| Virginia, Alexandria — Alexandria — Alexandria in the Civil War |
| | “Alexandria is ours,” declared Col. Orlando Wilcox of the 1st Michigan Vol. Inf. as his regiment captured the city on the morning of May 24, 1861. When Virginia's vote of secession became effective, Union forces immediately crossed the Potomac River and occupied the Virginia shore. Due to its strategic location on the Potomac River just south of Washington, D.C., Alexandria became a prime Union occupation target.
During the capture of Alexandria, James W. Jackson, an ardent . . . — Map (db m159) |
| Virginia, Alexandria — Fort Ward — 1861-1865 |
| | This stairway leads up the west wall of Fort Ward between the Northwest Bastion (to the left) and the Southwest Bastion (to the right). Fort Ward had 14 cannon emplacements along this area of the wall that created overlapping fields of fire. Infantry soldiers armed with rifle muskets stationed between the cannon emplacements made this wall of the fort a formidable obstacle to attack. A self-guided tour begins at the ceremonial gate. The initial construction of Fort Ward was completed in . . . — Map (db m7709) |
| Virginia, Charlottesville — Charlottesville — Confederate Heroes Remembered |
| | Lee and Jackson Parks contain two of Charlottesville's fine examples of public sculpture, gifts of benefactor Paul Goodloe McIntire (1860-1952). The Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson statue was dedicated in 1921,the Robert E. Lee statue in 1924. Depicting the Confederacy's two greatest heroes and executed by nationally prominent sculptors, the statues and parks exemplify both the contemporary desire to honor the South's heroes and the widespread civic improvements of the early 20th century . . . — Map (db m497) |
| Virginia, Chesapeake — Glencoe — "He was brave, gentle and polished" |
| | “Glencoe,” the plantation home of Capt. William Wallace of the Jackson Grays, was located approximately one-half mile northeast of this site. William C. Wallace was born at Wallaceton, Norfolk County, Virginia, on March 23, 1842, and mustered into Confederate service on June 11, 1861, with the Jackson Greys. Wallace was immediately elected the company’s 1st Lieutenant. He was slightly wounded on March 8, 1862, while serving at Sewell’s Point during the CSS Virginia’s (Merrimack) . . . — Map (db m22446) |
| Virginia, Chesapeake — Village of Deep Creek — The Dismal Swamp Rangers |
| | Before you is the Deep Creek Lock of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal was an important thoroughfare, connecting the North Carolina Sounds with Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest operating artificial waterway in the United States. Construction was authorized by the Virginia legislature in 1787 and subsequently by North Carolina in 1790. Both Union and Confederate strategists recognized the canal’s importance and sought to control the waterway. One . . . — Map (db m4773) |
| Virginia, Colonial Heights — Dunlop Station — "...burning cartridges like shooting stars" |
| | Dunlop Station on the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad was located here on the southern boundary of David Dunlop's Ellerslie estate. During the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865, a military rail spur was completed in March 1865 that extended southwest from here to a Confederate quartermaster depot at Ettrick, making this an important railroad junction. It enabled trains to avoid Federal shelling of the main rail line from Dunlop Station to Petersburg, two miles south. Passenger trains . . . — Map (db m14636) |
| Virginia, Fairfax — Blenheim (Willcoxon Farm) — Civil War Soldier Art |
| | Blenheim, built for Albert and Mary Willcoxon about 1859, contains some of the nation’s best-preserved Civil War soldier writings. More than 110 identified Union soldiers, representing units from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, left their marks on the house walls. The earliest dated signature is from March 11, 1862, and the last is from June 20, 1863. From the front door to the attic, the soldiers covered the new white plaster walls of . . . — Map (db m21077) |
| Virginia, Fairfax — Fairfax — Spies, Mosby and Marr |
| | On June 1. 1861, the first major skirmish of the Civil War occurred on the main street of Fairfax Court House. In the pre-dawn hours 50 men of Co. B, Second U.S. Cavalry, led by Lt. Charles H. Tomkins, rode into town firing their weapons. As Capt. John Quincy Marr, commander of the Warrenton Rifles, rallied his men against the Union attack, he was killed by a stray bullet—becoming the first Confederate officer to die in the war.
On March 9, 1863, Confederate Col. John
S. Mosby and . . . — Map (db m626) |
| Virginia, Falls Church — Falls Church — Between the Armies |
| | In 1861, Falls Church was a farm village located on the Alexandria-Leesburg Turnpike. On May 24, when Virginia's vote of secession became effective, Union troops crossed the Potomac and occupied Arlington Heights and Alexandria. On June 1, the 2nd U.S. Cavalry left the Falls Church area to launch the first major skirmish of the war against Confederate forces at Fairfax Court House. After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on June 21, Union troops withdrew from the area . . . — Map (db m2825) |
| Virginia, Falls Church — Taylor’s Tavern — Professor Lowe's Balloons |
| | At the beginning of the war, Union commanders were uncertain of Confederate intentions and military capabilities. On June 22, 1861, civilian balloonist Thaddeus S.C. Lowe inflated his racing balloon Enterprise at the Washington Gas Company to demonstrate its potential in obtaining military information about Confederate troop movements. With the assistance of a 15-man army detachment, he walked the balloon to Taylor's Tavern at the edge of Union territory on the Falls Church heights. On . . . — Map (db m2826) |
| Virginia, Fort Monroe, Hampton — Fort Monroe — Freedom’s Fortress — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | Fort Monroe is the largest stone fortification ever built in the United States. Construction began in 1819 and continued for 15 years. Second Lt. Robert E. Lee served as an engineer at Fort Monroe from 1831 to 1834. During the Civil War, Fort Monroe played an important strategic role for the Union because of its proximity to the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and the James and York rivers. The fort also sat on the southern tip of the James/York Peninsula, a strategic route to Richmond. The . . . — Map (db m10357) |
| Virginia, Franklin — Battle of Franklin — “Jumping out of bed” |
| | The war seemed far from Franklin when Union forces captured Roanoke Island and the North Carolina Sounds in February 1862. In May, however, when they occupied Norfolk and Suffolk to control both coastal Virginia and North Carolina, suddenly the war was only twenty miles away. Soon recognizing Franklin as “one of the great thoroughfares [of] the army of General Lee, as regards provision,” the Federals were determined to disrupt the supply line.
