Concussion of thundering 1st Connecticut mortars at the Battle of the Crater left artillerist Chester Beckwith with bleeding ears and a lifetime of pain. Descendants have donated his 1861 rifle, accoutrements to a New England museum

Tom Therrien and Kimberly Beckwith with Springfield and cartridge box (NE Civil War Museum) and 1st Connecticut mortars at Yorktown, Company C (labeled 8) position near the Crater and the "Dictator," Company G, Petersburg (Library of Congress)

Amid the heat, flashes of fire and acrid smoke rising from belching siege mortars, Chester Beckwith furiously worked to prepare ammunition to support the Union assault during the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864.

The artificer with Company C, 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, was cutting timed fuses in the bombproof/powder magazine of Fort Rice at Petersburg during the bombardment, according to his pension file kept by the National Archives.

“While so engaged the concussion produced by the firing of the heavy siege guns and mortars injured both of my ears so that blood came from them…during many months afterward I was troubled with a discharge of matter from both ears,” he wrote.

In the end, the company’s ten 10-inch mortars fired 360 rounds during the doomed assault that resulted in disaster and eight months of ghastly trench warfare.

A 2019 article on HistoryNet.com details the injury that cost Beckwith much of his hearing for the rest of his life.

Beckwith, a carpenter by trade who repaired artillery equipment as an artificer, served through the end of the war. He was plagued by his injury and the loss of his brother, Robert, who was mortally wounded at Second Manassas in August 1862.

Chester H. Beckwith’s military service and sacrifice will be remembered following the donation last fall of his 1861 Springfield rifle-musket and accoutrements to the New England Civil War Museum & Research Center in Vernon, Ct. (Photos at left and below courtesy of the museum)

Dan Hayden, the museum’s executive director, told the Picket conservators will prepare the artifacts for exhibit rotation.

“We focus on bringing to life individual people of the time period, but more importantly, to create a way to highlight the emotional and human elements that show how similar we are to them, even today,” said Hayden.

Two cousins, Kimberly Beckwith, a Connecticut native currently working in the Netherlands, and Tom Therrien, who moved from Connecticut to North Carolina a year ago, traveled to the museum to make the donation.

The artifacts for years were kept by Beckwith’s late father. The gift seems especially appropriate because Alfred Pierce Beckwith was a highly skilled machinist who could fix almost anything, she wrote in an email

“So he was sort of artificer too (he was also a jet engine mechanic in the Air Force in the late ‘50's to the early ‘60s.) It seems those skills run in my family of handy Yankees who served their country.”  

His younger brother Robert died at 2nd Manassas

The 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery saw extensive service during operations in Washington, D.C., Virginia and North Carolina. Company C participated in the Peninsular Campaign and ended up at Fort Brady on the James River by the end of the war.

Chester Beckwith was 35 when he mustered in for three years in March 1862. His pension records indicate he had red hair and blue eyes. While 22 men from the Vernon area served with the 1^st Heavies, Beckwith hailed from Windham, nearly 20 miles away.

Beckwith’s younger brother, Robert, was living in Pennsylvania when joined the 1^st New Jersey Infantry. Some of Robert’s letters to relatives have been published on HistoryNet and the Spared & Shared blog.

In July 1862, Robert wrote to friends about a visit from Chester at his camp in Virginia.

“Oh, tell Susanna that I was surprised the day I was sitting in my tent & who should come & look in but Chester. He has been [in] one fight with me but I did not know it at the time. He is in the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. They lay about one mile from me. We are to go there 2 or 3 times a week. I expect him over tomorrow -- Sunday. He was paid off the other day & sent $40 dollars home to Minerva (Chester’s wife). Chester said he had written to you the other day.”

Robert was mortally wounded at Manassas a month later, apparently dying days later while being held prisoner. His grave in Windham may be a cenotaph. 

