| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Battery Dantzler — Dueled with Union Gunboats |
| | In 1862, Confederate authorities considered locating the main defensive James River battery here to block the Union navy’s approach to Richmond. They chose Drewry’s Bluff instead because they feared that Union forces would bypass this position by cutting a canal through the river bend at Dutch Gap. The landing of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s Army of the James at Bermuda Hundred in May 1864 prompted the construction of this fortification. It was named Battery Dantzler in honor of Col. . . . — Map (db m16058) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Battery Dantzler — May 1864-April 1865 |
| | First named Ft. Howlett, the battery was renamed after Col. Olin M. Dantzler, who was killed on June 2, 1864, in an attempt to capture Ft. Dutton. Leading the 22nd South Carolina Inf. the attack failed. Battery Dantzler played a major role in keeping the Union Navy down river. The Battery was abandoned on June 16th 1864, to send troops to Petersburg and retaken that night. Because of this battery and others along the river the Dutch Gap Canal was started on August 10th 1864, and was never . . . — Map (db m16066) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — K 201 — Battery Dantzler |
| | A half-mile northeast stands Battery Dantzler, named for Col. Olin Miller Dantzler, 22d South Carolina Infantry (killed in action nearby on 2 June 1864), and constructed in May-June 1864 to block the Union navy's approach to Richmond. The battery anchored the northern end of the Howlett Line, a series of Confederate earthworks cut across the Bermuda Hundred peninsula from Swift Creek on the south to the James River on the north. Battery Dantzler's artillery included two 7-inch Brooke rifles, . . . — Map (db m17113) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Battle of Chester Station — May 10, 1864 |
| | On May 5, 1864, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s Union Army of the James landed at Bermuda Hundred to sever direct communication between Richmond and Petersburg. Five days later, desperate to keep the connection open, 2,000 Confederates under Gen. Robert Ransom advanced south from Drewry’s Bluff along the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike (present-day U.S. Rte. 1). Three Federal infantry regiments and artillery formed a defensive line here that extended from the Winfree House east to the turnpike.
In . . . — Map (db m17090) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Battle of Chester Station |
| | Here, on May 10, 1864, as part of Butler’s Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 3400 Federals and 2000 Confederates fought the Battle of Chester Station. This monument is erected in their memory by the Chester Station Camp #1503. Sons of Confederate Veterans. — Map (db m17092) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Bermuda Hundred |
| | Established 1613 by Sir Thomas Dale.
First incorporated Virginia town 1614.
Home of John Rolfe, colony recorder, who married Pocahontas.
Rev. Alexander Whitaker ministered here.
Early port of Richmond.
Erected … 1938 by Bermuda Hundred Chapter D.A.R. — Map (db m17109) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 13 — Bermuda Hundred — Captain John Smith’s Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | Before determining to settle at Jamestown, the English sought a safe place to plant their colony further west along the James River. On that trip, John Smith and his fellow Englishmen found an Appamattuck Indian town in the vicinity of Bermuda Hundred.
Future Virginia governor George Percy recalled: “The eighth day of May we discovered [explored] up the River. We landed in the Countrey of Apamatica, at our landing, there came many stout and able Savages to resist us with their Bowes . . . — Map (db m17134) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Bermuda Hundred Landing — Butler’s Campaign Begins — Bermuda Hundred Campaign |
| | Union Gen. Benjamin Butler’s 30,000-man Army of the James landed here without opposition on May 5, 1864. Despite his surprise arrival, Butler proved unable to take advantage of the unprepared Confederate defenders below Richmond.
He pushed west toward Port Walthall Junction, then Drewry’s Bluff, but a cautious command style combined with concern for a long supply line that led back to this landing paralyzed Butler. He threatened Richmond briefly from the south before retiring to the safety . . . — Map (db m17108) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Changes Over Time — The intertwined history of the land and the water |
| | The story of Dutch Gap demonstrates the importance of the river throughout history revealing a partnership of man’s use of land and water. Today, the river’s commercial and recreational activities continue, providing a backdrop to Dutch Gap’s restoration, preservation and conservation efforts.
1500s Powhatan Indians fish and carry furs, food and other trade items in dugout canoes.
