About one mile south of the Sudley Methodist Church was the Matthews House. The main Federal advance passed through the property and the area surrounding the Matthews House was engulfed in battle. The house was built just prior to the Civil War and faced southwest on a country lane that connected to the Sudley Road (Rt. 234). The farm essentially existed on a subsistance level. The 1860 Federal Census lists the following people living on the property: Edgar Matthews (age 42), Martin Matthews (age 42), Carson Matthews (age 44), Jane Matthews (age 45), and Ann Birdwell (Age 45). Carson and Jane Matthews were husband and wife who owned 39 acres adjacent to the the Matthews House. They eventually bought and lived in the Thornberry House. The Matthews House existed into the middle of the 20th century and the ground in the front and to the rear is still open land with a copse of trees. The two men near the fence in the middleground of the photograph are standing in the cornfield where Capt. William H. Reynolds placed six James rifles of the 2nd Rhode Island Light Artillery. A small orchard and farm wagon is visible in the right front yard of the Matthews House. At about 10:15 AM, skirmishers from the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry of Ambrose Burnside’s (2nd) Brigade, Hunter’s (2nd) Division, were the first Union soldiers to arrive on Matthews Hill and their position was a commanding one. The elevation is 279 feet and is marginally higher than that of Buck Hill at 240 feet where the Confederates were eventually posted about 500 yards away. The combat on Matthews Hill from a Confederate point of view was all up hill and lasted a little longer than an hour.
