Major General Benjamin Butler USA
Major General P.T. Beauregard CSA
discover
your chesterfield county history
with us
Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia
Bermuda Hundred Campaign
Guided Civil War Tours
Civil War Guided Tours:
Registration
and payment required at least one week in
advance. Wear comfortable walking shoes.
To register , use the PayPal buttons shown below
or for details
contact
Bryan Truzzie at 804-751-4946.
Historic Point of Rocks Guided Tour
Visit Historic Point of Rocks and learn about
the Union hospital established here where Clara
Barton served. Walk the ground where President
Lincoln visited in 1865. View federal
fortifications and learn why this location
played a major role in the Bermuda Hundred
Campaign. Wear comfortable shoes. Tour meets in
maintenance parking lot at Dodd Park.
R. Garland Dodd Park, 201 Enon Church Road
May 28
Battle of Drewry’s Bluff
NEW
On May 15, 1862, a
Federal flotilla led by the ironclads USS
Monitor and USS Galena attempted to force its
way past the Confederate fort at Drewry’s Bluff.
The Federals were turned back after a three hour
battle and Richmond was never again seriously
threatened by a water- based attack. Take a
walking tour and discover why this site was
called the Gibraltar of the Confederacy.
Drewry’s Bluff, 7600
Fort Darling Road
July 9
Chesterfield County contains 11 parks sites associated with the Civil War. Each of these sites has its own unique story to tell. Collectively, these “links in a chain” tell the larger story of one of the most important military campaigns of the war but seldom told. Click for a list of all Civil War roadside markers in Chesterfield.
c. 1749 Courthouse Bell
The
second oldest artifact in
Chesterfield County, VA, the c.
1749 Courthouse Bell was removed
from the cupola of the 1917
Courthouse in 2018 where it had
been hanging for 100 years.
It was restored and placed in
the Chesterfield Museum.
You can hear its last ring when
enting the front door and
activating a button.
The bell was rung for
emergencis, court days, prisoner
escapes and warnings.
Castlewood
Castlewood
was the home of Parke Poindexter
who was the Clerk of Court in
Chesterfield County, VA.
His home, as seen in disrepair
in 1935, has been used as a
home, a bank, and Home of the
Chesterfield Historical Society
of Virginia and offices.
It has been renovated and
restored back to its orginial
view. The unique
archirecture relating to this
house is not yet open to tours.
1917 Courthouse
The
result of the first dispute
regarding a gvernment structure,
the Board of Supervisors aggeed
to tear down the historic
1749 Courthouse and replace it
with this colononial style
building at the begiining of
WWI. It is an actice court and
is not available for tours.
Sheriff William C. Gill
Sheriff
William C. Gill
was
the longest serving county
sheriff, W.C. Gill, kept detail
records and many of those were
discarded not so long ago.
Sheriff
William Chastain Gill
(1880-1925) reportedly kept a
daily record (ledger books) of
the events that took place in
his jail. According to the
Chesterfield
County
Sheriff’s historian, the ledger
books that Sheriff Gill
meticulously maintained were
kept in the Sheriff’s office up
to the time the County’s newest
jail was being built. These
books may have been thrown in
the dumpster by the workers
tearing down the 1962 Jail
1749 Chesterfield Courthouse Complex
This site was the location of the training complex of the Revolutionary War, It was selected to be the Training Depot by then Governor Thomas Jefferson. It was burned slightly by British General Phillips who also burned the barracks bulit by Baron Von Steuben to support his recruits.