(I have been unable to find a photo of Chester. Robert’s image can be seen here. I have been unable to locate the current owner to obtain permission to include it here. Photo at right by Matthew Dingler, town of Windham)

Chester was detailed as an artificer on January 10, 1864, a role that acknowledged his skills and ability to repair the critical equipment that the 1st Heavies operated, a museum Facebook post says. When his original term expired on March 18, he reenlisted, serving until September 1865.

At Petersburg, the regiment’s companies were stationed at a couple forts, with Beckwith’s at Fort Rice near the larger Fort Sedgwick. They were in the thick of action during the Battle of the Crater.

The 1^st Heavies' most famous mortar, the massive “Dictator,” was operated by Company G.

Company C was in the thick of things

Much has been written about the siege of Petersburg in 1864-65; I won’t be able to get into detail here. But the Federal force depended on heavy guns like those used by the 1^st Heavies.

National Archives map shows Fort Rice (center right) across from Rives Salient (click to enlarge)

Company C was across from Confederate Rives Salient and adjacent to the original location of Confederate Battery 22, part of the initial Confederate Dimmock Line, said Emmanuel Dabney, chief of resource management at Petersburg National Battlefield.

“Keep in mind much work was done by Union troops in July 1864 to dismantle the original Dimmock Line which lay behind the Federal fortifications,” Dabney told the Picket.

The line was a series of 55 Rebel artillery batteries and connected earthworks. They were built to protect Petersburg’s vital railroads and industry.

The 1^st Heavies were among the artillery units meant to suppress Confederate resistance as the attack unfolded on July 30, 1864.

The Battle of the Crater dashed Union hopes for an end to the siege and, for that matter, the Confederacy. After a massive explosion from a mine set off by engineers, Federal troops, including U.S. Colored Troops, rushed in, only to be rebuffed by dazed Confederates who held strong.

According to Beckwith’s pension files from the 1870s, a sergeant from Company C wrote a letter to pension officials detailing the artificer’s injuries. The article on HistoryNet describes how gunners were told to place canister rounds into 10-inch shells to be fired from mortars.

Union artillery on July 30; Fort Rice is numbered 8, click to enlarge (Baylor University Digital Collections)

Sgt. Elisha Jordan wrote the following:

“…I was on duty…near Fort Rice in front of Petersburg Va on July 30th 1864. I know that Chester H. Beckwith was an artificer…and was on duty in the bombproof sawing fuses during the explosion of Burnside’s mine and attack on enemy line….I was ordered to go in the bombproof and direct said Beckwith to put 27 grape shots into a shell which I did and found Beckwith with his ears bleeding badly….I know that ever after this day while in the service Beckwith was excused from roll call because his hearing was bad.”

The HistoryNet authors obtained the pension information from the National Archives in Washington. I have been unable to travel there for those purposes.

A lot of suffering for Chester and Mary

Chester Beckwith returned to Connecticut and worked as a carpenter. His wife Minerva passed away in 1879 and he married Mary E. Beckwith in 1903.

Dana B. Shoaf, editor in chief of HistoryNet in 2019, wrote Mary recalled occasionally “the blood would run out of his ears and head,” and that “he was [in] dretfull suffer as long as he lived.”

Chester died of a “lingering illness” in Hamburg (North Lyme), Ct., in November 1909 at age 82 or 83. Half of his 10 children survived him. His body was returned to Windham, where he was buried at Windham Center Cemetery. At one point, a U.S. flag and Grand Army of the Republic marker were evident at his grave.

An ailing Mary’s application for a widow’s pension in 1912 apparently was denied because the government determined Chester’s wartime injuries did not cause his death, Shoaf wrote.

I have been unable to determine when Mary died and where she is buried.

