In April 1862, Union forces under Gen. George B. McClellan began a major campaign to capture Richmond, marching west from Fort Monroe up the Peninsula between the York and James rivers toward the Confederate capital. A Confederate army . . . — — Map (db m183355) HM
Eltham, a mile north, was long the home of the Bassett family and one of the largest and finest colonial houses in Virginia. Burwell Bassett, the owner at the time of the Revolution, was a patriot leader. Washington was a frequent visitor at Eltham . . . — — Map (db m21601) HM
Established in 1654 from York and named for County Kent, England. In it are Chestnut Grove, Birthplace of Martha (Dandridge) Custis; White House, home of Martha Custis; Poplar Grove, where Martha Custis met George Washington; St. Peter's church, . . . — — Map (db m17606) HM
After fighting to a draw in the Battle of Williamsburg on 5 May 1862, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army withdrew toward Richmond. Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, hoping to block Johnston's line of retreat, ordered a division under . . . — — Map (db m167829) HM
A mile north, at Eltham Landing on the Pamunkey River, Franklin's division of McClellan's army disembarked on May 6, 1862. The next morning the Union troops came in contact with the Confederates retiring toward Richmond. The Confederate wagon trains . . . — — Map (db m183356) HM
A short distance south stood the Brick House. In 1677, at the end of Bacon's Rebellion, the rebel leaders, Drummond and Lawrence, were at Brick House when West Point surrendered to Berkeley. They fled, Drummond to be caught and executed, Lawrence . . . — — Map (db m21602) HM
Half a mile north on Diascund Creek stood Cooper's Mill. On 23-24 June 1781, the British army commanded by Gen. Charles Cornwallis seized supplies there while en route to its camp at Williamsburg and Maj. John G. Simcoe's Rangers burned the bridge . . . — — Map (db m16840) HM
As part of British Maj. Gen. William Phillips Apr. 1781 campaign in Virginia by the 21st he sent Lt. Col. Robert Abercrombie's Light Infantry from Barrett's Ferry, where it enters the James River, to destroy the state's naval docks, ships, . . . — — Map (db m16837) HM
A mile and a half south of here on the Chickahominy River stood Moysonec, an Indian village. Some of the Chickahominy Indians residing there captured Captain John Smith in 1607. In the wake of the 1644 Indian uprising, the colonists sought to . . . — — Map (db m26341) HM
Liberty Church was organized in 1830 with 25 members led by Elder Thomas S. Morris. In 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention appointed Samuel Cornelius Clopton, son of the second pastor, Elder James Clopton, as its first missionary. The third . . . — — Map (db m16843) HM
Established in 1654 from York and named for County Kent, England. In it are Chestnut Grove, Birthplace of Martha (Dandridge) Custis; White House, home of Martha Custis; Poplar Grove, where Martha Custis met George Washington; St. Peter's church, . . . — — Map (db m16830) HM
After a detachment of the Marquis de Lafayette's army defeated Maj. John G. Simcoe's cavalry at Spencer's Ordinary near Williamsburg on 26 June 1781, Lafayette shadowed the British army encamped at the colonial capital. He made his headquarters just . . . — — Map (db m16842) HM
The core of the main house was built on a half-acre lot about 1810. Nearly doubled in size about 1837, the house underwent further alterations between the 1870s and 1901, by which time it was re-oriented to face the road rather than the courthouse . . . — — Map (db m29321) HM
Dr. Calvin C. Green, civil rights activist, led the movement for school integration in New Kent County. An educator, pastor, Korean War veteran, and later a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Green chartered the New Kent branch of the . . . — — Map (db m167839) HM
The early home of the Adams family, Cedar Hill was established by Ebenezer Adams after he immigrated to Virginia; it was originally named Winslows. The property had an important landing on Holts Creek which joins the Pamunkey River between . . . — — Map (db m167841) HM
To the revered memory
of
The Confederate
Soldiers and Sailors
from New Kent County
1861 - 1865
"Lest we forget
Military units organized in New Kent.
Pamunkey Rifles
Co. E. 53, Virginia Regiment.