1611 Sir Thomas Dale and 300 settlers build the Citie of Henricus as Virginia’s frontier moves westward. . . . — Map (db m16159) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 17 — Chester Station Fight |
| | At this station, two miles west, the Union army of the James, turning toward Richmond, fought an action on May 10, 1864 and tore up the railroad. — Map (db m17097) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — K 203 — Colonel Thomas Lygon |
| | Colonel Thomas Lygon, who came to the Virginia colony in the early 1640s from Worcestershire, England, patented several large parcels of land on the north bank of the Appomattox River in an area known as The Cowpens, near Mount My Lady, which was then part of Henrico County. It is likely that he lived in this area with his wife Mary Harris and their five children. Lygon served in the House of Burgesses from Henrico County in 1656, as a colonel in the county militia, and as surveyor of the county until his death in 1675. — Map (db m17131) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 19 — Confederate Reconnaissance Mission |
| | On 2 June 1864, Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard sent Maj. Gen. Bushrod Johnson's troops toward nearby Federal pickets to reconnoiter their strength. The Confederate troops initially captured the northern portion of the Federal picket line, but by the afternoon Union troops had regained a part of their position. The death of Confederate regimental commander Col. O. M. Dantzler and the arrival of Federal reinforcements prevented the Confederates from taking the southern section of the line. . . . — Map (db m17122) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 57 — Drewry’s Bluff Battlefield |
| | On a line that here crossed the Richmond–Petersburg turnpike, Confederate troops under command of General G.T. Beauregard attacked the Federal army of Major-General B.F. Butler on May 16, 1864 and forced its withdrawal to the Bermuda Hundred defences. — Map (db m14275) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 56 — Drewry’s Bluff Defences |
| | Here, on the second line of the Drewry’s Bluff defences, Confederate troops were concentrated May 12-15, 1864, to take the offensive against a Federal force that had advanced from Bermuda Hundred under command of General B.F. Butler and had cut the Richmond–Petersburg railroad. — Map (db m14274) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Dutch Gap Canal — Butler's Bypass — Bermuda Hundred Campaign |
| | With the opposing armies locked in a protracted struggle around Petersburg and Bermuda Hundred, the James and Appomattox Rivers assumed added importance. In August 1864, Union Gen. Benjamin Butler began excavations at Dutch Gap. When completed, his canal would bypass nearly five miles of the James River. Several powerful Confederate artillery batteries menaced that stretch of water. The Dutch Gap Canal would neutralize them. Although the project neared completion in late 1864, Butler’s . . . — Map (db m16150) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — K 200 — Enon Baptist Church |
| | Enon Baptist Church was organized on 8 October 1849. The church was built here on a one-acre tract given by the founder, John Alexander Strachan. In May 1864, during the Civil War, Union army troops under Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler dismantled Enon Baptist Church and moved the lumber to nearby Point of Rocks where they used it to build a military hospital. After the war, members of the congregation dismantled the hospital and used the material to rebuild the present Enon Church. Later, the . . . — Map (db m24990) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — K-199 — Farrar's Island |
| | In 1611, Farrar's Island was the site of the "Citie of Henrico," one of Virginia's first four primary settlement areas under the Virginia Company of London. Later, it was part of a 2,000-acre land patent issued posthumously to William Farrar in 1637. Farrar, who arrived in Virginia from London in 1618 aboard the Neptune, invested in the company under its third charter. In 1626, Governor Sir George Yeardley appointed Farrar to the governor's Council, a position he occupied until 1632. He also . . . — Map (db m16018) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — First Virginia Infantry Regiment |
| | Dedicated to the memory of the men of the First Virginia Infantry Regiment. Army of Northern Virginia. Killed near this place on 16 May 1864.
Alphonzo A. Figner, Company I
Archibald D. Govan, Company D
Jerry Toomey, Company B
James A. Via, Company H
Robert R. Walthall, Company G
John W. Wynne, Company H
Placed by the John Wynne Society, 17 May 2008 — Map (db m25012) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 59 — Fort Darling — Defences of Drewry's Bluff |
| | Eastward 150 yards was the Confederate Fort Darling which constituted, with the works at Chaffin’s Bluff across the James, the main defence of the approaches to Richmond by water. Often the target of Federal fire, Fort Darling held out till Richmond fell. — Map (db m14278) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Fort Wead |
| | C.H.S.
Civil War Sites
S.U.V.
Army of the James — Map (db m17135) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 10 — Halfway House |
| | This old inn was the headquarters of Major-General B. F. Butler's Union Army of the James during the Battle of Drewery's Bluff, May 16, 1864. The inn was so named because of its location about midway between Richmond and Petersburg. — Map (db m16043) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Half-Way House — Butler’s Headquarters — Bermuda Hundred Campaign |
| | As Grant grappled with Lee in the Wilderness and near Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864, Union Gen. Benjamin Butler landed with 30,000 troops at Bermuda Hundred, eight miles east of here. Butler’s objective was to open another front and to threaten Richmond from the south. This building dates from 1760 and was a prominent landmark during the campaign’s battle of Drewry’s Bluff on May 16. The Half-Way (between Petersburg and Richmond) House was used by Butler during the fighting. Early in . . . — Map (db m16041) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Henricopolis |
| | The Colonial Dames
Of America in the
State of Virginia
A.D. 1910
Erect this monument on the site
Of the Town of Henricopolis
To commemorate the college
And university which on
May 26, 1619.
