Western New Kent 1866

 

A Civil War era map of the western half of New Kent County from Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion Part First published in 1866. The section shown, which I have cropped and enlarged, stretches from Matadequin Creek and the Pamunkey River in the North to Long Bridge Road and the Chickahominy River in the south. A seemingly accurate map a few features stand out to me. Two buildings marked as churches are unnamed. The one closest to Dispatch Station should be Providence Methodist. The one on the road to Long Bridge should be Emmaus Baptist. The other two are interesting as representing the fog of misinformation that winds up being published in a war even a civil war. In the northwest corner of the map we have a building marked down as "Hopesville Ch." which should be of course Hopewell Baptist Church. Stranger, at the site where St. Peters Episcopal should sit is a building marked as "Fish Hall." A little research has revealed that Lester Manor in King William County was know in the nineteenth century by the Pamunkey Indians. Lester Manor should be just off the eastern side of the map where the railroad crosses the Pamunkey. Lester Manor was the closest railroad depot to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation and the tribe sold a great deal of fish through the depot leading to the depot/house/ settlement being called "Fish Hall" or possibly even "Fish Haul." A report from the York River Railroad in October 1861 even refers to the depot as "Fish Hall.

As for the location on this map, well don't believe everything you read in the press.

Virus and Response 1856 Pt VII- Names and Places

Some of the people affected in the 1856 small Pox outbreak, either infected "naturally" or who may have been infected by the "live" vaccine from the full text of the report to the General Assembly.

1) "Thomas Breeden" "Mrs Breeden the wife of the deceased, her son Lloyd, Joseph Robbins a boy of 12 years of age living in the family"

2) "George W. Mitchell the head of the family, his wife, and infant daughter"

3) "Pryor a free negro lad aged about 18 years"

4)"Peter an old man aged about 70 years the property of John G. Mitchell."

5)Ellen Richardson and George Richardson, the children of Dr. W. Pryor Richardson

6) Leroy Williams

7) Elizabeth a black girl about 14

8) "four negroes" Jack, George, Lizzy, Drusilla,

9) "Mr. (Thomas) Boswell's son and daughter aged about 17 and 13 years and a young man in the family named Lewellin Crowdis"

10) William O. Hockaday- "17 members of family" and Charles, Dick, and George Lewis Washington

11) Mrs Sally Hockaday at her residence, " A colored man named Washington Scott"

12) Thomas M. Timberlake-"14 members of family"

Below a map of the chief area of infection- you will notice some of the family names from the report, such as Digges(orDiggs), Hockaday, Timbelake, Mitchel, Williams, Boswell, and Lacy.

Below is a map of the area near Tabernacle Church showing the residence (actually residences) of Dr. Richardson as well as a Mitchel property on Weir Creek that seems a likely place for the Smallpox hospital mentioned.

150 Years Ago Today. June 1864

Today 150 years ago today Grant began his great turning motion that would carry him away from the fields of Cold Harbor, through New Kent, across the Chickahominy and the the James, to place the Army of the Potomac before the city of Petersburg.
A complicated and daring movement, the details of which are such that I will not be able to it full justice by discussing exactly on its 150th anniversary.
Here a map from the USMA Civil War atlas to give you a rough idea of the movements.

Not quite as accurate as I would want, the path on the far right(east) which represents the Union supply train, is rather too far to the west based on accounts.

March Comes in Like a Lion- Timberlake, Young and Old.

Tuesday morning...March 15, 1864.

from the Peninsula — Kilpatrick attempting to go back by the Rappahannock.

. . .

On their route down from Richmond, after the failure of the raid, Kilpatrick's men acted in a most barbarous manner to the inoffensive and helpless people of New Kent and James City. From the Cross Roads in New Kent, where the vandals entered the stage road, down to Barhamsville, in the same county, they burnt and pillaged nearly every house. At Barhamsville, they destroyed the barn of Nelson Timberlake, burning all his corn and fodder, and stole every pound of his meat. A Mr. James Taylor, who remonstrated with them for their outrages, was knocked down, and beaten until he became insensible. Other citizens were most outrageously treated.