(Matthew Dingler, Windham’s cemetery sexton, was of great help to me as I researched the resting places for the Beckwith family. He mentioned the history and Victorian homes of Willimantic, which is part of Windham. A mill drew many immigrants. He also mentioned the humorous Battle of the Frogs story. Read about it here)

A trove of weaponry and an ode to hard tack

The inscription about Chester Beckwith is slowing fading away (Courtesy Kimberly Beckwith)

Kimberly Beckwith grew up believing Chester and Minerva were distant a distant uncle and aunt. Not many stories were passed down, though her father said they underwent some kind of tragedy, Beckwith told the Picket.

After further research, Kimberly now believes Chester and Minerva were her great-great-grandparents. To this day, the family has deep ties to the Windham area.

She turned to the museum in Vernon for the donation after doing online research. She and her late sister, Lynda, inherited the items after their father died in February 2023. (Lynda thought first of donating the items to a museum in Pennsylvania, where she lived.)

The items were Chester’s Springfield, bayonet and seven-rivet scabbard, percussion cap box, cartridge box, belt buckle and a book with regimental history. The family also donated an early edition of John Billings' “Hard Tack and Coffee,” a memoir containing tales of the war and illustrations.

The cartridge box still bears the pressed stamp of Gaylord contractors in Chicopee, Massachusetts, with a late pattern percussion cap box and bayonet with seven-rivet scabbard.

The museum says this of the artifacts:

“Though his belt and cartridge box sling have passed out of existence, the buckle remains, as most notably does the musket sling. Along with an early edition of John D. Billings' 'Hard Tack and Coffee,' the remainders of Chester's service with the 1st Heavies will be proudly conserved and interpreted for future visitors at the museum.”

The 1861 Springfield was used by most soldiers from Vernon and many New England soldiers in general. 

Museum serves up soldier artifacts and library

The Civil War museum in Vernon is housed in the former meeting place of the Thomas F. Burpee Post #71 of the GAR. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Alden Skinner Camp #45 meet in the building today.

Highlights of the permanent collection include New England and GAR artifacts, a wartime uniform of Seth Plumb of the 8th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, a pair of trousers owned by James Baldwin of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and personal effects of Thomas Burpee, including spurs, belt, shoulder boards, tin cup and the bullet believed to have mortally wounded him at Cold Harbor, Va., in 1864. 

1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery monument near Capitol in Hartford (Cosmo Marino, hmdb.org)

Thirty-six Vernon men died during the war, 14 of them killed in battle and 11 dying in Confederate prison camps, said Hayden.

The research center and archives contains letters, diaries, journals

“We curate the library to help researchers find sources around the everyday soldier, as well as to the general public for finding information about their relatives who served during the Civil War. Notably, famed artist Don Troiani donated his research archive he collected while preparing to paint his Civil War works of art. These are being scanned and will be made available for public access,” the director added.

The New England Civil War Museum & Research Center, 14 Park Place, Vernon, is open 10 a.m.- p.m. on Saturday and Sundays. Call 860-870-3563 for more information.

Petersburg, Appomattox trading cards tell the compelling stories of five soldiers, including a patriotic USCT officer who was wearing this kepi when he was shot

Cards for three soldiers, James Roantree's kepi and grave and photo of William Montgomery (NPS)

I don’t get up to Virginia and Maryland very often, so I took advantage of my family encouraging me to visit Petersburg, Monocacy (first time) and Manassas battlefields during a mid-August trip.

While leaving the visitor center/museum at Petersburg National Battlefield’s Eastern Front Unit, I spied boxes filled with surplus Civil War “trading cards” from the sesquicentennial.

I felt like a kid! I scooped up the five cards detailing specific soldiers, three of whom were killed near the war’s end.

I was familiar with two of the men but had not heard of the others. Thus began a journey of discovery after the ever-helpful Emmanuel Dabney, chief of resource management at Petersburg, got me started.

Dabney said the park recently launched a 13-part StoryMap interactive page highlighting the experiences of James Roantree (one of the trading cards) and his brother Robert. The text largely draws upon letters and James' 1864 diary, among several other fascinating resources.