The Virginia Company of
London decreed should
Be established here. — Map (db m16149) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 9 — Henricus Historical Park — Captain John Smith’s Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | Near this spot, the Arrohateck Indians greeted John Smith and his compatriots during their May 1607 exploration upriver from Jamestown. Smith’s 1612 Map of Virginia shows Arrohateck towns on both shores of the James below present-day Richmond.
In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale founded the Citie of Henricus on a bluff above a bend in the river. The location was deemed both more defensible and more healthful than Jamestown, where settlers were often forced to drink brackish water that left them ill . . . — Map (db m16335) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Howlett Line |
| | These earthworks are part of the strong Confederate defensive position known as the “Howlett Line.” Composed of a string of interconnected redoubts and trenches, the line ran eight miles north and south and was named for the Howlett House which was located on the northern end, near the site of Battery Dantzler. With batteries housing large caliber guns anchoring the line on the James River to the north, and the Appomattox River to the south, the “Howlett Line” defended . . . — Map (db m16079) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 12 — Into the "Bottle" |
| | The Union Army of the James, retiring across Proctor's Creek in this vicinity after the battle of Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864, turned east into the Peninsula between the James and Appomattox Rivers, where it was "Bottled" by Confederate forces. — Map (db m16045) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 38 — Lee's Headquarters |
| | To the east, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee briefly made his headquarters at Clay's house on 17 June 1864. There he received full details of the Union army's attack on Petersburg that began the evening of 15 June 1864. Lee learned that Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had committed most of the Union Army of the Potomac to assault the Petersburg fortifications commanded by Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. After receiving the reports of the Federal assault on Petersburg, Lee realized that . . . — Map (db m17124) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — K 267 — Mary Randolph — (9 Aug. 1762 - 23 Jan. 1828) |
| | Mary Randolph, a native of Chesterfield County and author of the first American regional cookbook, lived nearby at Presquile Plantation during the last two decades of the 18th century after her marriage to David Meade Randolph in 1782. The couple then moved to Richmond, where Mary Randolph's reputation as cook, hostess, and entrepreneur flourished. They later moved to Washington, D. C. In 1824, she published The Virginia Housewife, an important collection of recipes and advice that has . . . — Map (db m11678) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Olin Miller Dantzler |
| | Olin Miller Dantzler (1826-1824) was a native of South Carolina. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia in 1846. He married Caroline Clover on July 10, 1850, and they had five children. Prior to the war Dantzler served as a South Carolina state representative and state senator. He resigned from the South Carolina Senate in October 1861 and accepted a commission in the Confederate army. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 20th Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers on Jan. . . . — Map (db m16060) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 14 — Osbornes |
| | The town of Osbornes was named for Captain Thomas Osborne who settled nearby at Coxendale in 1616. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Osborne's plantation wharf was a tobacco inspection station and local shipping center. Thomas Jefferson, grandfather of the President, was born here in 1677. On April 27, 1781, British General Benedict Arnold destroyed nine ships of the American fleet and burned the town's warehouses and stores. George Washington visited Osbornes in 1791 during a national tour . . . — Map (db m16019) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Parker's Battery |
| | Parker’s men improved this earthen redoubt, referred to as a battery, so as to better protect their guns stationed behind its walls. Supporting infantry, from the 15th and 17th Virginia regiments, filled the adjacent trenches and manned the forward picket line. While their comrades engaged Grant’s legions around Petersburg, the men of Parker’s Battery spent the last months of the war in the relative calm that prevailed along this area of the Confederate defenses.
With the collapse of the . . . — Map (db m16086) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 11 — Proctor's Creek Fight |
| | To the west of the road here at Proctor's Creek Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Union Army of the James attacked the outer line of the Confederates' Drewry Bluff defenses on 13-14 May 1864. On the first day, Union Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore struck the Confederate right flank, commanded by Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom, Jr. Ransom's troops crumpled under the onslaught, rallied and counterattacked, and finally fell back to the main lines at Kingsland Creek. On 14 May, Gillmore and Maj. Gen. William F. . . . — Map (db m16044) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Remembrance |
| | Many of the men, like Major Parker and Lieutenant J. Thompson Brown, returned to their homes in and around Richmond after the war. In 188, Lieutenant Brown, then a successful local businessman, purchased the ground here in order to preserve the area on which the battery had spent so much of its service. Prior to Brown’s death in 1921, the surviving members of Parker’s Battery erected the small granite monument before you as a token of remembrance to their fallen comrades and to their participation in the defense of their homes and capital. — Map (db m16087) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — Richmond Battlefields — Parker's Battery Trail — Richmond National Battlefield Park 1862, 1864 |
| | McClellan’s Federals attacked in 1862, then Grant in ’64, while Joseph E. Johnston and then Robert E. Lee defended. The two major assaults on the Confederate capital fanned out in a series of battles, skirmishers and marches. Tour the Battlefield Among today’s suburbs remain traces of Richmond’s outer defenses-forts, rifle-pits, the fields where thousands died. Visit sites close by, or use the tour route to follow the entire sequence of attacks and counterattacks. The Battles Each . . . — Map (db m16076) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 18 — The "Bottle" |
| | Here in 1864 on the Bermuda Hundred peninsula between the James and Appomattox Rivers, the Union Army of the James, commanded by Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, was "bottled up" by Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, defender of Petersburg. The cautious Butler had begun constructing earthworks across the peninsula about a mile east in May, shortly after he occupied the peninsula, to protect against attack from the west. The Confederates built parallel earthworks (the Howlett Line) about half a . . . — Map (db m17118) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — The Battle of Trent’s Reach |
| | On Jan. 23, 1865, the ironclads Virginia II, Richmond, and Fredericksburg, with five smaller vessels, descended the James River in an effort to attack the Union supply depot at City Point. A reliable report indicated that recent floods had washed away the Union obstructions at Trent’s Reach. Also, most of the Union vessels that had steamed up the river in May 1864 had been pulled to North Carolina to participate in the attack against Fort Fisher near Wilmington. With the . . . — Map (db m16067) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — The Boy Company — Parker's Battery 1864 |
| | This site seems remote from Richmond, but Confederate defenses extended well beyond the city. From mid-June 1864 a unit of artillerymen called Parker’s Battery manned these earthworks.
