Wallaceton

Wallaceton. The Canal and Three Houses. You are in Walllaceton, a community named for the Wallace family home, with the Dismal Swamp Canal and Great Dismal Swamp in front of you. Before the war, runaway slaves found refuge in the swamp. Confederate guerrillas later hid there, while the Federals sought to control the canal to transport men and supplies. Union Gen. Edward A. Wild led U.S. Colored Troops through here in 1863 to punish secessionist and root out guerrillas., George T. Wallace and his wife Elizabeth Curtis Wallace built Glencoe about 1841. Their son William C. Wallace was born on March 23, 1842, at Wallaceton. He mustered into Confederate service on June 11, 1861 in Co. A, 61st Virginia Infantry (Jackson Greys) and was elected lieutenant. He was wounded at Sewell's Point on March 8, 1862 during the first attack by CSS Virginia (Merrimack) on the Union fleet in Hampton Roads. Promoted to captain in May 1862, he led Co. A until he was mortally wounded on August 19, 1864, in combat near Petersburg. His mother kept a diary at Glencoe in which she recorded her wartime experiences and those of her staunchly secessionist family., William H. Stewart, who organized the Jackson Grey's and served as the first captain lived at Beechwood. He was wounded twice, promoted to lieutenant colonel, and commanded the 61st Virginia Infantry, which surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He wrote History of Norfolk County (1902) and A Pair of Blankets: War-Time History in Letters (1912)., "Two negro regiments passed on their way to Carolina. Their white officers declare they will picket every cross road until they catch all the Guerrillas." , Elizabeth Curtis Wallace, Dec. 6, 1863, Glencoe Diary, (captions) , Glencoe (burned 1979), 1968 photo Courtesy Virginia Department of Historic Resources , Wallaceton, ca. 1900 photo Courtesy Virginia Department of Historic Resources , Lt. Col. William H. Stewart, from A Pair of Blankets: War-Time History in Letters (1912).