Barhamsville . . . — — Map (db m167833) WM
Criss Cross originally was named Christ's Cross due to its floor plan in the form of a Christian cross. George Poindexter immigrated to Virginia in 1654 and may have begun to build Criss Cross as early as 1685, but completed it by 1690. The . . . — — Map (db m167842) HM
Richard Littlepage III established Cumberland
Town on the south side of the Pamunkey River
in 1748. A busy shipping center, the town offered
a tobacco inspection station, warehouses, wharves,
and a ferry. The Virginia House of Burgesses
briefly . . . — — Map (db m107377) HM
Gilbert Chase, a New England ship captain, recovered a bronze French cannon in the Pamunkey River off Cumberland Town in 1816. Two members of his crew descended in a diving bell patented in 1806, which Chase had acquired the rights to use. The . . . — — Map (db m107379) HM
George Poindexter (Poingdestre), a member of
prominent family on the Isle of Jersey in the
English Channel, arrived in Virginia by the 1650s
and settled at Middle Plantation, now Williamsburg.
He acquired land in at least three . . . — — Map (db m107387) HM
Virginia’s first State Highway Landscape Engineer - Mr. Neale served in theat position from 1930 to 1957 and was recognized nationally as a pioneer in roadside and rest area development. This facility is dedicated in his honor by a grateful . . . — — Map (db m79259) HM
James Lafayette was born in slavery about 1748 near here. His master William Armistead was commissary of military supplies when in the summer of 1781 the Marquis de Lafayette recruited James as a spy. Posing as a double agent, forager, and servant . . . — — Map (db m17739) HM
John Parke Custis
Born at White House, New Kent County in 1755. Died at Eltham, New Kent County, November 1781, where his body remains.
This marker placed by the Sons of the Revolution in Virginia 1960
While acting as aide to . . . — — Map (db m17746) HM
Educator, Baptist minister, publisher, American missionary and founder of Baptist churches across the United States. Dunjee was a New Kent County born slave owned by the Terrill family of Criss Cross Plantation. After discovering he was going to be . . . — — Map (db m167843) HM
About two miles northeast stood Chestnut Grove, the plantation home of John and Frances Jones Dandridge, where Martha Dandridge, the eldest of eight children, was born on 2 June 1731. She lived there until 15 May 1750, when she married Daniel Parke . . . — — Map (db m17740) HM
In May 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under Major General George B. McClellan advanced up the Pamunkey River toward Richmond, while Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s army moved to defend the city. . . . — — Map (db m107383) HM
Lord Cornwallis's army was here, moving eastward, June 22, 1781; Lafayette, in pursuit, June 25; Washington, Rochambeau and Chastellux, on their way to Yorktown, September 14, 1781. A part of Joseph E. Johnston's army, retiring to Richmond, passed . . . — — Map (db m17738) HM
New Kent County, established in 1654, built a brick courthouse here by 1695. Fires in 1753 and 1775 destroyed the building and its successor. A later courthouse, damaged during the Civil War, was replaced in 1909. In 1736 county court justice George . . . — — Map (db m167832) HM
New Kent School
has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
This site possesses national significance
in commemorating the history of the
United States of America
In 1968, Green V. The County School Board challenged the . . . — — Map (db m167836) HM
Samuel W. Crump, a native of New Kent County and a veteran of World War II, was among the first African Americans elected to public office in Virginia under the state's Constitution of 1902, which disenfranchised many black voters. Elected to the . . . — — Map (db m167831) HM
Edmund Hockaday built the earliest part of this house about 1810. The house was nearly doubled in size in 1830s, with further additions by 1901 and finally in the 1950s.