Despite the proximity of a large enemy force, this line was quiet for the next 9½ months-just an occasional shelling, or pickets taking potshots. The shooting war was a few miles northeast and south.
After the fall of Petersburg, Parker’s Battery retreated with Lee to Appomattox. — Map (db m16077) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — The Church of Henricopolis |
| | Near this spot was built
Anno Domini 1611
The Church of Henricopolis
Under the auspices of
Sir Thomas Dale
High Marshall of Virginia
The Reverend Alexander Whitaker, M.A,
Minister
This cross is erected to
Commemorate the foundation of the
Protestant Episcopal Church
In Henrico Parish
1911
Replaced A.D. – 1961 — Map (db m16147) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 58 — The Half-Way House |
| | The house that stood here, midway between Richmond and Petersburg, was a landmark in the campaign of 1864. East and Southeast were Batteries Brooks, Semmes, Wood and Dantzler which defended the South side of James river from Drewry’s Bluff to the Howlett Line. — Map (db m14277) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — S 6 — The Howlett Line |
| | Just east of this point running from the James River to the Appomattox River, was the Confederate defense line known as the Howlett line, named for the Howlett House that stood at the north end of the line. Established in May, 1864, by General Beauregard's troops after the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, the line became famous as the "Cork in the Bottle" by keeping General Butler's Army of the James at bay. The Union line was one mile to the east. Parker's Virginia Battery was one-half mile to the south. — Map (db m17116) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — The Lightkeeper’s House — The lights of Dutch Gap |
| | The foundation is all that remains of the lightkeeper’s house. The lightkeeper had to live on site to maintain the gas-powered lights which were once located on the bluff. Lights were constructed after the first Dutch Gap channel was completed in 1872 because of the narrow, winding river channel which was treacherous for navigation especially at night and in foul weather. Today ocean-going ships serving the Port of Richmond carry over 500,000 tons of cargo yearly to northern Europe, the . . . — Map (db m16153) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chester — 15 — Welcome to R. Garland Dodd Park at Point of Rocks — Captain John Smith's Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | Gabriel Archer wrote about a high rock cliff that projected into the channel of the Appomattox River upstream of its confluence with the James. When exploring the river in 1608, Smith found verdant marshes the likes of which can still be seen here at R. Garland Dodd Park at Point of Rocks.
