Virginia Civil War Trails
Page 54 of 61 — Showing results 531 to 540 of 605
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1GD1_battle-of-smithfield_Smithfield-VA.html
This section of the Pagan River in front of you is where the Union gunboat, USS Smith-Briggs, was run aground and destroyed by local Confederate troops during the January 31-February 1, 1864, Battle of Smithfield.
Smithfield was the only town i…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1H5Y_williamsburg-in-the-civil-war_Williamsburg-VA.html
Williamsburg, once the capital of Virginia, declined after the American Revolution. By 1861, although many colonial structures still lined the streets, the Governor Palace and former capitol building lay in ruins. The College of William and Mary had lost pr…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1H96_defending-the-peninsula_Williamsburg-VA.html
When Virginia seceded on April 17, 1861, Union and Confederate leaders alike saw the Peninsula as an avenue of attack against Richmond. Federal ships on the James and York rivers could guard an army flanks and escort supply vessels upstream. Fort Monroe, on…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1H97_redoubt-1_Williamsburg-VA.html
Because Lt. Col. Benjamin S. Ewell had made little progress on the Williamsburg defenses by late June 1861, Gen. John B. Magruder, commanding the Army of the Peninsula, replaced him with Gen. Lafayette McLaws. Capt. Alfred L. Rives, acting chief of the Engi…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1H98_battle-of-williamsburg_Williamsburg-VA.html
As the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg raged along the Bloody Ravine and in front of Fort Magruder, the Union commander sought to turn the flank of the Confederate defenses. Gen. Joseph Hooker was convinced that the right flank was unoccupied and sent a…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1HCZ_battle-of-cedar-creek_Middletown-VA.html
(Preface): The fertile Shenandoah Valley was the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" as well as an avenue of invasion. Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early's march north and his raid on Washington, D.C., in June-July 1864 alerted Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to the …
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1KEM_burkes-station_Burke-VA.html
After the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, most of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia settled into winter quarters except for Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, which instead went on the move. Wade Hampton, Fitzhugh Lee, and Wil…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1LD6_william-ballard-preston_Blacksburg-VA.html
This is Smithfield, the birthplace of William Ballard Preston (1805-1862). On April 16, 1861, in the Virginia Convention, he reluctantly introduced the formal resolution to secede from the Union.
Preston served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1830-18…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1M2N_petersburg-battlefields_Petersburg-VA.html
"We have set what we call Johnny catchers ... long poles set into the ground with the upper end about as high as a man's head and they are so thick that a rabbit could not crawl through."—Corp. Andrew W. Burwell, 5th Wisconsin Infantry, USA
"The br…
historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1M2V_petersburg-battlefields_Petersburg-VA.html
"When a man is on picket at night he is monarch of all he surveys. No one living has more absolute power than he. His word is law."—Corp. Lewis Bissell, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, USA
"I have seen veterans of three full years who have faced d…