“As a political question and a question of humanity can I receive the services of father and mother and not take the children? Of the humanitarian aspect I have no doubt; of the political one I have no right to judge.”—Gen. . . . — — Map (db m103831) HM
In the spring of 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan led his 100,000-man Army of the Potomac west from Hampton past Big Bethel in a campaign to capture Richmond. The battlefield of June 9, 1861, soon faded into obscurity.
Little remains of the . . . — — Map (db m103832) HM
During the Federal attack, the first Confederate enlisted man who died in combat during the Civil War was killed here.
Union Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce began his assault at about 9 A.M. on June 10, 1861. Capt. H. Judson Kilpatrick led the 5th New . . . — — Map (db m103833) HM
The Battle of Big Bethel was, for most of the participants, their first experience with warfare. Officers and enlisted men on both sides often wrote of details that in fights to come would not merit a mention.
Union Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce, the . . . — — Map (db m103834) HM
As the Confederates here tried to burn the Zouaves out of the buildings that stood in front of you, the last act of the battle unfolded to your left across the creek. The "New England Battalion” (1st Vermont, 4th Massachusetts, and 7th New . . . — — Map (db m103835) HM
For the Federals, the Big Bethel expedition ended in complete failure. Casualties totaled 76: 18 killed, 53 wounded, and 5 missing. The Northern press blamed Gen. Benjamin F Butler for ordering his troops into battle with poor preparation and for . . . — — Map (db m103836) HM
Although Confederate Col. John B. Magruder and his forces won the Battle of Big Bethel, they could not stem the Federal tide for long. On June 15, 1861, within a week of the battle, a huge Sawyer rifled cannon mounted at Fort Calhoun (Fort Wool) on . . . — — Map (db m103837) HM
On June 10, 1861, Confederate forces under Colonel john Bankhead Magruder engaged numerically superior Federal forces under Brigadier General Ebenzer W. Pierce in what is recognized as the first planned land engagement of the Civil War.
After a . . . — — Map (db m103838) HM
Dedicated on the
150th anniversary
Battle of Big Bethel
Union regiments engaged:
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th (Duryee Zouaves)
& 7th New York
4th Mass. & 1st Vermont
2nd U.S. Artillery
Union losses:
18 killed, 53 wounded, 5 MIA
To . . . — — Map (db m66887) WM
One mile north is Chesterville, birthplace of George Wythe (1726-1806), a prominent Virginia attorney, judge, legislator, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wythe inherited the family plantation in the 1750s and operated it until the . . . — — Map (db m73768) HM
On this spot June 10, 1861 fell
Henry Lawson Wyatt
Private Company A.
1st North Carolina Regiment
This stone placed here
by the courtesy of
Virginia, is erected by
authority of the State
of North Carolina.
June 10, 1905 . . . — — Map (db m29144) HM
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was established by Congress in 1915 to “supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight.” The NACA created the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory at nearby . . . — — Map (db m73771) HM
Born free in Norfolk in 1823, Mary Peake devoted herself to the education of African Americans. About 1850, she founded the Daughters of Zion to aid the poor and the sick. A seamstress by day, Peake violated state law to teach her fellow blacks at . . . — — Map (db m109903) HM
This house was the last headquarters of the Virginia
State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, organized
In 1907 by educator and social reformer Janie Porter
Barrett and other women who attended the annual
Hampton Negro Conference. The . . . — — Map (db m129844) HM
Civil War Dead
An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865. As the death toll rose, the U.S. government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need to bury fallen Union . . . — — Map (db m130061) HM
Here stood the U.S. Army’s first camp on Virginia soil after secession, built in May 1861. Only the Veteran’s Cemetery on County Street remains of this entrenched camp. The influx of soldiers at Fort Monroe prompted the commander, Lt. Col. Justin . . . — — Map (db m10479) HM
In this vicinity was situated Camp Hamilton. A large camp of Union troops first occupied in May, 1861. A great military hospital, Hampton Hospital was here. — — Map (db m59625) HM
Here, under an oak tree, newly freed African American students listened in January 1863 as the Emancipation Proclamation was read aloud. Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s “contraband of war” decision at Fort Monroe in 1861 anticipated that . . . — — Map (db m33817) HM
To the west, on the grounds of Hampton University, stands the Emancipation Oak. Under its sheltering limbs, protected and encouraged by the occupying Union army and prominent local church leaders, Mary Smith Kelsey Peake (1823- 22 Feb. 1862) taught . . . — — Map (db m73795) HM
Marker front:
Near here the English landed April 30, 1607 before going to Jamestown. They were welcomed by the Kecoughton Indians with native religious ceremonies, dancing and feasting.
