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Historical Markers and War Memorials in Mechanicsville, Virginia
Hanover is the county seat for Hanover County
Mechanicsville is in Hanover County
Hanover County(282) ► ADJACENT TO HANOVER COUNTY Caroline County(64) ► Goochland County(35) ► Henrico County(341) ► King William County(44) ► Louisa County(43) ► New Kent County(56) ► Spotsylvania County(405) ►
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Site of the home of
Samuel Merdith, Sr., Gent.
(1689-1762)
Processioner-1708
St. Pauls Parish, Hanover Co.
A grandson of
Thomas Meredith, Sr.
Emigrant in 1636, Virginia
His land grant in 1661 — — Map (db m70460) HM
Established originally on the Pamunkey River prior to 1684
Subsequently moved to the village of “Old Church” and rebuilt in 1718
The Rev. Patrick Henry officiated 1737-1777 — — Map (db m15886) HM
(front)
11th Mississippi
Infantry Regiment
Law's Brigade
Hood’s Division
Jackson’s Corps
Lee's Army
of
Northern Virginia
C.S.A.
Dedicated 2016
In their honor
The men who carried this position were soldiers . . . — — Map (db m174711) HM WM
Late on the afternoon of June 1, 1864, Col. Elisha Strong Kellogg and his 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery attacked Confederate entrenchments to the west along with other Federal troops from the Sixth and the Eighteenth Corps. Kellogg . . . — — Map (db m15228) HM
(Front):This monument has been erected by one of their comrades Charles A. Storke in memory of the members of Companies B, E, F and G of the Thirty Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. who here fought on the first day of June 1864. (East . . . — — Map (db m155858) HM
“It was the work of almost a single minute. The air was filled with sulphurous smoke, and the shrieks and howls of more than two hundred and fifty mangled men rose above the yells of triumphant rebels and the roar of their musketry.” . . . — — Map (db m40247) HM
On the morning of June 1, 1864, Confederate soldiers of Thomas Clingman’s North Carolina brigade frantically dug this trench. They anticipated a Union assault later in the day. Around 6:00 p.m. Federal troops of the VI Corps moved into position near . . . — — Map (db m16883) HM
The Union assaults of June 3 failed on nearly all fronts. For the next three days, while Federal wounded lay untended between the lines, Generals U. S. Grant and R. E. Lee struggled over the details of a truce. On June 7, more than 100 hours after . . . — — Map (db m16886) HM
The grim drama at Cold Harbor cost some 13,000 Federals and nearly 5,0000 Confederates killed, wounded, or captured. Southern morale soared after the battle, while Grant’s men were embittered by the lopsided defeat. One Union officer wrote that it . . . — — Map (db m16188) HM
From this advanced Confederate line, constructed after the grand Union assault of June 3, Lee’s sharpshooters searched for targets. They were near enough to the Federal line that enemy voices could be heard.