Union gunboats ranged up the . . . — Map (db m18135) |
| Virginia, Franklin — Confederate Commissary Center — Swimming in Bacon |
| | Before the Civil War erupted, Franklin became a regional transportation and commercial center for the Blackwater-Chowan River basin because the seaboard and Roanoke Railroad connected with steamship lines here. When the war began, the town immediately became a Confederate commissary depot for millions of pounds of food and fodder en route to soldiers in the field. Produce from eastern North Carolina and Virginia farms arrived on boat and wagon to be transported via the Seaboard and Roanoke . . . — Map (db m18133) |
| Virginia, Franklin — The Blackwater Line — “That little stream has ... saved us” |
| | To protect Richmond from a Union attack from Suffolk, Confederate authorities fortified the Blackwater River in 1862. You are standing on the Blackwater Line. The intermittent earthworks stretched fifty miles from north of Zuni to the North Carolina border. Up to 9,000 troops were stationed along the Blackwater Line during the next two years. Despite occasional shelling and skirmishing, the Federals failed to cross the river.
In 1863, Union Gen. John J. Peck, in Suffolk, sent Col. Samuel . . . — Map (db m18134) |
| Virginia, Fredericksburg — Fredericksburg — Civil War Sites |
| | For 18 months Fredericksburg was at the heart of the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers camped here, fought here and died here. Today there are many sites within the city. Civil War walking tour information is available free at the Fredericksburg Visitor Center. — Map (db m9093) |
| Virginia, Fredericksburg — Fredericksburg — Where 100,000 Fell |
| | Because of the immense amount of fighting that occurred here, the Fredericksburg area has been called the vortex of the Civil War. Four major battles - Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House - resulting in approximately 100,000 casualties, took place within twenty miles of the town. The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park administers these battlefields and three related sites: Chatham, Salem Church and the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. A . . . — Map (db m9096) |
| Virginia, Fredericksburg — Fredericksburg City Dock — Bridges and Biscuits |
| | Why was Fredericksburg important to the Union war effort? The answer lies in logistics. The Union army, numbering more than 100,000 troops, required tons of food, clothing and other supplies to operate, Wagon trains could supply the army for short distances, but they were cumbersome and difficult to protect. Longer supply lines required either water or rail transportation. Fredericksburg, with its railroad and close proximity to the Potomac River, provided the Union Army with an ideal base for . . . — Map (db m1131) |
| Virginia, Fredericksburg — Fredericksburg City Dock — Contesting the Crossing |
| | Confederate troops under the command of Gen. William Barksdale were awake and alert hereon the morning of December 11,1862, waiting anxiously for the sun to rise. On the river, unseen in the inky blackness but clearly audible in the night’s stillness, Union engineers were constructing a pontoon bridge that would enable Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s Army of the Potomac to cross the Rappahannock River and seize Fredericksburg. Barksdale’s task was to delay the Union crossing long enough for the rest . . . — Map (db m1132) |
| Virginia, Fredericksburg — Fredericksburg City Dock — Union Artillery on Stafford Heights |
| | Directly ahead of you, across the river, stood George Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm. According to legend, the future president cut down his father’s cherry tree there and threw a coin across the river. The property took its name from a ferry that operated at that time.
In 1862, Union artillery crowned the bluffs once occupied by the Washington farm. When Confederate troops resisted the Union army’s efforts to cross the river on December 11, Burnside turned nearly 150 guns – . . . — Map (db m1133) |
| Virginia, Hampton — Stalemate in Hampton Roads — In a “big glass case” — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | After the March 8-9, 1862, Battle of Hampton Roads, CSS Virginia went into drydock for refitting. USS Monitor guarded Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s transport vessels in the York River near Fort Monroe, and the Federals reinforced the bows of fast steamers to ram Virginia if she ventured into the Chesapeake Bay. The Confederates concocted a plan (but did not execute it) to disable Monitor’s crew after reading a report in Scientific American: immobilize the turret, . . . — Map (db m10351) |
| Virginia, Harrisonburg — Chestnut Ridge — Death of Ashby — 1862 Valley Campaign |
| | On June 6, 1862, the vanguard of Union Gen. John C. Frémont’s force, pursuing Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s army south up the Shenandoah Valley, reached this point near Harrisonburg. Jackson’s rear guard, led by Gen. Turner Ashby, engaged Federal cavalry here and captured Col. Sir Percy Wyndham, the English commander of the 1st New Jersey Cavalry who had earlier boasted that he would “bag Ashby.” The 1st Maryland Inf. And 58th Virginia Inf. set an . . . — Map (db m15752) |
| Virginia, Harrisonburg — Court Square & Springhouse — Temporary Prison Camp |
| | During the Civil War, a road (Market Street) ran east and west through the courthouse square, dividing it roughly in half. The courthouse occupied the northern portion while the jail, clerk’s office, and springhouse were in the southern section. Plank fences surrounded both yards. These enclosures occasionally were used as holding pens for prisoners during the conflict. After the First Battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson confined about 2,000 . . . — Map (db m16482) |
| Virginia, Harrisonburg — Hardesty-Higgins House — Banks's Headquarters |
| | This was the home of Harrisonburg’s first mayor, Isaac Hardesty, an apothecary. Elected in 1849, Hardesty served until 1860. His Unionist sympathies compelled him to leave for Maryland after the Civil War began. Early in the first week of May 1862, Union Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks established his headquarters here while attempting to locate Confederate forces under Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Gen. Richard S. Ewell. Banks telegraphed Washington several times during his stay . . . — Map (db m16480) |
| Virginia, Harrisonburg — Warren-Sipe House — Home and Hospital |
| | This was the home of Edward T.H. Warren, a Harrisonburg attorney. As a lieutenant in the Valley Guards, a Rockingham County militia company, Warren attended the trial and execution of John Brown in Charles Town (in present-day West Virginia) in 1859. Warren was elected a town councilman in 1860, but soon left for the war. His former militia unit became Co. G in the 10th Virginia Infantry, which he helped form. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1861, and commanded the regiment . . . — Map (db m16481) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — City Point — One of the World's Busiest Seaports |
| | City Point had been a port for more than 250 years before the Union army arrived. On June 15, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters at City Point just eight miles behind the front lines at Petersburg. Located at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers, City Point had been connected by a railroad to Petersburg prior to the war. The town's strategic position adjacent to a railroad bed and the rivers offered Grant easy access to points along the front as well . . . — Map (db m19622) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — City Point Defenses — Securing the Union Position |
| | The fort behind you is all that remains of the inner defense line built by the Union army in 1864 to protect its base headquarters at City point. With a powerful fleet of ironclads and gunboats controlling the James River and a numerically superior army, the Federals believed their position at City Point secure. Then, in September 1864, just one month after the unexplained explosion of the ordnance wharf at City Point, Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton led his cavalry around Union forces to . . . — Map (db m3791) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — City Point, Virginia |
| | 8000 B.C. Indian occupancy.
