Historical Markers in the News

From the New Kent Historical Society . . .

The Department of Historical Resources (DHR) will be replacing and updating two older markers in New Kent County;  

(1) New Kent Courthouse WO-16

  

(2) Peninsular Campaign WO-31.  

VDOT notified the DHR that the markers are in need of replacement, and VDOT has some funds on hand to support this work. 

In other "marker news", a new marker for the Highway Marker Program has been approved for King William County . . .

Pamunkey Indians in the Civil War 

Residents of the Pamunkey Reservation, ten miles southeast of here, aided Union troops during the Civil War. About a dozen Pamunkey men enlisted as guides, scouts, gunboat pilots, and spies for Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. Women and the elderly provided intelligence, shelter, safe passage, food, and supplies for Union troops. Confederate authorities pressed Pamunkey men into service as laborers and punished others for their Unionism with imprisonment at Richmond’s Castle Thunder. After the war many Pamunkey Indians won compensation from the federal Southern Claims Commission for property damaged or taken by Union soldiers. 

Sponsor: DHR
Locality: King William County
Proposed Location: intersection of King William Rd (Rt. 30) and Powhatan Trail (Rt. 633)

And for some more background on the Historical Marker program here is a 2011 thesis from Joseph D. Bayless III.