"Their correspondence with their family members illustrates some common themes of this period, but their bitter opposition to those Northerners who did not wish to persecute the war in a manner that would destroy the Confederacy is fascinating," said Dabney.

"It's the family's efforts in the years after the Civil War to preserve the objects, letters, and diaries that really is of great value,” he said of the project.

The park has a chilling artifact: James Roantree’s kepi, which still has a bullet hole entry. He was killed in the Battle of Boydton Plank Road southwest of Petersburg.

I have used park information and other sources to learn the stories of these five men. The card for Roantree has his last name misspelled.

UNION SGT. DECATUR DORSEY

Amid the chaos following the Crater explosion at Petersburg on July 30, 1864, Sgt. Decatur Dorsey planted the flag on Confederate works as comrades with the 39^th USCT advanced into the breach.

Rare photo of black troops (background) in the field in Virginia (See more here)

Dorsey and his flag rallied men when they were pushed back. His heroism -- just months after gaining freedom from enslavement – earned him the Medal of Honor in November 1865. The park has nothing in its collections about Dorsey and, as is typically the case with African-American soldiers, has no photograph of him.

Dabney did point me to some information about Dorsey's life while enslaved in Howard County, Md. A researcher wrote that Dorsey’s slave name was Cato. Dorsey attempted a store burglary after his master died in 1858, possibly “part of a plan to run away and escape the risk of being ‘sold South.’”

After conviction, Dorsey escaped, was captured and sent to prison to complete his sentence. After he was released, he was purchased again, says the Howard County Historical Society.

A stack of trading cards at the Eastern Front visitor center (Picket photo)

At 28, he obtained his freedom in some manner shortly before the spring campaign of 1864 began. He enlisted with the 39^th USCT in Baltimore and was promoted twice before Petersburg.

Under cover of darkness on July 29, 1864, Dorsey and his regiment filed in to the trenches before Fort Morton on the eastern front of Petersburg, according to the National Park Service.

The Union army detonated a mine underneath the Confederate lines. After the mine's detonation, Federal soldiers rushed forward only to become trapped inside the crater and the defensive works on both sides. Dorsey was vulnerable as a target and the fact he could not use a weapon while carrying the flag.

The Union army was unable to exploit any advantage they had gained and soon withdrew to their lines.

The heavily engaged 39^th USCT saw action at Weldon Railroad, Poplar Grove church and Hatcher’s Run during the Petersburg campaign. It took part in the capture of Fort Fisher in North Carolina in January 1865 and helped occupy Wilmington.

Dorsey was honorably discharged in December 1865 while in Wilmington, North Carolina.

He married soon after and died in 1891 from the effects of typhoid and rheumatism he had contracted in Wilmington, at the approximate age of 55.

He is buried in Flower Hill Cemetery, North Bergen, NJ. (Photo courtesy Glenn Blank/ Findagrave)

UNION PVT. WILLIAM MONTGOMERY

All who have read about the Civil War – or any conflict, for that matter – have thought how cruel it was for a combatant to die just days, or hours, before the fighting was over.

Of course, any death from 1861 to 1865 was a terrible loss to loved ones, friends and comrades.

Pvt. William Montgomery of the 155^th Pennsylvania Infantry was mortally wounded about the time a flag of truce was exchanged on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Confederate forces surrendered shortly afterward.

The Pittsburgh native had enlisted in Company I in August 1864 when he was 18, weighed only 115 founds and stood 5 feet 6 inches tall.

“By this point in the war, the 155th PA wore the iconic Zouave uniforms. These uniforms, adopted from the French, stood out thanks to their red fez hats, a jacket with yellow trim, a red sash, and baggy French Chasseur trousers,” according to the National Park Service.

After taking part in the siege of Petersburg, the 155^th marched on the Maria Wright House at Appomattox.Court House, an area held by the Confederate Richmond Howitzers..