-The Daily Dispatch: March 15, 1864

Map of New Kent, Charles City, James City and York counties.Gilmer collection

The map above gives you an idea of the area of easternmost New Kent in 1864; I've underlined the Timberlake and Taylor homesteads with blue lines. James R. Taylor was a farmer owning some 200 acres near the church at Barhamsville. I know rather more about Thomas Nelson Timberlake. A merchant and former postmaster of Barhamsville, the owner of  some 250 acres and 14 adult slaves, he was approximately 62 in 1864. At least one of his sons was in the Confederate army at the time(the plethora of "James Timberlake"s make things confusing.) James P. Timberlake had enlisted as a private in the Co. F, Third Virginia Cavalry in  May 1862, presumably at the age of 17, and served in that unit until March 1864. I do not know what brought him to New Kent in the winter of 1863-64, but he is listed in Union records as being captured by "Kilpatrick's cavalry" on March 2, 1864 at New Kent Courthouse.  It being winter and the time that Nineteenth Century armies would theoretically have been in camp he was perhaps on furlough. The records of the Confederate army list him as being "in hands of enemy since 15, Jan 1864." Whatever the date, young James Timberlake would spend the next year in Union prison camps before being exchanged in February 1865.

Escape!- "If one-fourth the escaped prisoners get in it will surprise me"

Escape route- winter 1863-1864

                      FORT MAGRUDER, February 15, 1864.

Brigadier-General WISTAR,

             Commanding:

The following are the names:

1. William B. McCreery, colonel Twenty-first Michigan Infantry.

2. H.C. Hobart, lieutenant-colonel Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry.

3. T.S. West, lieutenant-colonel Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry.

4. Alexander von Mitzel, major Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry.

5. Samuel Clark, captain, Seventy-ninth Illinois Infantry.

6. Gottlieb C. Rose, captain, Fourth Missouri Cavalry.

7. Albert Wallber, adjutant Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry.

8. N.S. McKeen, first lieutenant, Twenty-first Illinois Infantry.

9. George M. Welles, second lieutenant, Eighth Michigan Cavalry.

                                            ROBT. M. WEST,
                                             Colonel, Commanding.

                      [Indorsement.]

Major-General BUTLER:

The above are the 9 officers just arrived at Williamsburg.

                                    I.J. WISTAR,
                                     Brigadier-General.





                                   FEBRUARY 16, 1864.

Brigadier-General WISTAR,

                    Yorktown:

Richmond papers of 12th, received, say 109 prisoners escaped, and that 26 were recaptured, none less than 20 miles from Richmond. All of them must have crossed the Chickahominy. Have you anything further in regard to them? Many of them must still be secreted in the woods.

                                    J. W. SHAFFER,
                                 Colonel and Chief of Staff.





                               YORKTOWN, February 16, 1864.

Col. J.W. SHAFFER,

            Chief of Staff:

Probably none of these prisoners recaptured had crossed the Chickahominy. Robertson's cavalry and Holcombe's Legion cavalry are both the other side of Chickahominy for that purpose, besides the infantry. There is no enemy this side, except Hume's scouts, who keep off the main roads and know every path. My cavalry is out after the prisoners, and has been since the first came in. It must go by detachments, of course, having to come back for forage, of which the country supplies none. If one-fourth the escaped prisoners get in it will surprise me, in the face of the regularly organized and long-prepared plan to prevent it. Fifteen have already come.

                                         I.J. WISTAR,
                                           Brigadier- General.


-- The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies.; Series 1 Volume 33

 

More to come on another officer named Rose.

February 1864- Battery F

Another take on the events . . .

It was understood among the troops that the cavalry of the command had received especial instructions to be followed on arriving at Richmond, assigning to each company or squadron some particular duty to perform, such as the capture of Jeff Davis, liberate prisoners at Libby, destroy certain public property, etc.