Capt. John Smith’s Trail
John Smith knew the James River by its Algonquian name: Powhatan, the same as the region’s paramount chief. Smith traveled the river many times between 1607 and 1609, . . . — Map (db m24903) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chesterfield — Apostles of Religious Liberty |
| | On this spot were imprisoned 1770-1774
John Tanner
William Weber
Augustine Eastin
David Tinsley
Joseph Anthony
Jeremiah Walker
John Weatherford
Apostles of
Religious Liberty
“Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge me,
for we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard.” Acts IV:19-20
In gratitude for the blessings of
spiritual religion and freedom of conscience
won . . . — Map (db m19527) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chesterfield — S 7 — Chesterfield County Courthouse |
| | This area, known originally as "Cold Water Run," is the site of the first Chesterfield County courthouse, erected in 1750. In 1917 it was demolished and replaced by a larger Georgian Revival brick building that served the county until the 1960s. The most famous trial here was that of seven Baptist preachers for breach of ecclesiastical law in 1773. In 1780-81, Governor Thomas Jefferson designated the courthouse village as a training post and encampment of all reinforcements for the Continental armies from the southern states. — Map (db m19523) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chesterfield — Chesterfield Court House — Soldiers and Refugees — Lee’s Retreat |
| | Late on the morning of Monday, April 3, 1865, part of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia briefly halted here at the Chesterfield County seat. The day before, a series of Federal attacks had broken through Lee’s lines at Petersburg and ended the siege there. Lee ordered his army to withdraw from the Richmond-Petersburg fronts. The last of the Confederates came off the line that night when the moon went down. A member of the 12th Virginia Infantry on picket duty outside . . . — Map (db m19518) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chesterfield — S 29 — Magnolia Grange |
| | Built in 1822 by William Winfree, this Federal-style house was named for the large stand of magnolia trees in the front yard. It was originally surrounded by a 600-acre farm. A nearby tavern provided lodging for persons with business at the Courthouse; a grist mill formerly stood on nearby Cold Water Run. From 1881 to 1969 it was the residence of the Cogbill family, whose members figured prominently in the political history of Chesterfield County. — Map (db m19487) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Chesterfield — M 5 — Piney Grove Church Meeting Site |
| | Late in the 18th century, the Methodist Episcopal Church confronted the possibility of schism. James O'Kelly, a Methodist minister, began challenging Bishop Francis Asbury regarding his appointive powers, his management of church affairs, and other organizational matters late in the 1780s. After several years of intense debate within the church, O'Kelly and his followers broke away in 1792. On 2 Aug. 1793, O'Kelly's and Asbury's adherents met near this site at Piney Grove Church, which no . . . — Map (db m26013) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Colonial Heights — S 24 — Advance on Petersburg |
| | Elements of the Union Army of the James, led by Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, landed at Bermuda Hundred on 5 May 1864 to cut the Confederate rail and supply lines between Richmond and Petersburg. On 9 May, Butler sent divisions to Port Walthall Junction and Chester Station and turned south toward Petersburg. At Swift Creek, they encountered Brig. Gens. Johnson Hagood's and Bushrod R. Johnson's divisions protecting the turnpike and railroad bridges. The Confederates launched a counterattack . . . — Map (db m17121) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Colonial Heights — Howlett Line Park |
| | Following the Battle of Ware Bottom Church on May 20, 1864, Confederate forces began digging the earthworks that would become known as the Howlett Line. Named after the Howlett house, which stood at the northernmost point, the line stretched across the Bermuda Hundred peninsula from the James River to the Appomattox River. These fortifications effectively “bottled up” the 30,000-man Army of the James led by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. The Confederates at this location exchanged fire . . . — Map (db m16096) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Colonial Heights — S 36 — Redwater Creek Engagement |
| | While Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James entrenched at Bermuda Hundred on 11 May 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke led parts of two divisions north from Petersburg to unite with Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom's division near Drewry's Bluff and Proctor's Creek. Once there, Hoke formed the Confederate left wing with Ransom on the right facing south. At dawn on 12 May, Union Maj. Gen. William F. Smith led his corps through the Federal line to present-day U.S. Rte. 1, then . . . — Map (db m17123) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Colonial Heights — S 20 — Union Army Railroad Raids |
| | On 5 May 1864, leading elements of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James disembarked off transports at Bermuda Hundred, located to the north of here. The next day this army began severing telegraph lines and nearby portions of the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad, a rail line that carried troops, supplies, and food to Richmond from other junctions. Over the next five days, Butler's troops focused on destroying portions of the railroad and fought a number of skirmishes with . . . — Map (db m17120) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Ettrick — K 204 — Ettrick |
| | The site of an Appomattox Indian village burned in 1676 in Bacon's Rebellion, the present town of Ettrick stands on land that belonged to "Ettrick Banks" and "Matoax," the boyhood plantation of John Randolph of Roanoke. In 1810 Campbell's Bridge connected Ettrick with Petersburg, hastening development of mills on the river. Virginia State University, formerly known as The Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, was established here in 1882. — Map (db m14622) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Ettrick — 11 — Virginia State University — Ettrick, Virginia — Chesterfield County |
| | Virginia State University was chartered by the Virginia legislature in 1882 as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. Delegate Alfred W. Harris, an African-American attorney in Petersburg, championed the charter and supported it through the ensuing lawsuits attempting to stop its existence. Virginia State University was the first state supported school for African Americans in the United States authorized to grant a college degree, and also have an African-American board of visitors . . . — Map (db m26005) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Ettrick — K 324 — Virginia State University |