Patrick A. Schroeder, historian at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, wrote in his book "More Myths About Lee's Surrender," the 155th Pennsylvania was in a skirmish line when officers arrived with a ceasefire order. "As the firing began to die away, an artillery shell (or fragments of a shell) tore into young Montgomery. His fancy Zouave uniform was shredded, and much of his equipment was ripped from his body. The shell made a wound to Montgomery's inner right thigh."

He lingered for nearly three weeks.

“Under the Maltese Cross,” a book about the 155^th Pennsylvania, said, “Young Montgomery’s last words were messages of love and affection to his mother and the tender of comforting hopes that his injuries were not serious.”

He died the next day, on April 29, 1865, “while the paroling ceremonies were being enacted,” according to the book. (At left, NPS photo showing position of Rebel guns at Appomattox)

The young soldier is believed to be the last enlisted man killed in Virginia during the Civil War, but that is not possible to confirm. He is buried with other Federal dead at Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg.

A wayside marker at Appomattox details last casualties (NPS photo; click to enlarge)

Montgomery’s mother applied for the soldier’s pension.

Schroeder wrote it was a myth that Montgomery was only 15 when he died. And the regimental history was incorrect in saying the soldier died during paroling ceremonies, he said.

I asked the NPS historian why the Montgomery story resonates today.

“Undoubtedly, any soldiers killed or mortally wounded at Appomattox is tragic," Schroeder replied in an email. "Though it is myth that he was 15 as stated in the 155^th Pa regimental history, he was still young, 19. And he enlists as a substitute in the fall of 1864, probably to help support his family, only to be hit by a shell in the waning moments of the battle on the morning of April 9. Very sad."

CONFEDERATE COL. WILLIE PEGRAM

Like other boys of means in antebellum Virginia, William Ransom Johnson Pegram, or Willie, was born to be a soldier. As a teen in the militia, Pegram witnessed John Brown’s execution and as a law student joined the Confederate army when he was 19.

A marker showing the area in which Pegram fells (Devry Jones/HMdb.org)

Dubbed the “Boy Artillerist” by the late historian James “Bud:” Robertson, Pegram gained fame at Mechanicsville and fought at Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, among other engagements.

“He was notably nearsighted -- and the story in Richmond was that's why he had to get so close to the enemy before engaging,” according to Antietam on the Web.

Rebel Maj. Gen. Henry Heth thought Pegram “one of the few men…supremely happy in battle.”

Robertson wrote that statement was true.

“Soldiers never tired of telling how, one afternoon when Pegram rode down his line of guns, an artilleryman waved his hat aloft and shouted: ‘Come on, boys! Here comes that damned little man with the glasses! We’re going to fight ‘em now.’

Living historians who have portrayed Pegram's unit at Petersburg (NPS photo)

Gen. Robert E. Lee declined to promote Pegram to general, believing he was too valuable as an artillery officer and was needed with his men and guns.

Nearly two months after his brother John, an infantry general, was killed, Pegram met the same fate at the Battle of Five Forks. He was mortally wounded during a Federal attack on April 1, 1865, and died the next day.

“To the end, he believed God would see the Confederate cause through to victory,” reads his trading card. He and John are buried together at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

Pegram’s letters are in the collection of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, said Dabney.

UNION 2^nd LT. JAMES ROANTREE

Like about a half million other immigrants to the United States, brothers James and Robert Roantree heeded the call to arms to preserve the Union.

The Roantree family had moved from England to upstate New York in Madison County, east of Syracuse. James (photo left, courtesy of PNB) was about 10. He grew up to be a miller before the war.

The brothers enlisted in 1862 in the 157^th New York, and James, at least, had no shortage of patriotic fervor. Letters he wrote expounded on his determination to help subdue the South and, during a furlough, he worked for President Lincoln’s re-election in 1864.

Petersburg National Battlefield has a poetic musing by James written some time during the war. It is a florid story of love and loss, including these discouraging lines:

“She looked up in his face with earnest eyes and laid her hand in his, and bade him wake. And love another, fairer, freer, maid. He would be happy soon, she knew he would. He must for her dear sake.”