Between June 3 and June 12 constant . . . — — Map (db m16887) HM
General Porter held an impressive defensive position above Boatswain’s Creek. The first line of battle stood at the base of the hill to your front. The second line was posted nearby, and the third was along the crest behind you, where most of the . . . — — Map (db m16393) HM
You are standing in front of a Union artillery battery, located on a commanding hill about 400 yards behind the front lines. From here Union officers watched for activity along the Confederate lines, and opened fire with a barrage of shells whenever . . . — — Map (db m16196) HM
Totopotomy Creek separated the armies here between May 29 and 31, 1864. Twice the men of the Union 2nd Corps (Barlow's Division) charged down this slope. They hoped to cross the "deep morass" and seize the opposite heights. Darkness halted the first . . . — — Map (db m79239) HM
“The view I had of the field of battle from the balloon for the first time that afternoon showed me how serious it was…..I was up half an hour in all, when I saw certain movements of our forces which made me hurry down and gallop up to Genl. . . . — — Map (db m34897) HM
Here stood Bethesda Church, founded about 1830 and used by Baptists and Disciples of Christ until it burned in 1868. In May 1864, during the Civil War, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's V Corps formed the left flank of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's . . . — — Map (db m15672) HM
Advancing on June 1, 1864 from Old Cold Harbor, the Federal Sixth Corps occupied this and adjacent positions from which on June 3 the Army of the Potomac delivered repeated assaults against the main Confederate defences, which were approximately 400 . . . — — Map (db m14231) HM
This was approximately the farthest point gained and held by the Federals in their assaults of June 3, 1864 on the Confederate main line, 130 yards to the west. The heaviest losses sustained by the Federals were along and on either side of this road. — — Map (db m181651) HM
Here Longstreet’s Corps, with Breckinridge and A.P. Hill’s Corps to the southward, repulsed on June 3, 1864, fourteen assaults from the east against the Confederate main line. The Federal losses, about 7000, were the heaviest ever sustained in . . . — — Map (db m14234) HM
The Confederate earthworks here crossing this road were occupied May 31 – June 12, 1864, by the Left Division “Fields” of the First Corps. Then commanded by R.H. Anderson. Heavily attacked on June 3, this part of the line was held . . . — — Map (db m14235) HM
On the main Confederate line, eight miles long, which here crossed the Old Church Road, the Federal Army, June 3, 1864, made numerous futile and costly charges. The heaviest of these were three miles southeastward and were accounted “the worst . . . — — Map (db m14236) HM
On 5 June 1864, two hot days after Gen. Robert E. Lee's bloody repulse of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's frontal assault, Federal Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman met Confederate Maj. Thomas J. Wooten nearby on Cold Harbor Road to initiate written communication on . . . — — Map (db m15667) HM
The left of Lee's line at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, crossed the road here. The main battle took place to the east, where Grant attacked Lee's trenches without success. — — Map (db m15670) HM
“The most terrific fire I ever witnessed, except at Gettysburg.” Col. Eppa Hunton, 8th Virginia Infantry
“It was one continued roar of cannons & musketry you could not hear yourself think. Such desperate fighting never . . . — — Map (db m181650) HM
Fighting occurred here and elsewhere around the Polegreen Church as part of the Battle of Totopotomoy Creek, spanning three days from May 30 to June 1, 1864. This ground lay between the opposing lines, and witnessed the ebbs and flows of fierce and . . . — — Map (db m69654) HM
This covered-way, constructed after June 3, connected the main Confederate line behind you to the low ground in front. A South Carolinian stationed near here recalled:
To guard against the shells that were continually dropping in our midst . . . — — Map (db m16891) HM
General Robert E. Lee’s plan on June 26, 1862 did not anticipate a direct assault on the Union position here at Beaver Dam Creek. He hoped to maneuver instead of force to drive Fitz John Porter’s troops away from their powerful entrenchments. But . . . — — Map (db m14983) HM
(left panel)
Visiting Richmond National Battlefield Park
The concentration of Civil War resources found in the Richmond area is unparalleled. The National Park Service manages 13 sites, giving visitors an opportunity to examine the . . . — — Map (db m37063) HM