1613 Sir Thomas Dale establishes area as “Bermuda Cittie.”
1619 Name changes to Charles City Point.
1621 Rev. Patrick Copeland plans to build free public school, financed by the East India Company.
1622 The Indian Massacre virtually destroys the town and several years pass before resettlement. Public school plans never materialize. The massacre survivors from Charles City Point flee to Shirley Hundred.
1623 Charles City Point, which was . . . — Map (db m19605) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — City Point’s Rails And Waterways — Tools of War for General Grant |
| | City Point...tells more about how war is conducted than many battlefields. It demonstrates how Union forces used rivers and railroads to deliver the tools of war directly to the troops in the field. – Robert Black, The Harrisburg PA Patriot News
The significance of the City Point logistical operation in the Civil War cannot be overstated. Besides being headquarters for the United States Armies, City Point was the supply base for the Union forces fighting at Petersburg and . . . — Map (db m19612) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — City Point’s Wiseman Family |
| | The Yankee Soldier met Miss Wiseman at the town well – and married her after the war.
The Wiseman family had settled in City Point many years before Mary Catherine Wiseman married Frederick Belch in 1865. He was a Yankee soldier bivouacked along the waterfront during the Civil War. A granddaughter said, “The town well was next door to grandmother's home which was on the bluff overlooking the James River, and one day he and my grandmother met there.” Belch was mustered out . . . — Map (db m19617) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Depot Field Hospital — Union Medical Care at its Best |
| | “I think this is a very good place with the exception of too many lice.” - Stephen P. Chase, 86th New York Volunteers. Lice may have been the only problem the staff of the Depot Field Hospital could not handle. The largest of seven hospitals built at City Point during the Siege of Petersburg, the facility put to use all the Union army had learned since the beginning of the Civil War. While severely wounded soldiers were sent to the North, those who remained in the field . . . — Map (db m14597) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Dr. Peter Eppes House |
| | "At first we lived in tents, but later, when my husband became commander of the post, I lived most comfortably in a house...." - Septima M. Collis
The house Septima Collis lived "most comfortably" in during the last months of the Civil War had been built by Thomas and Martha Williams in 1859 on land they had purchased from Dr. Richard Eppes for $400. Septima's husband, Brigadier General Charles H.T. Collis, obtained the house for his headquarters when he became commander of the post . . . — Map (db m19607) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Housing Several Thousand Federal Troops |
| | “To a civilian, a camp is always a sad-looking sight – men living on the ground like animals, in the mud, under the rain which penetrates the tents, surrounded by thick and acrid smoke of burning wood. Army camps are wild and primitive villages...Yet, the inhabitants of these camps are writing history today.” - Auguste Laugel, a Frenchman visiting Grant at City Point
Though tents and huts were the normal accommodations at City Point, Brevet Major W.P. Martin, a . . . — Map (db m19623) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — One Soldier, One Family, One War — The Homespun Letters of James Nugent |
| | "Oh! father, it would make your blood run cold to see the fights...War is awful." - James Nugent, City Point, April 27, 1865
In the closing months of the Civil War, a young Wisconsin college student was drafted and soon saw combat in the hellish siege of Petersburg. Letters to his family were found in a Michigan bank vault. The City Point excerpts used here were published in The Washington Post May 30, 1989. They tell a timeless story... of soldiers and their families. . . . — Map (db m19609) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Porter House |
| | “I’ve noticed that that band always begins its noise just about the time I am sitting down to dinner and want to talk.” – General U.S. Grant, City Point, Virginia
Earthworks had been thrown across the neck of land upon which City Point is located. This intrenched line ran from a point on the James River to a point on the Appomattox River. A small garrison had been detailed for its defense, and the commanding officer wishing to do something that would afford the . . . — Map (db m19610) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Quartermaster Repair Shops |
| | The Quartermaster Department was responsible for the transportation of the Army, storage and transportation of supplies, clothing, camp and garrison equipage, horses, forage, fuel, maintenance of buildings and repair of equipment.
Captain Edward J. Strang was in charge of the repair shops, located nearby, which employed more than 1,600 blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, saddlers, teamsters, laborers and clerks. These men were responsible for the maintenance and repair of army . . . — Map (db m19611) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — St. John’s Episcopal Church |
| | During the Civil War this church served as a signal station for both the Confederacy and the Union. On May 5, 1864 Col. Samuel A. Duncan’s brigade of United States Colored Troops (4th, 5th, and 6th U.S.C.T.) occupied City Point and the signal station without resistance. The 5th U.S.C.T. was the first to arrive and they captured code books and a group of Confederate signalmen who were trying to send information to Petersburg about the arrival of the Union army. For a short time the church was . . . — Map (db m19604) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Taverns |
| | The structure before you was one of three taverns which existed in City Point at the time of the Civil War. It was probably constructed in the eighteenth century. On June 15, 1864 the United States Christian Commission established its offices in this building. In front of the tavern facing the street, the Christian Commission erected a chapel and storehouse. These three buildings comprised the agency's headquarters.