| | The Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute was chartered on 6 Mar. 1882. The Readjuster Party was instrumental in supporting a state institution of higher education in Virginia for African Americans with some unusual features to the institute's charter. It called for six of the seven members of the board of visitors be black, an all-black faculty, as well as the authority to grant college degrees. This is in contrast to many African American agricultural and industrial schools established at . . . — Map (db m26007) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Hopewell — K 202 — Bermuda Hundred |
| | A mile north, on the site of an important Appamatuck Indian village, Sir Thomas Dale established Bermuda Hundred in 1613. The hundred was a traditional English jurisdiction of one hundred families. Dale, the deputy governor and marshal of Virginia, founded an incorporated town and the first system of private land-tenure in English America there between 1611 and 1614. Bermuda Hundred was an official port of entry on the James River in the 1700's, with its own customhouse and inspectors. Benedict . . . — Map (db m11662) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Hopewell — S 23 — Point of Rocks |
| | Point of Rocks is located two miles south on the Appomattox River. In 1608, Captain John Smith wrote abut this high rock cliff which projected out to the channel of the river. Known to all as Point of Rocks, it was severely damaged during a battle between Confederate artillery and Federal gunboats on June 26, 1862. Rock from the point was used to build the wall of the City Point National Cemetery shortly after the Civil War. — Map (db m11844) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Hopewell — S 22 — Port Walthall |
| | Port Walthall, which stood on the banks of the Appomattox River several miles to the south, was a major shipping and passenger embarkation point prior to the Civil War. The railroad tracks leading to the port were melted down to manufacture Confederate cannon. — Map (db m11847) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 40 — Bellona Arsenal |
| | In 1810 Major John Clarke and noted Richmond lawyer, William Wirt, established a weapons factory for the U.S. War Department on the south bank of the James River five miles north of here. Bellona Arsenal, (named for the Roman goddess of war,) was erected in 1816. After five years of disuse, it was leased to Thomas Mann Randolph in 1837 (for use as a silk worm farm.) Junius L. Archer bought the property in 1856, and on January 1, 1863, he leased both the arsenal and foundry to the Confederate . . . — Map (db m19048) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 50 — Bethel Baptist Church |
| | In 1799 the local Baptist Society acquired this land and soon built a meetinghouse. The Bethel congregation worshiped in the meetinghouse and was constituted as a church in 1817. About 1820 the members built a brick church here--the first in Chesterfield County. The present sanctuary, which replaced it in 1894, was then the most elaborate rural church in the county, having Gothic buttresses, fine exterior detailing, and a rib-vaulted chancel. In the churchyard are buried soldiers of virtually every war from the Revolution through Vietnam. — Map (db m19051) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 34 — Black Heath |
| | Half a mile north stood Black Heath, later owned by Captain John Heth, officer in Continental Army, whose son, Henry Heth, Major-General C.S.A., was born here in 1825. Coal of high quality was mined here. — Map (db m19043) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 64 — Chesterfield Railroad |
| | In 1829 the Virginia General Assembly chartered the Chesterfield Rail Road Company, which built the first railroad in Virginia. Moncure Robinson (1802-1891), a railroad pioneer, designed the track, which once passed by here. In 1831, the company began hauling coal 13 miles from the Midlothian mines to the Manchester wharves on the James River. Horses and mules towed the loaded cars on some sections. Gravity propelled them on down hill grades and in one area the weight of the cars tugged the . . . — Map (db m19049) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 35 — Midlothian Coal Mines |
| | South of here are the Midlothian Coal Mines, probably the oldest coal mines in America. Coal was first mined here before 1730, and during the Revolution, coal from these mines supplied the cannon foundry at Westham. The first railroad in Virginia was built from the Midlothian mines to the town of Manchester in 1831. The mines produced coal that was used in casting cannon at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond during the Civil War. Mining operations ceased in 1923. — Map (db m19044) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 29 — Salisbury |
| | Nearby stood Salisbury, built during the middle portion of the 18th century. It was a one-and-a-half-story frame house that had two asymmetrical brick chimneys. Patrick Henry leased Salisbury from Thomas Mann Randolph and lived there while he was governor of Virginia from 1784 to 1786. Randolph sold the farm to Dr. William Turpin, and after Turpin's death his daughter Caroline, married to Dr. Edward Johnson, inherited the property. Their son Confederate Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson inherited the . . . — Map (db m19042) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — M 7 — Trabue's Tavern |
| | This was the home of Lt. John Trabue, Revolutionary War soldier and patriot, and of his descendants well into the 20th century. Trabue witnessed the surrender of the British forces at Yorktown in 1781 and later became an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati in Virginia. The Trabues were among the principal coal-mine proprietors in the Midlothian area and here maintained a tavern that was patronized both by travelers and by workers from mines in the vicinity. — Map (db m19014) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Midlothian — O 47 — Union Raid On Coalfield Station |
| | On the first day of Union Brig. Gen. August V. Kautz's second raid (12-17 May 1864) on Confederate railroads around Richmond, 3,000 cavalrymen rode northwest from Bermuda Hundred and passed Chesterfield Court House at 1:00 P.M. Arriving about midnight at Midlothian's Coalfield Station on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, a quarter-mile north, they cut telegraph lines and burned the depot, woodsheds, and railroad cars. They destroyed the tracks using tools from nearby coal mines. Maj. Samuel . . . — Map (db m19045) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Petersburg — O 26 — Mattoax |
| | Mattoax was located to the south on the Appomattox River. John Randolph, Sr., built a house there in the 1770s that burned after 1810; it was the boyhood home of his son, John Randolph of Roanoke. Mattoax also was the residence of St. George Tucker, a noted jurist, and his sons: Henry St. George Tucker, lawyer and legislator, and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, novelist and law professor. In 1854 Sylvester J. Pearce built a second house on the site that stood until the 1930s. — Map (db m19637) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Pickadat Corner — Battle of Swift Creek — "Brave to Madness" |