Confederate troops pursuing Federals retreating eastward from Mechanicsville here came under heavy fire from across Beaver Dam Creek and were halted with loss in the late afternoon of June 26, 1862. — — Map (db m14220) HM
You are standing now just in front of the main section of Confederate fortifications. The primary line of Union entrenchments is 200 yards to your left. With the end of Grant’s attacks on the afternoon of June 3, the battle followed a less noisy but . . . — — Map (db m15257) HM
On 31 May 1864, Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt’s Union cavalry brigade, operating under Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, advanced along this road and through these fields. Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s Confederate horsemen fought a fluid defensive battle, . . . — — Map (db m17558) HM
(left panel)
Visiting Richmond National Battlefield Park
The concentration of Civil War resources found in the Richmond area is unparalleled. The National Park Service manages 13 sites, giving visitors an opportunity to examine the . . . — — Map (db m40246) HM
Here Grant and Lee, with combined armies numbering some 180,000 men, fought for two weeks in May and June of 1864. They came here directly after the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and North Anna River. Grant stretched his line to seven . . . — — Map (db m15047) HM
For thirteen days Union and Confederate armies faced each other around Cold Harbor, their lines separated by only 150 yards of ravaged ground. Twice, on June 1 and June 3 1864, savage fighting erupted when the Federals launched massive assaults . . . — — Map (db m16214) HM
The second advanced position held by Ewell’s Confederate Corps here crossed the Old Church Road. This position was evacuated by the Confederates on the night of May 30, 1864. Occupied by the Federals on May 31 and attacked from the West by Southern . . . — — Map (db m14237) HM
Across the Old Church road at this point ran the advanced line of about 700 yards held by part of Ewell’s Confederate Corps on May 30, 1864. Abandoned that night, the position was occupied May 31 by troops of the Fifth Federal corps. — — Map (db m14238) HM
Carnage returned to Cold Harbor during the 1864 Overland Campaign. On May 31, Gen. Philip Sheridan's Federal cavalry attacked Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's Confederate horsemen at the crossroads. Col. Thomas Devin's brigade advanced from the east along the . . . — — Map (db m215122) HM
Since the mid-eighteenth century, travelers through this crossroads found respite at a tavern that once stood to your immediate front. Tradition holds that "cold harbor" refers to a place where travelers could find rest and obtain a cold drink . . . — — Map (db m215126) HM
War first visited this quiet country crossroads in the spring of 1862. The Union Army of the Potomac marched through and camped around Cold Harbor in late May during Gen. George McClellan's drive to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. . . . — — Map (db m215314) HM
This drawing (below) by the famous Civil-War artist, Alfred Waud, provides a rare glimpse of the Cold Harbor battlefield, sketched from this very spot on June 2, 1864. Union cannons blazed away at the Confederate lines only a half-mile in front of . . . — — Map (db m15279) HM
On May, 31, 1864, while the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought along Totopotomoy Creek, four miles to the north, Federal and Confederate cavalry gravitated toward the Old Cold Harbor crossroads. Following their victory . . . — — Map (db m90838) HM
This remarkably preserved stretch of the main Confederate line saw little action. Although the land here was much less wooded in 1864, its occupants appreciated the partial shelter offered by the low ground. The soldiers took advantage of it to . . . — — Map (db m16890) HM
The diary of Edward R. Crockett, 4th Texas Infantry, illustrates the daily pressure of life in these trenches:
June 4th
“We work hard last night & dawn on the 4th have a heavy work completed. We have quit sleeping almost . . . — — Map (db m34613) HM
“All was disorder and excitement; the field was full of men running for their very lives, and it was almost impossible to make any resistance to the tide of humanity pressing down upon us.”
John E. Stewart, 44th New York . . . — — Map (db m56493) HM
These earthworks are the center of the Confederate line – six miles of overlapping entrenchments. Taking advantage of the Union delay, the Confederates prepared defenses that swept every approach with cannon and rifle-musket. Across open . . . — — Map (db m15230) HM
