Bowen wrote.
"The corpes [corpses] were buried by Co., that is the members of each Co. Are put together," he noted. "Co. H was buried first in the uper [sic] end of the trench next [to] the woods.
"They are laid in two tiers, one [on] top of the other. The bottom tier was laid in, then straw laid over the head and feet, then the top tier laid on them and covered with dirt about 18 inches deep." Private Justus Wellington, a 23-year-old shoemaker from West Brookfield, Mass., was probably among the dead buried here. (http://john-banks.blogspot.com/2011/06/faces-of-civil-war-justus-wellington.html)
The bodies were later reinterred.
In 1862, Alfred Poffenberger, who leased this farmstead from Locher, lived here with his wife and two young children. The cabin, built in the 1780s, is protected from the elements by a canopy. The seldom-visited site is located just off busy Rt. 65, across from the 15th Massachusetts monument.”