The Christian Commission was an interdenominational organization devoted . . . — Map (db m19624) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — The Bull Ring At City Point — A Dreaded Provost Prison |
| | “It was a pen of filth and vermin.” – William Howell Reed, a Sanitary Commission agent
The Bull Ring was the Union provost Marshal’s prison at City Point used for the confinement of Union soldiers convicted or charged with desertion, murder, rape, disobedience, theft, drunkenness and other crimes. The pen was composed of three large one-story barracks which were surrounded by high wooden fences strictly guarded by sentries day and night. At the entrance was a . . . — Map (db m19602) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — The Peacemaker |
| | “Let them surrender and go home, they will not take up arms again. Let them all go, officers and all, let them have their horses to plow with, and, if you like, their guns to shoot crows. Treat them liberally . . . I say, give them the most liberal and honorable terms.” - Abraham Lincoln, City Point Virginia, on board the President’s Ship, River Queen, March 28, 1865 The best-remembered visitor to General Grant’s headquarters at City Point was President Abraham Lincoln. . . . — Map (db m19658) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — U.S. Government Bakery |
| | “After breakfast I mounted and rode...to look at the Bake House just completed. It will turn out 100,000 rations in 24 hours. Every thing is on a grand scale and of the most convenient & Economical character. They make most excellent bread.” - General Marsena Patrick, Provost Marshal, October 25, 1864
Feeding the Union army was not an easy task. Much labor was required to ensure that thousands of U.S. Soldiers received their daily rations. On August 30, 1864 the U.S. . . . — Map (db m19613) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Weston Manor — Weston Plantation |
| | “… a very pretty, large white house situated on a hill that sloped to the river; with pretty fruit and shade trees scattered over the lawn.” - Emma Wood Richardson Weston Manor provided a safe haven for young Emma Wood and her family during the Civil War. Years later, Emma recalled the hardships her family endured during the war, ranging from the lack of food, clothing and medicine to the inflated prices of what little was available. Most of all she remembered the . . . — Map (db m14586) |
| Virginia, Hopewell — Women At City Point |
| | “It was a nervous place for a woman; but I endured it, rahter feeling a kind of enthusiasm in the nearness to danger and death.” - Sarah Palmer, Ninth Corps Hospital Nurse
Women decided to come to City Point for as many different reasons as men enlisted in the army. Some came for the excitement of a military encampment. Some came to accompany or assist family members in some way. And some came because they truly believed that their presence at City Point would advance . . . — Map (db m19618) |
| Virginia, Lexington — Lexington — ”Shells went through the houses” |
| | Hunter's Raid (Preface):On May 26, 1864, Union Gen. David Hunter marched south from Cedar Creek near Winchester to drive out Confederate forces, lay waste to the Shenandoah Valley, and destroy transportation facilities at Lynchburg. His raid was part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy to attack Confederates simultaneously throughout Virginia. After defeating Gen. William E. “Grumble” Jones at Piedmont on June 5, Hunter marched to Lexington, burned Virginia Military . . . — Map (db m4809) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Civil War Lynchburg — Supplying Lee’s Army — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | Established in 1786, Lynchburg was a thriving commercial center famous for its tobacco and manufacturing industries when Fort Sumter, South Carolina was bombarded in April 1861 and the Civil War began. Lynchburg’s Fair Grounds and Camp Davis immediately began receiving troops for training from all over the South. During the war, the city’s foundries and factories produced munitions, mills ground flour for rations, and railway trains and canal boats transported men and supplies to the front. . . . — Map (db m3935) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Fort Early — The Confederate Center — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | Following the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg in July 1863, Lynchburg’s citizens became concerned about the lack of defenses around the city. Gen. Francis Nicholls, post commander, prepared a series of earthen redoubts and trenches at strategic points to take advantage of Lynchburg’s topography. He designed the earthen redoubt here to protect an artillery battery covering the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike (Fort Ave.). When Union Gen, David Hunter attacked Lynchburg in June 1864, he advanced his . . . — Map (db m3926) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Fort McCausland — The Confederate Right Flank — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | To your right, Confederates built an earthen redoubt in 1864 to defend the strategic Virginia & Tennessee Railroad trestle over Ivy Creek. The six-gun battery of the Botetourt Artillery manned the redoubt and a position on the other side of Forest Road (Langhorne Road) crossing in front. To capture Lynchburg, Union Gen. David Hunter had divided his army and sent Gen. Alfred N.A. Duffie’s cavalry to seize the city by turning the Confederate right flank. Gen. John McCausland cavalry moved to . . . — Map (db m3924) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Lynchburg — Early and Hunter |
| | In early May 1864, while Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee confronted the Union Army of the Potomac west of Fredericksburg, Union Gen. U.S. Grant sent Gen. Franz Sigel’s army to destroy Lee’s supplies in the Shenandoah Valley. After the Union defeat at New Market on May 15, Grant relieved Sigel and ordered his replacement, Gen. David Hunter, to seize Lynchburg, a strategic railway and supply center for the Confederate army. Hunter routed Confederate forces at Piedmont June 5th, captured both . . . — Map (db m3942) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Lynchburg Civil War Hospitals — Knight and Miller Tobacco Factories — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | These tobacco factories, built in 1845, were typical of the nineteen in Lynchburg converted into hospitals during the Civil War. Surgeon J.K. Page supervised Knight’s and Miller’s as divisions of General Hospital No. 2. The Thirty-two hospitals established in Lynchburg treated 3,000 to 4,000 patients at any given time, a remarkable achievement since Lynchburg’s 1860 population was 6,853. Citizens opened their own homes after major battle such as Gettysburg and the Wilderness when the deluge of . . . — Map (db m3925) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Old City Cemetery — Lynchburg, Virginia — Civil War Sites |
| | “With a graveyard on one side, quartermaster’s glanders stable on the other, and smallpox hospital in the middle, one (is) reminded of the mortality of man.” “A Confederate Surgeon’s Story,” Confederate Veteran, 1931, John Jay Terrell, M.D. This Old City Cemetery served three distinct and important roles in the Civil War: it was a burial ground for over 2200 soldiers, both Union Confederate; it was the location of the Pest House smallpox quarantine hospital; and it was . . . — Map (db m3937) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Quaker Meeting House — The Battle Begins — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | From here in June 1864, Confederate cavalrymen watched Gen. David Hunter’s Union army advance toward them on the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike (Fort Ave). Hunter departed Lexington on June 14 and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains near Peaks of Otter. Liberty (Bedford) fell the next day, but Confederate Gen. John McCausland’s cavalry was so successful in delaying Hunter’s army that it did not reach the ridge seen in the distance until the afternoon of June 17. Gen. John D. Imboden’s cavalry joined . . . — Map (db m3928) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Sandusky — Hunter's Headquarters — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | Union Gen. David Hunter’s army reached the outskirts of Lynchburg on June 17, 1864, despite being delayed by engagements with Gen. John McCausland’s Confederate cavalry. That evening, Hunter made his headquarters here at Sandusky, aware that Confederate reinforcements were arriving. He remained confident, however, that he could carry out Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s orders to capture Lynchburg. That night, in Sandusky’s parlor, Hunter and his commanders planned the assault on Confederate Gen. Jubal . . . — Map (db m3923) |