By nightfall Porter’s force had safely retreated across the Chickahominy. Lee had sustained nearly 9,000 casualties in his first victory of the war, while the Federals lost close to 6,000. “I could hear on all sides the dreadful groans of . . . — — Map (db m15233) HM
Gen. Charles Cornwallis and his British forces left Petersburg on 24 May 1781 to attack the Marquis de Lafayette and his troops stationed in Richmond. Learning of Cornwallis's movements, Lafayette abandoned the city on 27 May and moved north through . . . — — Map (db m22373) HM
While the 1864 battle raged around their home, members of the Shelton family sought safety within its thick basement walls. Shells from Confederate cannon struck the house many times, terrifying the family inside and causing significant damage. . . . — — Map (db m228887) HM
By the time the armies reached Cold Harbor soldiers on both sides were adept at building earthworks. The trenches before you are typical of the works that stretched for nearly seven miles and defined the fighting here at Cold Harbor. Union general . . . — — Map (db m16207) HM
Union soldiers constructed this portion of earthworks while under fire from Confederates across Totopotomoy Creek, 650 yards behind you to the west. Union Lt. Robert Robertson observed: "It was difficult to keep the men at work under the galling . . . — — Map (db m229038) HM
Here at Marlbourne is the grave of Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865), one of the leading American agriculturists of the 19th century. He published and edited the Farmer's Register, an agricultural journal, for several years. In 1843, Ruffin moved to . . . — — Map (db m22364) HM
From this main position above Ellerson's Mill, the Federal regulars who had stopped the Confederate advance of June 26, 1862 withdrew during the night, having discovered that "Stonewall" Jackson was turning their right flank. — — Map (db m14198) HM
Under the cover of night, Union artillerists left their horses at the foot of the hill behind you and dragged six rifled cannon up the slope by hand. The guns were then placed side by side inside this redoubt, with earthen mounds known as traverses, . . . — — Map (db m16199) HM
During the Battle of Cold Harbor in June, 1864, the Union turned this middle-class plantation into a field hospital. The residents – forced to move to the basement – watched blood dripping down between the floorboards. After Grant left for . . . — — Map (db m15227) HM
Civil War artillery was a splendid defensive weapon, particularly when the battlefield landscape offered the gunners open fields of fire. At Gaines’ Mill the woods plagued the Union artillery. Several gaps in the trees however, offered a direct line . . . — — Map (db m43334) HM
The mounds seen here might be improvised mortar positions built by Confederate artillerists in June 1864. Normal cannon pits had fields of fire, often established by keeping the front parapet low or by building a platform on which the gun could sit. . . . — — Map (db m79798) HM
Time has changed this landscape dramatically since the war. In 1864, much of the Co1d Harbor area was cleared farmland. One Federal believed this openness of the land was “the greatest part of the misery” at Cold Harbor. The deadly fire . . . — — Map (db m16186) HM
The largest battle of the Peninsula Campaign, Gaines' Mill, began here. On the afternoon of June 27, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee''s Army of Northern Virginia reached the New Cold Harbor crossroads just 300 yards north of here. Lee spread his men across . . . — — Map (db m119580) HM
(left panel)
Visiting Richmond National Battlefield Park
The concentration of Civil War resources found in the Richmond area is unparalleled. The National Park Service manages 13 sites, giving visitors an opportunity to examine the . . . — — Map (db m40249) HM
Near this spot stood the mill that gave its name to the battle of June 27, 1862 also called “First Cold Harbor”. About 1500 yards SSW was the home of Dr. Gaines, where the United States Army had its balloon station. — — Map (db m14205) HM
The action here on June 27, 1862, was the second-largest battle in American history up to that time. One day earlier General Robert E. Lee had pried the Union Fifth Corps from its position at Beaver Dam Creek. Here he brought 65,000 Confederate . . . — — Map (db m15022) HM
"We charged across the open field under a murdrous storm of balls & canister shot...& soon gained complet[e] possesion of all the buildings....We soon fortified as best we could the aproaches to the house by barrells & farming tools & held the . . . — — Map (db m34617) HM
“We did not go far, only for six rods [100 feet]…soon…by the lively use of bayonets, frying-pans, tin plates, and cups, we had a temporary protection, and the satisfaction of holding practically all the ground we had been over.”