As previously stated, the column passed through Williamsburg at about half-past ten o'clock Saturday morning, February 6th. The battery continued the march until three o'clock on the morning of the 7th, when it had reached "New Kent Court-House." The infantry and artillery were here halted, and a rest until six o'clock a. m. taken. The night of the 6th was very dark, and, as the battery moved on the road through the woods it was necessary to keep a man with a lantern to the front to enable the drivers to keep in the road. It was impossible to see objects a few feet away, therefore drivers found it wise to keep well closed up. Nothing occurred during the night to vary the monotony of the march of the battery except as the column was passing through "Richardson's Mills" a rocket suddenly shot into the air and a bright light was seen at a distance through an opening in the woods, which were probably signals announcing to the enemy the approach of the force, as, upon the arrival of the cavalry at Bottom Bridge, Chickahominy River, at about daylight on the 7th (the cavalry did not halt with the command at New Kent Court-House), it was found to be impassable, and attempts to cross at the fords were met by a force of the enemy with artillery.

At six o'clock A. M. on the 7th, after three hours' rest, the battery moved with the command towards Bottom Bridge, and, about noon, met the cavalry returning.

The enemy was apparently informed of the move and the possibility of striking a blow "suddenly, silently, irresistibly," was at an end, therefore the command retraced its steps. The battery formed a part of the rearguard on the return march. A small force of the enemy's cavalry followed and was some-what annoying until a gun from the battery was put into action, firing four shells into their midst, which put an end to further demonstrations on their part. The battery reached its quarters at Yorktown at about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th of February, and the expedition ended minus the "glorious results " predicted in the general order of Brigadier-General Wistar before mentioned.

- Battery F. First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery In the Civil War
by Philip S. Chase,
Providence: Snow & Farnham, Printers, 1892.

Area of operations- The Peninsula 1864

 Map from the David Rumsey Map Collection

Morris Church

I had a question a couple of weeks ago about the location of the Morris Church that was referenced in the Richmond dispatch of August 29, 1863 as a picket location,"We had pickets at New Kent C. H., Morris's Church, and near Balls's Store, all of these points being about thirty miles from Richmond. " Consulting Malcolm Harris's Old New Kent County . . .

At the time Morris Chruch was part of the Plantation ["Ellsworth", belonging to the Lacy's], deeded to the Methodist Trustees Conference for use as Church for as long as it was used as a church and was then to return to the estate.

Morris Church was used for Camp Company[?] of North Carolina soldiers, abandoned when McClellan raided the county. Mr. Cottrell in 1868 furnished lumber to repair it and it was then used for public and private school as well as religious services. It was repaired again in 1879 and abandoned about 1910.

And from the map Part of the map of the Military Department of Southeastern Virginia and Fort Monroe showing the approaches to Richmond and Petersburg. Compiled in the Bureau of Topographical Engineers of the War Department. 1861.

A 1940 Census Map of Providence Forge

A 1940 census map of the Providence Forge area. . .  note of course how VA route 60 is missing from the 1940 picture and the East-West road you see is the present Boulevard Road . . .

the guide . . .

 . . . and Providence Forge today . . .

Another excellent map . . .

Chief Engineer's Office, D.N.Va. Maj. Gen. J.F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer. Map of the vicinity of Richmond, Va., and part of the Peninsula. From surveys made under the direction of Capt. A.H. Campbell, P.E.C.S.A., in charge, Topographical Department, D.N.Va. 1864.

Another great map of the affected areas in July, 1863. This map and the previous are both available for viewing at the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Map

Part of the map of the Military Department of Southeastern Virginia and Fort Monroe showing the approaches to Richmond and Petersburg. Compiled in the Bureau of Topographical Engineers of the War Department. 1861.

A map of the operational area of the Union raids of July, 1863 in New Kent County.

A 1940 Census Map of Quinton

The Quinton area from the 1940 census map . . .
Here is the guide . . .

And a modern overview . . .

The Geographical Transformation of New Kent County, Part Two

New Kent in 1700 compromised what is now the present county, as well as Hanover and Louisa counties and a large slice of James City. The county had two parishes, Blissland in the east, which covered part of York county, all of James City county and what is now eastern New Kent, and St. Peter's parish which ministered to all the rest. In 1704 St. Peter's was divided and all the land in what was to be Hanover and west was place in a new parish, St. Paul's.

Eltham Battle Site

"Map from the Confederate Engineer Bureau in Richmond, Va. General J.F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer[.] Presented to the Virginia Historical Society by his only daughter, Mrs. J.F. Minis, Sav[ana]h, Ga."



...and zoomed in a bit more

map site