| Virginia, Lynchburg — Spring Hill Cemetery — Confederate Generals Rest — Battle of Lynchburg |
| | During the Battle of Lynchburg on June 17-18, 1864, Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early moved his reserves into the cemetery to reinforce his lines across the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike (Fort Ave.) at Fort Early. Before dawn on Sunday, June 19, these troops marched forward into the lines to the right of Fort Early, but by then the Union army had retreated. Organized in 1852, Spring Hill Cemetery was designed by John Notman of Philadelphia, noted for Laurel Hill Cemetery in that city and Richmond’s . . . — Map (db m3936) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Battle of Bull Run Bridge — Liberia — Second Manassas Campaign |
| | In Aug. 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson from the Rappahannock River to keep Gen. John Pope’s and Gen. George B. McClellan’s armies from uniting. Jackson marched on Aug. 25, and Lee followed the next day with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia. Jackson captured Bristoe Station and Manassas Junction late on Aug. 26. When reports reached Pope, he thought it was one of J.E.B. Stuart’s raids and ordered Gen. George W. Taylor’s . . . — Map (db m13286) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — A Civil War Redoubt — The Manassas Museum System |
| | This 11-acre historic park, part of the Manassas Museum System, contains one of only two surviving Civil War fortifications in the City of Manassas. The earthwork was built by Confederate troops in the Spring of 1861 as part of the Manassas Junction defenses, on the Hooe family farm, Mayfield. The historic site contains the Mayfield house foundation and the Hooe family cemetery, as well as walking trails, interpretive markers, and reproduction cannon. Please proceed along the marked trails . . . — Map (db m2366) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Fortifying the Junction — The Manassas Museum System |
| | Following Virginia’s decision to secede from the Union in in April 1861, Southern troops began arriving here at the small village of Tudor Hall, which soon came to be known as Manassas Junction. This place, where the Orange & Alexandria and Manassas Gap railroads intersected, was quickly transformed from a quite farming community into a military stronghold. Some 20,000 new recruits poured in from across Virginia and other Southern states. Confederate leaders recognized the importance of . . . — Map (db m2369) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — The Changing Fortunes of War — The Manassas Museum System |
| | After the First Battle of Manassas on June 21, 1861, Confederate forces continued to hold Manassas Junction until March 1862. They evacuated Manassas and moved south in order to counter Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s plans to attack Richmond. During this period, Union forces occupied the abandoned Confederate earthworks. Manassas Junction became an important supply base for the Federals. On August 26, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops briefly . . . — Map (db m2370) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — The People and the Land — The Manassas Museum System |
| | American Indians lived on the land long before white settlers and slaves came to this area. Living in nomadic hunter-gatherer groups, people called the Dogues and the Mannahoacs roamed the Northern Virginia Piedmont region. Archaeological evidence dates human activity on this site to at least 6,000 years ago. As European settlement advanced westward from the Tidewater region, the native peoples withdrew. In 1740 Patrick Hamrick patented his tract of land, which became known as Mayfield. The . . . — Map (db m2386) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Unearthing the Past — The Manassas Museum System |
| | Archeology is the detective work of history. Evidence recovered from the soil often provides valuable clues for learning how people lived, worked, and died, especially when documentary sources are scarce. Excavations were conducted at the Hooe House site by the Archeology Society of Virginia (ASV) in 1984-85. The fort site was excavated during a nine-month period in 1987 by Thunderbird Archeological Associates. Additional fieldwork, including a cross-section of the earthwork wall, was carried . . . — Map (db m2393) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Monster Manassas - How Strong a Stronghold? — The Manassas Museum System |
| | The Mayfield earthwork, known in military engineering terms as a redoubt, was a circle of raised earth some 200 feet in diameter. It may have included a retaining wall of timbers and brush, and planks to support artillery. While capable of self-defense, a redoubt was designed to provide overlapping fields of fire with other earthworks. Contemporary opinions on the strength of the Manassas defenses varied considerably. Some authors of the day spoke of the strength of the fortifications: . . . — Map (db m2396) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Firepower — The Manassas Museum System |
| | Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the troops defending Manassas, had been one of the pre-war U.S. Army's outstanding artillerists. Fearing an imminent Union attack, he worked feverishly to obtain cannons for the fortifications and experienced crews to man them. Most of the available guns were horse-drawn field pieces capable of firing canister (cases of small iron balls) or solid shot in weights of 10 or 20 pounds. The reproduction Model 1857 “Napoleon” cannon at right was . . . — Map (db m2405) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Quaker Guns — The Manassas Museum System |
| | Some of the Confederate cannons placed at Manassas and nearby Centreville were for show only. These non-functioning cannon were intended to deceive Union soldiers who might turn their telescopes on the earthworks: “This was nothing other than huge mock guns of wood—‘Quaker guns’ as they have come to be called....Some of these Quaker guns are mere logs with the bark on, just as they come from the tree. Others have the end pointing outward, colored black. Others again are fashioned . . . — Map (db m2408) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Mayfield Civil War Fort — Manning the Fort — The Manassas Museum System |
| | The life of Civil War soldiers in camp was one of boredom, fear, mischief, disease and even death. Thousands of young men, many of whom had never before left their family farms or urban neighborhoods, were crowded into the makeshift camps. Disease could run rampant, and sanitary conditions were often inadequate. Most men lived in tents year-round, though the Confederates built crude wooden huts during the winder of 1861-1862. Much of the soldier's day was spent learning military drill. They . . . — Map (db m2409) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Peace Jubilee — Friendship and Reconciliation |
| | In July, 1911, an amazing event took place here at Manassas, Virginia. The Manassas National Jubilee of Peace brought together Union and Confederate veterans fifty years after the first major battle of the Civil War. For the first time, veterans of both sides came together on the same ground in a ceremony of peace and reconciliation.