Oscar . . . — — Map (db m34615) HM
One mile east on the river was Newcastle. There, on May 2, 1775, Patrick Henry put himself at the head of the Hanover volunteers and marched against the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, who had seized the colony's powder. — — Map (db m22374) HM
In this location ran the original road from Mechanicsville to Cold Harbor. The bridge that crossed Beaver Dam Creek was destroyed by Union troops prior to the June 26, 1862, battle. — — Map (db m15219) HM
In 1747, the meetinghouse here became vital to the colonists' struggle for religious and civil liberty when Samuel Morris and other Hanover Presbyterian dissenters called the Rev. Samuel Davies (1723-1761) to become pastor. Davies, a great orator . . . — — Map (db m15830) HM
Today’s landscape makes it difficult to appreciate the many strengths of the Union position. The charging Confederates faced more obstacles than they could overcome: open fields, steep slopes, a broad and swampy creek, Union infantry using a . . . — — Map (db m37065) HM
Fitz John Porter's troop had repulsed Confederate attacks throughout the afternoon. With daylight waning, Lee turned to John Bell Hood to spearhead the final assault. Personally leading the 4th Texas and the 18th Georgia, General Hood instructed his . . . — — Map (db m16396) HM
You are standing among entrenchments built by soldiers of the Union Eighteenth Corps less than ¼ mile from the front lines. At Cold Harbor regiments typically rotated out of the front lines every other day. This explains the many layers of reserve . . . — — Map (db m16522) HM
“By the time we had gotten across, the front line, broken by our fire, frightened … which sounded like forty thousand wild cats, had reached their second line, … confusion, and they, panicstricken, left their works and croded to the top of . . . — — Map (db m43320) HM
General John H. Martindale’s division of the 18th Corps deployed on this ground prior to its participation in the Federal attack on the morning of June 3, 1864. At 4:30 a.m., the roughly 3,400 men of the division advanced toward strong Confederate . . . — — Map (db m90841) HM
These trenches represent a dramatic change in battlefield tactics. When the two armies met on this ground in 1862, soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder; victory was often dependent upon the success or failure of a dramatic charge.
By 1864 field . . . — — Map (db m16882) HM
This shallow, winding depression is all that remains of a “zigzag” constructed by Union troops in June 1864. In trench warfare, soldiers dug ditches, called zigzags or covered-ways, to provide protection from sharpshooters as they moved . . . — — Map (db m16881) HM
On the morning of June 1, General Lee was anxious to regain control of the Old Cold Harbor Crossroads and ordered two Confederate infantry divisions to attack the outnumbered Union cavalry troopers defending the intersection.
Colonel Laurence M. . . . — — Map (db m90842) HM
“The men bent down as they pushed forward, as if trying...to breast a tempest, and the files of men went down like rows of blocks or bricks pushed over by striking against each other.”
John L. Piper, 12th New Hampshire . . . — — Map (db m189322) HM
The Confederate plan did not call for an attack against the Union position along Beaver Dam Creek. Instead, a series of manuevers would make the Union defenses here untenable. But poor communication and unexpected obstacles caused delays. Lee felt . . . — — Map (db m40243) HM
“Yesterday evening we was in one of the hardest fought battles ever known. I never had a clear conception of the horrors of war until last night….In going round that battlefield with a candle searching for friends I could hear on all sides . . . — — Map (db m43335) HM
"Between our works and the house... was a semi-circle of negro quarters, and in front of these little frame and log houses the artillerymen had backed up their caissons and ammunition wagons to
conceal them as much as possible from the . . . — — Map (db m228889) HM
Near this village on June 26, 1862, Confederate troops under General R.E. Lee attacked and drove eastward the right wing of the Federal army commanded by Major-General George B. McClellan. This action began the Seven Days' Battle. — — Map (db m14219) HM
The earthworks before you were home to Union soldiers for nearly two weeks during the fighting at Cold Harbor. One Federal officer described the suffering that these troops endured living and working in the trenches: “The work of intrenching . . . — — Map (db m16208) HM
“It was now sun down and the air was dense with smoke, so that we were realty not certain whether the column before us were friends or enemies….Their banner was furled, and we could not get any clue from that….Just at this time Colonel . . . — — Map (db m16401) HM
“The rebels rushed down the hill in line of battle, but it wasn’t quite so easy rushing across a swamp, waist deep in thick mud, and as they tried it we tried Sharp’s rifles at eight rods, firing as fast as we could put in cartridges, the . . . — — Map (db m16398) HM
Around this crossroads is bloody ground. To the right is the field of Gaines' Mill or First Cold Harbor, fought June 27, 1862, with 14,800 casualties. To the left is Second Cold Harbor, near which 17,00 fell, May 30 - June 12, 1864. — — Map (db m14200) HM
For nearly two weeks, from June 3 to June 12, the soldiers endured the agony of trench warfare. One Virginian recalled:
Thousands of men cramped up in a narrow trench, unable to go out, or to get up, or to stretch or to stand, without danger . . . — — Map (db m16895) HM
“As soon as this advancing brigade reached the summit of the hill it was met by a storm of shot and shell I never saw exceeded except in the famous charge of Pickett’s men at Gettysburg.”