The house did not remain in one family. It was sold about 1837, again . . . — — Map (db m29320) HM
In April 1862, Union forces under Gen. George B. McClellan began a major campaign to capture Richmond, marching west from Fort Monroe up the Peninsula between the York and James rivers towards the Confederate capital. A Confederate army . . . — — Map (db m208791) HM
One mile south is the home of descendants of the Chickahominy Indians, a powerful tribe at the time of the settlement of Jamestown. Chickahominies were among the Indians who took Captain John Smith prisoner in December 1607. Currently two . . . — — Map (db m16836) HM
During the Third Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-1646), English colonists burned Chickahominy Indian towns in this area, destroyed valuables and food, and took many prisoners. The English built Fort James in 1645 and used it to stage raids. The fort stood . . . — — Map (db m168056) HM
The site of Forge Bridge over the Chickahominy River is located about a mile south of here. On 14 June 1862, Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart and his cavalry brigade crossed there on their famous ride around Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the . . . — — Map (db m16832) HM
Virginia’s first State Highway Landscape Engineer, Mr. Neale served in that position from 1930 to 1957 and was recognized nationally as a pioneer in roadside and rest area development. This facility is dedicated in his honor by a grateful . . . — — Map (db m99504) HM
Letitia Christian Tyler, wife of President John Tyler, is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery a mile northeast. Born on 12 November 1790, a daughter of Robert and Mary Browne Christian, she married John Tyler at her home, Cedar Grove, on 29 March 1813. . . . — — Map (db m16849) HM
One mile south is Long Bridge over the Chickahominy River. Benedict Arnold sent Simcoe there in the British invasion of 1781. Longstreet crossed there in the Peninsular Campaign, May, 1862. Grant's Fifth and Second Corps crossed there, in June, . . . — — Map (db m16807) HM
Here about 1770, Charles Jeffery Smith, a Presbyterian minister, settled and, with William Holt, built a forge for making farm implements. Francis Jerdone became a partner in 1771. A militia camp was established here in 1781, and Lafayette was here . . . — — Map (db m16834) HM
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries established the first Virginia State Game Farm nearby in 1920. The state initially raised quail in captivity there to restock the birds throughout Virginia. The game farm was one of the earliest state . . . — — Map (db m16835) HM
In the 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County decision, the Supreme Court of the United States abandoned the “all deliberate speed” mandate of Brown II (1955) and demanded immediate integration of schools. Black . . . — — Map (db m17735) HM
In Dec. 1607, while exploring the headwaters of the nearby Chickahominy River, Capt. John Smith and his party were captured by a hunting party consisting of members of the Paspaheghs, Chickahominies, Youghtanunds, Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, and . . . — — Map (db m15678) HM
George W. Watkins
School
has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
This site possesses national significance
in commemorating the history of the
United States of America
In 1968, Green v. the County School Board . . . — — Map (db m167838) HM
Here a part of McClellan's army crossed the Chickahominy on May 23, 1862, advancing on Richmond. It was attacked by the Confederates at Seven Pines. — — Map (db m15676) HM
Established in 1654 from York and named for County Kent, England. In it are Chestnut Grove, Birthplace of Martha (Dandridge) Custis; White House, home of Martha Custis; Poplar Grove, where Martha Custis met George Washington; St. Peter's church, . . . — — Map (db m15680) HM
This was the main road to Williamsburg in early days. Cornwallis, retiring eastward, used this road in June, 1781. The Confederates, retreating westward, passed over it in May, 1862. — — Map (db m15679) HM
Powhatan, the paramount chief of many Virginia Algonquian tribes when the English first landed at Jamestown, lived near here at the town of Orapax, having moved from Werowocomoco in 1609 following conflicts with the English. The English boy Henry . . . — — Map (db m30860) HM
In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan led the Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula to the gates of Richmond. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June and began planning a counterattack. On June . . . — — Map (db m61877) HM
In a well-coordinated movement, Grant’s army crept away from the grim experience at Cold Harbor and marched rapidly for the Chickahominy River crossings.
A Union soldier writing home from Long Bridge on June 13, 1864, was not impressed: . . . — — Map (db m16804) HM
October 12th of 1994 Stansley Racing Corp. was awarded the first pari-mutuel license for the state of Virginia. The facility you see is a concept of his son, Brett Lee Stansley, who had the rendering done in a colonial style.
Arnold is . . . — — Map (db m61899) HM
Two miles northeast is St. Peter's Church, built in 1703 in English bond. David Mossom, rector there for forty years, was the minister who married George Washington. According to one tradition, the wedding took place at St. Peter's Church. — — Map (db m17728) HM
In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan led the Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula to the gates of Richmond. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June and began planning a counterattack. On June . . . — — Map (db m61879) HM
J.E.B. Stuart, on his famous ride around McClellan's army, June 12-15, 1862, arrived here in the early night of June 13, coming from Hanover Courthouse. He rested here several hours and then pressed on to the Chickahominy River, rejoining Lee's army . . . — — Map (db m17729) HM
This place, six miles northeast, was the home of Martha Custis. According to tradition, George Washington first met her at Poplar Grove, near by, in 1758. On January 6, 1759, Washington and Martha Custis were married, it is believed at the White . . . — — Map (db m17718) HM
(left panel)
Sustaining Courage for Exploration
In December 1607 John Smith set out from Jamestown to continue his exploration of the Chickahominy River, which had begun with a series of trading voyages in November. He visited . . . — — Map (db m83910) HM