| | You are standing in the middle of the Union line that faced the Confederate route of attack up the Richmond Turnpike on May 9, 1864, during Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Here, along Swift Creek, elements of Butler's Army of the James clashed with part of Confederate Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson's command. The Federals were attempting to disrupt supply lines - especially the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad - to Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which was . . . — Map (db m14626) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Pickadat Corner — Swift Creek Battlefield: A Landscape of Change |
| | The Bermuda Hundred Campaign began on May 5, 1864, when Union General Benjamin Butler and the 33,000-man Army of the James landed at Bermuda Hundred nine miles northeast of here. General Butler's westward advance threatened Drewry's Bluff and Richmond to the north and Petersburg to the south. "The Confederates came on in splendid style with the peculiar "Rebel Yell" till within forty yards of our line when our crushing volley swept them over the brow of the hill and across the creek....It . . . — Map (db m14635) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Pickadat Corner — 25-S — Union Army Checked |
| | Here the Army of the James, moving on Petersburg, May 9, 1864, was checked by the Confederate defenses on the creek and turned northward. — Map (db m14629) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 3 — Ampthill Estate |
| | Built before 1732 by Henry Cary, this was the home of Colonel Archibald Cary, a Revolutionary leader of Virginia. The house was moved, 1929-30, to its present location off Cary Street Road in Richmond's West End. — Map (db m24997) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S-8 — Battle of Drewry’s Bluff |
| | From this point the Confederates, on May 16, 1864, moved to attack the Union Army of the James under Butler advancing northward on Richmond. — Map (db m14893) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Battle of Drewry’s Bluff — Drewry’s Bluff - 1862 |
| | May 15, 1862 When Federal gunboats round the bend, they enter a shooting gallery. Confederate soldiers and marines along the riverbanks rake the decks with musket fire. These batteries, ninety feet above the water, are perched too high for ships’ guns to strike accurately. Richmond, the Union target, is visible to your left – only seven miles upriver. But after four hours of fighting, the gunboats withdraw downstream – the last major naval threat to the Confederate capital. — Map (db m14897) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Bombproof and Well — Drewry’s Bluff – 1862 / 1864 |
| | The soldier is sitting in the doorway of the bombproof, a shelter during heavy bombardment. — Map (db m15496) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Covered Way — Drewry’s Bluff – 1862 / 1864 |
| | During battle, supplies could be brought into the fort through the Covered Way, a tunnel protected from shell-fire. — Map (db m15498) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Drewry’s Bluff — Richmond Battlefield — Richmond Nat’l Battlefield Pk – 1862/64 |
| | The presence of the Confederate bastion here at Drewry’s Bluff was one reason that most of the Civil War action around Richmond occurred north of the James River. Strong earthen fortifications and river obstructions, erected in 1862, effectively closed the river as a route of Union invasion. In the war’s later years, the Confederates built entrenchments protecting the overland approaches from the north, south, and east. The Battles of Drewry’s Bluff Two Union expeditions tested the . . . — Map (db m15080) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 15 — Drewry’s Bluff |
| | A mile east is Drewry's Bluff, James River fortification of Richmond, 1862-1865. Earthworks remain. — Map (db m16020) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 5 — Drewry’s Bluff |
| | This bluff on the James River, a mile east, was fortified by Captain A. H. Drewry in 1862. A Union fleet, attempting to pass it, was driven back, May 15, 1862; and thereafter it served as a bar to attacks on Richmond by water. On June 16, 1864, Longstreet's Corps of Lee's army crossed the river there going to the defense of Petersburg. — Map (db m16021) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Drewry’s Bluff Trail — Richmond National Battlefield Park |
| | Along this trail the first shots were fired in the campaign to capture Richmond that would last from 1862 to 1865. This one-half mile trail will take you to the Confederate fort named Fort Drewry by southerners and Fort Darling by the Federals. On May 15, 1862, the Confederate guns mounted inside the fort and along the river bluff stopped the mighty Union fleet led by the ironclads Monitor and Galena in its attempt to force its way up the James River to Richmond. This action . . . — Map (db m15169) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 4 — Falling Creek Ironworks |
| | Nearby on Falling Creek is the first ironworks in English North America. It was established by the Virginia Company to supply iron for the colony and for export to England. Construction began in 1619. The works, including a blast furnace, were completed under ironmaster John Berkeley and production began late in 1621 or early in 1622. The facility was destroyed and almost everyone there (twenty-seven people) was killed during the 22 Mar. 1622 Indian attacks coordinated by Chief Opechancanough . . . — Map (db m16015) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Fort Stevens — Butler’s Campaign Ends — Bermuda Hundred Campaign |
| | “Neither army, however, manifested any disposition either to advance or retire. It was a case of stand and fire, each endeavoring to cripple the other the most, and gain, if it could, some advantage here or there. The enemy’s one battery was handled with rapidity and accuracy, and they sent us quite a number of dangerous missiles, that exploded very near to our guns and did considerable damage.” - Private Benjamin W. Jones, Surry Light Artillery, describing the action on May . . . — Map (db m14895) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Fort Stevens |
| | Built in 1862, Fort Stevens was part of the Confederate inter-defense line of Richmond. This fort was named for Col. W.H. Stevens, who was in charge of the construction of Richmond’s defenses. Most fortifications were built quickly and made of earth supported by logs. Because Fort Stevens did not immediately come under fire, it was built with a sandbag interior, making it more permanent. Not until May 14, 1864, was this strong position attacked. Two days later, it became the pivot point for . . . — Map (db m14903) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Old Westham Bridge |
| | The road ahead once led to a stone and steel bridge that connected the 20th century community of Southampton behind you with the colonial village of Westham on the north shore. Prior to its construction, the closest car link between Henrico and Chesterfield was over the old Ninth Street Bridge in downtown Richmond. This was over a dozen miles out of the way on bumpy dirt roads.
