Jackson's March to Mechanicsville E14
In mid-June 1862, having defeated three Union armies in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson and his Valley Army joined Gen. Robert E. Lee to defend Richmond. Jackson and his men marched by here on 26 June to strike the flank of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s army near Mechanicsville. Because of Jackson’s exhaustion and unfamiliarity with the roads, however, they arrived too late to fight. On 27 June, Jackson and the rest of teh Army of Northern Virginia assaulted the Union right flank at Gaines’s Mill. Lee’s clearest victory in the Seven Day’s Campaign.

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Confederate March from the North Anna River E17
Following the Union army’s departure from the North Anna River on 26 May 1864. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee cautiously moved his army south toward Richmond to stay between the Federals and the capital. Lee’s wagon trains, using nearby Elliot’s Bridge, crossed the South Anna River on 27 May. The Confederate First Corps, led by Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, marched down the tracks of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad and crossed the river on the railroad bridge just north of here. Other Confederate columns pushed south on separate routes, making for Atlee’s Station and Totopotomoy Creek.

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Second Day at Seven Pines W10
Most of the fighting on the second day of the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), occurred near here on 1 June 1862. Confederate Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, who had assumed command following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston the evening before, resumed the attack in the morning. When the Union defenses proved too strong, the Confederates disengaged and retired to their original lines. Gen. Robert E. Lee, who already had been assigned to command the Confederate troops in front of Richmond early in the day, assumed that command when Smith collapsed from exhaustion during the afternoon.

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Cavalry Battles B22
In June 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia through gaps in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains and into the Shenandoah Valley to invade the North. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry corps screened the army from Federal observation. The Union cavalry commander, Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, attempted to break through Stuart’s screen, and fought three sharp engagements along this road. They included the Battles of Aldie (17 June), Middleburg (19 June), and Upperville (21 June). Stuart fell back westward under Pleasonton’s pressure but kept the Federal cavalry east of the gaps.

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Stuart and Bayard B30
After the Battle of Antietam on 17 Sept. 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia recrossed the Potomac River into Virginia. After President Abraham Lincoln’s constant urging, the Union Army of the Potomac, led by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, pursued them. Lee ordered part of his army south to Culpeper Court House. To screen Lee’s march, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s troopers fought a series of engagements against the probing Federal cavalry. On 31 Oct., Stuart attacked Brig. Gen. George D. Bayard’s command near Mountville, drove it southeast through Aldie, and discovered the Union army’s left flank.

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Gettysburg Campaign B32
In June 1863, as Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia through Blue Ridge gaps to the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry screened the army from Federal observation. The Union cavalry chief, Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, dispatched Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg to penetrate Stuart’s screen. On 17 June, Gregg ordered Col. Alfred A.N. Duffie to reconnoiter from Aldie to Middleburg. Duffie drove off Confederate pickets there, alerting Stuart. Duffie withdrew south of Middleburg, but Brig. Gen. Beverly H. Robertson’s brigade surrounded and almost wiped out Duffie’s command before it escaped the next morning.

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Douglas Southall Freeman Q617
Born at 416 Main Street on 16 May 1886, the son of a Confederate veteran, Douglas Southall Freeman moved with his family to Richmond three years later. He graduated from the University of Richmond in 1904 and earned a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1908. Freeman subsequently held several posts as an educator and editor, but he is best known as the editor of the Richmond News Leader (1915-1949) and as the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington. Freeman died in Richmond on 13 June 1953.

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Lee's Headquarters JJ2
Half a mile west, at the Rogers farm called Middle Hill, Gen. Robert E. Lee kept his headquarters from Dec. 1863 to May 1864. His Army of Northern Virginia, in winter camp, guarded the south side of the Rapidan River from the vicinity of Liberty Mills in Somerset east to Morton’s Ford. While Lee strove to reinforce and resupply his depleted ranks, across the river in Culpeper County Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade trained and strengthened the Army of the Potomac for the spring campaign. On 4 May 1864, the Wilderness campaign began anew.

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Powhatan County Z197
Area 273 Square Miles Formed in 1777 from Cumberland and Chesterfield and named for Powhatan, the noted Indian ruler. Many Huguenots settled in this county, 1699-1700. Here Robert E. Lee spent the summer of 1865.

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Lee's Last Camp OH10
Here Robert E. Lee, riding from Appomattox to Richmond to join his family, pitched his tent for the last time on April 14, 1865. He stopped here to visit his brother, Charles Carter Lee, who lived nearby at Windsor. Not wishing to incommode his brother, Lee camped by the roadside and the next day ended his journey at Richmond.

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