The idea for the Peace Jubilee, a week-long celebration of national healing and reunion that took place July 16-22, came in a letter to the Washington . . . — Map (db m2469) |
| Virginia, Manassas — The Manassas Museum — Defending the Junction — First and Second Manassas Campaigns |
| | During the 1850s two railroad lines, the Orange & Alexandria and the Manassas Gap, intersected at a small Prince William County Village that became known as Manassas Junction. In 1861 more than 20,000 Confederate troops from across the South gathered in what is today downtown Manassas. Working alongside slaves requisitioned from local farms, they built a ring of earthen fortifications around the junction. Naval cannon captured in Norfolk were included in the defenses, manned by Confederate . . . — Map (db m2454) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — Prelude to First Manassas |
| | (Preface): During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousands of soldiers who passed through the junction. More than 34,000 Confederate . . . — Map (db m2453) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — World’s First Military Railroad |
| | (Preface): During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousands of soldiers who passed through the junction. Just in front of you ran the . . . — Map (db m2459) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — Walking and Driving Tours |
| | The Manassas Museum System invites you to take walking and driving tours of the city’s historic Civil War sites. This map shows the locations of the sites featured on both tours. Copies of the map may be obtained inside the museum to take with you. To begin the downtown Manassas walking tour, follow the trail to the marker at the bottom of this hill to your right front. Return here to retrieve your car and begin the Manassas driving tour. — Map (db m2462) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — “Fortifications of Immense Strength” |
| | During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.
Early in May 1861, Col. Philip St. George . . . — Map (db m2463) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — “On to Richmond!” |
| | (During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.)
On July 16, 1861, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. . . . — Map (db m2464) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — Jackson’s Daring Raid |
| | (During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.)
You are standing at the site of a massive . . . — Map (db m2465) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — The Curious Descend on Manassas for Curios |
| | (During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.)
In the days following the First Battle of . . . — Map (db m2466) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — “The Sickness is Upon Us” |
| | (During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.)
In 1861, there were only 30 surgeons and 84 . . . — Map (db m2467) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — Confederates Withdraw to Richmond |
| | During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.
You are standing in the midst of what was a . . . — Map (db m2468) |
| Virginia, Manassas Park — Battle of Bull Run Bridge — “Let this not become another Bull Run” — Second Manassas Campaign |
| | In August 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson from the Rappahannock River to keep Gen. John Pope’s and Gen. George B. McClellan’s Union armies from uniting. Jackson marched on Aug. 25, and Lee followed the next day with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia. When Jackson captured Manassas Junction on Aug. 26, Pope thought it was one of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry raids and ordered Gen. George W. Taylor’s reinforced infantry brigade to . . . — Map (db m13287) |
| Virginia, Manassas Park — Conner House — Headquarters and Refuge |
| | Built of locally quarried sandstone about 1820 and later expanded, the Conner House was used during the Civil War by the Confederacy and then by the United States. After the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who with P.G.T. Beauregard had commanded the victorious Southern army, kept his headquarters here until November. From here, Johnston secured his position at Manassas Junction and control of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the tracks of which ran just . . . — Map (db m738) |
| Virginia, Manassas Park — Signal Hill — “Look out for your left, you are turned” |
| | This elevation behind the Confederate right flank at Mantissas in July
1861 was one of four Confederate
signal stations established by Capt. Edward Porter Alexander; Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s signal officer. Because the hilltop was devoid of trees, it offered excellent sight lines
to the north and
west without
building a signal
tower. As Union
Gen. Irvin
McDowell’s army
approached, the
Centreville station
was abandoned,
but Alexander’s
signalmen remained at the other three stations . . . — Map (db m3577) |
| Virginia, Newport News — “Every Kind of Obstruction was Skillfully Used” — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The Battle of Dam No. 1 proved a lost opportunity for the Union Army to break the Warwick-Yorktown line and force a Confederate withdrawal toward Richmond. Instead, Major General George McClellan spent another 17 days completing his heavy artillery emplacements. Furthermore, the Confederates retreated two days before the proposed Union grand barrage on May 5, 1862. Major General “Prince” John Magruder’s troop maneuvers and elaborate defenses on the Warwick-Yorktown line halted the . . . — Map (db m11241) |
| Virginia, Newport News — “Just Like Sap – Boiling, in the Stream” — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The Vermont troops waited in vain for reinforcements; Corporal Alonzo Hutchinson was mortally wounded while crossing the Warwick River and died without signaling for support. The Union leaders also failed to exploit the break in the Confederate lines. Brigadier General William Smith had fallen twice from his horse and was knocked unconscious. Moreover, Captain Fernando Harrington was missing from the battlefield. Thus, Captain Samuel Pingree took command and rallied the men against a second . . . — Map (db m11215) |
| Virginia, Newport News — “The Bullets Would Whistle Around my Head” — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | After the 15th North Carolina’s repulse, Brigadier General Howell Cobb (a former governor of Georgia and secretary of treasury) rallied the Confederates and prepared to drive the Vermonters into the water. Cobb commanded a brigade in Brigadier General Lafayette McLaw’s division and reinforced the line with the 7th, 8th, 11th, and 16th Georgia Infantry regiments. With great noise and shouting, the Georgians attacked Captain Samuel Pingree’s beleaguered command and forced their withdrawal across . . . — Map (db m11218) |