The bridge originally charged a fee. The toll collector lived in a cottage at the north end of the bridge . . . — Map (db m23938) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — 0-37 — Providence United Methodist Church |
| | Established by 1807, the Providence Church congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church became one of the first Methodist congregations in Chesterfield County to build a permanent house of worship when it constructed a meeting house here before 1813. The congregation included both whites and blacks. During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides used the church for shelter. In 1896 the congregation built a Gothic Revival church here: it was replaced in 1958. — Map (db m22698) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 9 — Second Battle of Drewry's Bluff |
| | The Second Battle of Drewry's Bluff, or the Proctor's Creek engagement, began on 14 May 1864 when part of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James feigned an attack toward Richmond from Bermuda Hundred. After two days of skirmishing, Federals led by Maj. Gen. William F. Smith and Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore captured the outer Confederate earthworks here. At dawn on 16 May, however, the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke and Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom, Jr., launched several . . . — Map (db m16022) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — Site of First Iron Foundry in America |
| | Site of First
Iron Foundry in America
Established in 1619 — Map (db m16036) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — The Bermuda Campaign — May 1864 |
| | As part of Ulysses S. Grant’s overall strategic plan to win the Civil War, Gen. Butler’s Federal army advanced up the James River in the spring of 1864 in an effort to operate against Richmond from the south while the Army of the Potomac approached the Confederate capital from the north. Opposed by Confederate forces hastily gathered from three states by Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, Butler’s army seized a base at the Bermuda Hundred Landing and maneuvered for 10 days between Richmond and Petersburg . . . — Map (db m14904) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — The First Marine Medal of Honor — Drewry’s Bluff — Richmond National Battlefield Park, NPS |
| | On May 15, 1862, during the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, Southern marksmen in rifle pits – including two companies of Confederate States Marines – swept the gun deck of USS Galena, severely limiting its ability to fight. The U.S. Marine Guard aboard Galena strove to suppress the fire of the Confederate sharpshooters, who lined the banks of the James River. When an artillery shell passed through Galena’s side, killing and disabling most [of] the crew serving a . . . — Map (db m14901) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Richmond — S 2 — Warwick |
| | Located eight miles downstream from Richmond, Warwick was an important 18th-century James River port and manufacturing center. During the Revolutionary War, Warwick's craftsmen turned out clothing and shoes, and its mills ground flour and meal for the Continental troops stationed at Chesterfield Courthouse. On April 30, 1781, British troops under Benedict Arnold burned the town, destroying ships, warehouses, mills, tannery storehouses, and ropewalks. — Map (db m16014) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Skinquarter — Z 47 — Amelia County / Chesterfield County |
| | (Obverse)
Amelia County
Area 371 Square Miles
Formed in 1734 from Prince George and Brunswick, and named for Princess Amelia, daughter of King George II. William B. Giles, Governor of Virginia 1827-30, lived in this county.
(Reverse)
Chesterfield County
Area 468 Square Miles
Formed in 1748 from Henrico, and named for the Earl of Chesterfield, noted courtier. The first iron furnace in America, 1619, was in this county. The battle of Drewry's Bluff, 1864, took place here. — Map (db m18924) |
| Virginia (Chesterfield County), Skinquarter — M 10 — Goode's Bridge |
| | Here Anthony Wayne took station in July, 1781, to prevent the British from moving southward. Here, April 3, 1865, Longstreet's, Hill's and Gordon's corps of Lee's army, retreating from Petersburg toward Danville, crossed the river. — Map (db m18876) |
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