Marker back:
In 1610, following the . . . — — Map (db m92321) HM
National Soldiers Home
In 1870, the federal government bought the building that had served as Chesapeake Military Hospital during the Civil War. It became the Southern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the fourth . . . — — Map (db m130137) HM
Cooperative Extension Service pioneer, innovator, and educator, John Baptist Pierce was appointed in 1906 by Seaman Knapp and H. B. Frissell of Hampton Institute as the first Negro farm demonstration agent for Virginia. Pierce served for 35 years as . . . — — Map (db m33819) HM
Settled as Mill Creek and Strawberry Banks by English Colonists, the Town of Phoebus was “Roseland Farm” until 1871 when it was divided into lots and became known as Chesapeake City. When the town was incorporated in 1900, it was named . . . — — Map (db m33627) HM
Settled as Mill Creek and Strawberry Banks by English Colonists, the Town of Phoebus was "Roseland Farm" until 1871 when it was divided into lots and became known as Chesapeake City. When the town was incorporated in 1900, it was named Phoebus in . . . — — Map (db m33630) HM
This quaint waterfront community traces its origin back to April 30th 1607. It was here that the first English-speaking Colonists set foot in the New World and called this "safe harbor" Cape Comfort.
It began as a settlement for defenders and . . . — — Map (db m33633) HM
The story of Saint Mary Star of the Sea School goes back to 1858 when Chapel of the Centurion was built at Fort Monroe primarily for Protestant services. A group of officers—some of Irish extraction—requested that a Catholic church also . . . — — Map (db m103893) HM
Nearby a monument marks the site of the second church at Kecoughtan (later Hampton), built in 1624 for Elizabeth City Parish, established 1610 and now the oldest Protestant parish in continuous existence in America. This building was replaced before . . . — — Map (db m73777) HM
Hampton Institute began the Hampton Indian Program to “christianize and civilize” American Indians. The first students arrived at the Institute near midnight on 13 April 1878. They had been incarcerated at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, . . . — — Map (db m73794) HM
After damaging British coastal attacks during
the War of 1812, Pres. James Madison recognized
the need to improve the nation’s coastal defense
and naval power. In 1816, Congress created the
Board of Engineers for fortifications and in . . . — — Map (db m129905) HM
(front)
Near this monument
disembarked on February 19, 1755
Edward Braddock
Major General and Commander-in-Chief
of all the British forces in America.
His coming marked the beginning
of an important stage in the war
which . . . — — Map (db m33892) HM
Admiral Sir George Cockburn on the Chesapeake
During the War of 1812, a British naval squadron arrived in Hampton Roads on 4 February 1813 to establish a naval blockade of the Chesapeake Bay. Later commanded by Adm. Sir George Cockburn, . . . — — Map (db m76819) HM
In 1906, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the Virginia School
for Colored Deaf and Blind Children. Founded by deaf humanitarian
William C. Ritter and Hampton Delegate Harry R. Houston, the school
opened on 8 Sept. 1909 to serve . . . — — Map (db m129908) HM
Long before citizens of Hampton ever called Olde Wythe home, this area was used by the Kecoughtan Indians for hunting, fishing, and growing crops. The Kecoughtans were part of a loose confederation of the Algonquin whose chieftain was Powhatan. The . . . — — Map (db m33932) HM
In Hampton Roads, southward and a mile or two offshore, the Virginia (Merrimac) and the Monitor fought their engagement, March 9, 1862. The day before the Virginia destroyed the Cumberland and Congress, wooden ships of Union Navy. — — Map (db m10139) HM
Near here on the church creek stood the first church at Kecoughtan (later Hampton). Built on the Parish Glebe Farm about 1616, as the first church of the oldest continuous settlement of English origin in America, William Mease was the first known . . . — — Map (db m33903) HM
The body of water before you, named Hampton Roads, is one of the world’s biggest, deepest, natural harbors. It is formed at the mouths of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth Rivers and empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The name Hampton Roads honors . . . — — Map (db m33941) HM
On this site in 1916 local businessman and developer Charles Hopkins and his partners launched the Boulevard Development Company, to build “attractive, high class home places” half way between Hampton and Newport News. With the local . . . — — Map (db m33949) HM
The Olde Wythe neighborhood was once part of Elizabeth City County, one of the four original Corporations of the London Company’s Virginia colony. The county is now classified as “extinct,” because its citizens voted to consolidate with . . . — — Map (db m33937) HM
Sack of Hampton
As British Gen. Sidney Beckwith dispersed the local militia on 25 June 1813, Adm. Sir George Cockburn feigned an attack with barges at the mouth of the Hampton River. Hampton’s water battery was abandoned and the British . . . — — Map (db m76817) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m10351) HM
In the years prior to the Civil War, the area known today as Olde Wythe was simply country farm land, with no special designation. After the war it remained the same for quite a while as there were no roads in the area, just country lanes. Although . . . — — Map (db m33935) HM
The Hampton Roads Golf and Country Club was established in 1893 on undeveloped land purchased for speculation by Mary Frances Armstrong in 1888. This site today would extend from Hampton Roads Avenue to East Avenue, from Kecoughtan Road to Hampton . . . — — Map (db m33945) HM
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