| Virginia, Newport News — “Their Conduct was Worthy of Veterans” — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | Brigadier General William Smith massed 18 cannons in an open field within 500 yards of the opposite shore. In addition, General Smith deployed Brigadier General William T.H. Brooks’s Vermont Brigade along the Warwick River with two brigades in support. Four companies of Colonel Breed N. Hyde’s 3rd Vermont Infantry were selected to cross the river under the command of Captain Fernando Harrington. Moreover, Brooks gave Corporal Alonzo Hutchinson a white handkerchief as a signal for . . . — Map (db m11202) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Battle of Dam No. 1 — The Water Boiled with Bullets — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | You are presently standing at the site of Dam No. 1, one of three dams constructed by Confederate commander John Bankhead Magruder to make the sluggish Warwick River into a defensive barrier. Dam No. 1 was the mid-point between two prewar tide mills at Lee’s Mill and Wynne’s Mill. The Union attack against the Confederate earthworks across the river on April 16, 1862, would veer to the left of the existing foot bridge. On April 5, 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Union army found its . . . — Map (db m10355) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Battle of Lee’s Mill — Flames Appeared on all Sides — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The fortifications that appear before you are all that remain of the extensive Confederate fortifications defending the Warwick River crossing at Lee’s Mill. After an uneventful march up the Great Warwick Road through Young’s Mill on April 4, the Union IV Corps resumed its march up the Peninsula the next day determined to reach the Half-way House between Williamsburg and Yorktown. The lead division, commanded by Brig. Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith, found its progress slowed first . . . — Map (db m10362) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Berdan’s Sharpshooters — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | From this rifle pit, Colonel Hiram Berdan’s 1st U.S. Sharpshooters targeted Confederate troops on the opposite bank of the Warwick River. Hiram Berdan, considered the nation’s best marksman, organized the regiment from hand-picked volunteers who placed ten consecutive shots in a 10-inch circle at 200 yards. The Sharpshooters wore green uniforms for camouflage, and some of the men carried their own target rifles with telescopic sights. Berdan’s Sharpshooters served as skirmishers in the advance . . . — Map (db m11270) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Congress – Cumberland — Give Them a Broadside Boys, as She Goes — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | In this section of the James River directly in front of you lies the remains of the USS Cumberland. At this location and along the shore to your left were the Union batteries that protected Camp Butler. On March 8, 1862, the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Virginia attacked the Federal fleet blockading the James River. The conversion of the Virginia during the past year from the former steam frigate USS Merrimack, scuttled when Federal forces evacuated Norfolk in 1861, . . . — Map (db m10344) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Custer’s Covered Way — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | George Armstrong Custer had the dubious honor of graduating last in the 1861 class at West Point. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Cavalry and fought with the Army of the Potomac in almost every major battle from Bull Run to Appomattox. During the Peninsula Campaign, Lieutenant Custer served with distinction as a staff officer and scout. He made an uneasy observation flight in the balloon Constitution at Warwick Court House and wrote that “My confidence in . . . — Map (db m11267) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Endview — Home of the Warwick Beauregards — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The white two-and-a-half story frame building in front of you in the distance is Endview. Endview was built circa 1760 by Col. William Harwood, Jr., who was a member of the House of Burgesses, a signer of the Virginia Resolves, and a Warwick County militia officer. When the French-American army began its march to begin the Revolutionary War’s Siege of Yorktown on September 28, 1781, Maj. Gen. Thomas Nelson, Jr.’s, 3,000-strong Virginia militia used Endview as a campground. Because of its . . . — Map (db m10381) |
| Virginia, Newport News — James A. Fields House — Up from Slavery |
| | James Apostles Fields was born into slavery in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1844. During the Civil War, Fields and his brother George escaped to Hampton, where in 1862 they found refuge as “contrabands of war” at Fort Monroe. James Fields served as a guide for U.S. Army troops there. He learned to read and attended the “Butler School,” named for commanding Gen. Benjamin F. Butler and operated by missionaries. When Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong came to . . . — Map (db m10611) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Lebanon Church — In the Line of March — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | Historic Lebanon Church, located behind you at the intersection of two strategic highways, served both the Confederate and the Union armies during the Civil War. Soon after Confederate Col. John Bankhead Magruder began organizing the Peninsula’s defenses at Yorktown on May 21, 1861, elements of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry established a courier station here. Countless Confederate soldiers marched by here between April 5 and May 3, 1862, to fill Magruder’s trenches. Three lines of fortifications . . . — Map (db m10389) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Lee Hall — Siege Headquarters — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The small redoubt in front of you is the only visual evidence of Lee Hall’s military occupation by the Confederate army from May 1861 to May 1862. The antebellum mansion to your right served as a headquarters building for both Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder, CSA, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, CSA, during the Peninsula Campaign’s Warwick – Yorktown Siege. Lee Hall was built between 1848 and 1859 by Warwick County’s leading landowner, Richard Decauter Lee. Lee had risen to prominence by . . . — Map (db m10376) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Monitor – Merrimack — The Battle of the Ironclads — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | Lincoln viewed the March 8, 1862, sinking of the USS Congress and USS Cumberland as the greatest Union calamity since Bull Run. Union Secretary of War Edwin W. Stanton feared that “the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) would soon come up the Potomac and disperse Congress, destroy the Capitol and public buildings…” Stanton believed that “McClellan’s mistaken purpose to advance by the Peninsula must be abandoned.” As the burning Congress set an . . . — Map (db m10347) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Mott’s Battery — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | On April 4, 1862, Major General George B. McClellan launched his offensive on the Virginia Peninsula against the Confederate capital at Richmond. Major General John B. Magruder’s 13,000 troops halted the Union advance along the Warwick-Yorktown line on April 5, 1862. With aggressive troop maneuvers and artillery duels, Magruder deceived McClellan into believing he faced impregnable fortifications defended by over 100,000 troops. “Our reconnaissance of yesterday,” reported McClellan, . . . — Map (db m11254) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Newport News POW Camp — Where Valor Proudly Sleeps |
| | The monument that stands before you was erected in June 1900 by the members of the Magruder Camp No. 36, United Confederate Veterans, to honor the 163 Confederate soldiers reinterred at this site who had died in the POW Camp next to Camp Butler on Newport News Point. Following the war’s end, the victorious Union army had thousands of Confederate troops to parole and return to their homes throughout the South. With Northern camps already filled with captured Confederates, a Newport News POW . . . — Map (db m10446) |
| Virginia, Newport News — One-Gun Battery — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The twelve miles of Confederate defenses followed the course of the Warwick River one mile from Yorktown to Mulberry Island. Dam No. 1, the mid-point, was protected by this one-gun battery mounting a 12-pound howitzer. In addition, a 6-pound smoothbore and a 24-pound howitzer were situated in the redoubts behind this point. On April 16, 1862, Brigadier General William Smith, a division commander in the IV Corps, directed an attack against Dam No. 1 to break through the Confederate lines. At . . . — Map (db m11201) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Skiffes Creek — The Defense of Mulberry Island — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The redoubt before you is one of five earthworks built by the Confederates to help defend the Mulberry Island/James River flank of Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder’s 2nd Peninsula Defensive Line. This series of redoubts (of which only two remain) stretched from Lee’s Mill on the Warwick River to Skiffes Creek, thereby blocking any Federal flanking movement by way of Mulberry Island or Skiffes Creek. Until the emergence of the powerful ironclad ram CSS Virginia (Merrimack), Magruder had . . . — Map (db m10363) |
| Virginia, Newport News — The Battle of Lee’s Mill — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | In March of 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac landed at Fort Monroe and Camp Butler. This large force contained 121,500 soldiers, 44 batteries of field artillery and 101 heavy siege cannons. Confederate Maj. Gen. John Magruder, promoted for his June 10, 1861 victory at the Battle of Big Bethel, rightly viewed his situation as precarious and requested more cannons and troops for the Peninsula’s defenses. On April 4, 1862, the Army of the Potomac moved up the Peninsula . . . — Map (db m11310) |
| Virginia, Newport News — The Warwick-Yorktown Line — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | On May 24, 1861, Confederate Col. John Magruder assumed command of the Peninsula’s defenses. The Confederate capital at Richmond was only 80 miles from Fort Monroe, and “Prince John” Magruder did not have enough artillery or men to capture the Union stronghold. Instead, he fortified points along the James and York rivers to block any Union advance toward Richmond. From local reconnaissance, Magruder formulated plans for three lines of fortifications. The first defensive line went . . . — Map (db m11306) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Warwick Court House — Camp in the Wilderness — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | “The office was full of books and papers. Some very old ones that had been written long before the Revolution by King George’s officers. A guard was over them but I was lucky and got a handful of deeds …. I have one written 1669 …. Shortly after I got mine a stop was put to taking any more.” - Eliza Hunt Rhodes, 2nd Rhode Island. The building directly in front of you is the 1810 structure known as Warwick Court House. To your right is Warwick County’s Confederate Monument. . . . — Map (db m10387) |
| Virginia, Newport News — Young’s Mill — Magruder’s First Peninsula Defensive Line — 1862 Peninsula Campaign |
| | The mill located behind you is one of the few remaining tide mills on the Peninsula. In the woods across the private road to your left are several redoubts and rifle pits. These fortifications are all that remain of the Confederate 1st Peninsula Defensive Line. Since the Colonial era, Deep Creek has had a dam and a pond here with a mill. The dam provided an important crossing over Deep Creek for the Great Warwick Road, a dirt roadway that connected Hampton, Newport News Point, and Warwick . . . — Map (db m10361) |
| Virginia, Petersburg — Blandford Church — In Harm’s Way |
| | This church, built circa 1737, was in ruins at the time of the Civil War. Nonetheless, located behind Gracie’s, Colquitt’s and Elliott’s Salients in the Confederate defense lines, the structure served as a temporary field hospital during the Petersburg siege. After the explosion of a Union mine at The Crater July 30, 1864, Confederate Gen. William Mahone rushed three brigades through here to blunt the Federal advance. Months later, in the early morning of March 25, 1865, Confederate Gen. John . . . — Map (db m6516) |
| Virginia, Petersburg — Campbell's Bridge — Vital Crossing — Lee's Retreat |
| | When General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began its retreat from Petersburg and Richmond on the evening of April 2, 1865, part of the army crossed the Appomattox River at Campbell's Bridge here. Other columns crossed the river on three nearby bridges beginning about 8 p.m. Gen. James Longstreet, with whom Lee rode, crossed just west of here on the Battersea pontoon bridge and passed through Ettricks (now Ettrick). Gen. John B. Gordon led troops from the Petersburg defenses across . . . — Map (db m14593) |
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