Col. Eppa Hunton
8th Virginia Infantry . . . — — Map (db m16397) HM
Upon Patrick Henry’s marriage to Sarah Shelton in 1754, he received for her dowry a 300-acre tract of land and six slaves. Like many Virginians with small farms, Henry labored in the fields with his slaves. Much of the soil at Pine Slash had been . . . — — Map (db m46754) HM
Following the cavalry fight at Enon Church on May 28, 1864, Lee moved to block Grant’s advance toward Richmond. He stationed his army along a ridge protected by swampy Totopotomoy Creek. When Union infantry arrived they found Lee’s soldiers solidly . . . — — Map (db m15829) HM
For more than a century the Polegreen Church stood as a monument to the Hanover Dissenters and Samuel Davies in the struggle for religious liberty. Though Davies died fifteen years before the American Revolution, his influence and revolutionary . . . — — Map (db m32674) HM
From Virginia’s founding until the American Revolution 170 years later, the Anglican Church was the only state recognized religion. The government built the churches and the parsonages and paid the clergy with tax money. All other religious groups . . . — — Map (db m32679) HM
On the morning of June 27, General Fitz John Porter’s men arranged their formidable defenses along the slope of Boatswain’s Creek, where you are standing. Orders directed him to resist Lee’s advance, “even to my destruction,” remembered Porter. . . . — — Map (db m34900) HM
On June 2, 1864, the night before the grand assault at Cold Harbor, Union staff officers passed among the battle lines issuing orders. One officer, Major Horace Porter, was in this vicinity when he witnessed a scene of foreboding. Porter recalled: . . . — — Map (db m16195) HM
These cannon mark the approximate position of a four-gun battery belonging to the Richmond Fayette Artillery, part of Major J.P.W. Read’s Battalion that held strategic points along the Confederate main line. The battery supported General Alfred . . . — — Map (db m15231) HM
These cannon mark the approximate position of a four-gun battery belonging to the Richmond Fayette Artillery, part of Major J.P.W. Read’s Battalion that held strategic points along the Confederate main line. The battery supported General Alfred H. . . . — — Map (db m155838) HM
Rural Plains, home of the Shelton family for nearly three centuries, stands on the northern bank of Totopotomoy Creek. Eighteen-year-old Patrick Henry married Sarah Shelton in 1754. Family tradition places the wedding ceremony in the first floor . . . — — Map (db m35014) HM
Rutland was the home of the Timberlake family for 200 years, built circa 1790-1810 as a one-and-one-half-story hall-and-parlor house. July 12-21, 1862, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart headquartered in the house, with an encampment of 3,000 cavalry. . . . — — Map (db m20972) HM
Twelve days of combat transformed this once pastoral landscape. With every shift of a line of battle, the soldiers dug new works. Reserve troops dug too, well behind the front lines. By battle’s end, earthworks gouged the landscape in every . . . — — Map (db m16200) HM
Here Lee and Stonewall Jackson conferred in the morning of June 27, 1862. Jackson’s troops halted here until A. P. Hill arrived from Beaver Dam Creek. Hill then moved southward by Gaines’s Mill and Longstreet turned to the east. All three columns . . . — — Map (db m15053) HM
Just to the east was Gaines's Mill, a multistory grist mill that burned during the Civil War. Confederates under Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill encountered light Federal resistance there early on the afternoon of 27 June 1862. Heavy fighting took place later . . . — — Map (db m14996) HM
Mechanicsville was held by Union outposts when, in the early afternoon of June 26, 1862, A. P. Hill reached it coming from the north. The Unionists were quickly driven back to their position on Beaver Dam Creek. Then D. H. Hill, followed by . . . — — Map (db m15211) HM
163 entries matched your criteria. The first 100 are listed above. The final 63 ⊳