James soldiered on and was wounded at Gettysburg while still with the 157^th New York.

After hospitalization in Philadelphia and further service, Roantree joined the 43^rd U.S. Colored Infantry in September 1864 as a junior officer. He expressed his zeal in a letter:

“As regards commanding Negroes I think that someone must do it and believe it is perfectly right that they should be employed and therefore (I) am willing to fight with them and do what I can to put down this Rebellion.”

Roantree’s service with the USCT was brief. He wrote ahead of the Oct. 27, 1864, fighting at Boydton Plank Road.

“All we can do is to hope and trust in him who holds the destinies of all in his hands to bring us through. If I fall in the fray, I wish to fall at my post and I feel that if I am not permitted to survive the contest I shall fall while doing my duty.”

The bachelor was the only officer with the 43^rd USCT to die in the skirmish.

James Roantree's grave in New York (Courtesy of Douglas Holdridge)

His body was returned a month later to Clockville, N.Y., where he is buried with relatives.

Doug Holdridge of the Clockville Cemetery Association kindly took photos of the graves for me. He said burials in the small agriculture community date to the 1700s. He was unaware of any direct Roantree descendants in the area.

The community acknowledges James on Memorial Day with a veterans flag.

A descendant donated a number of items related to the brothers to Petersburg National Battlefield back in the 1990s.

“We have exhibited items from the collection at various times,” said Dabney.

One is a clothes brush that belonged to either James or Robert. James’ pocket diary and some letters home are in the collection, along with the kepi he wore when killed.

A letter from James Roantree to his family and his pocket diary (Petersburg NB)

I asked Dabney about the use of StoryMaps by the National Park Service.

“They are useful for spatial data where there are changes over time. In the case of the Roantrees, the StoryMap will highlight the brothers movements from England (where they were born), to New York, to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and for Robert to the Deep South where he spent time in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina before mustering out. 

David L. Sadler, town of Lincoln historian, said Robert served as a school teacher in Clockville after the war. Robert died in 1911 and is buried in Canastota, a few miles away from James.

UNION MAJ. GOV. GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN

After leading troops at Second Manassas and the Peninsula Campaign, Warren earned everlasting fame at Gettysburg. The chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac directed troops to take unoccupied Little Round Top in July 1863.and save the Union left and set up victory.

Warren peers for eternity at enemy troops below at Gettysburg (NPS)

A bronze statue of Warren gazes below from the summit; it is among the Pennsylvania battlefield’s most-famous landmarks.

Warren later led II Corps in Virginia before taking over the V Corps. He did well during much of the long Petersburg siege, but his reputation was sullied in the final months of the war.

“He led his corps in the Battle of Five Forks, the first action of the Appomattox Campaign. By that time Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had found Warren troublesome because of his questioning of orders and unwelcome suggestions,” reads an Army Corps of Engineers biography.

“Grant gave Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan authority to remove Warren from command of V Corps, which Sheridan, who disliked Warren, promptly did, alleging that Warren had not vigorously pressed the action at Five Forks.”

The bitter Wallace was reassigned to the defenses of Petersburg.

“After the war, he resigned his commission as a major general in protest to Sheridan’s actions, and returned to the Corps of Engineers.  He spent the rest of his career attempting to exonerate his name,” said the American Battlefield Trust.

The general, known for his complex nature, called for a court martial to investigate the Sheridan controversy. An 1879 inquiry issued a report exonerating Warren in 1882, shortly after he died of diabetes complications at age 52. 

“At his request he was buried in civilian clothing and without military honors,” the Corps says.

The title of a biography on Warren might sum up his complicated career: “Happiness Is Not My Companion.”

Virginia's Henrico County has bought a James River parcel rich with history. Now it will decide how to tell the story of the Civil War, enslaved people and colonial days

Varina plantation home, cannonballs in wall and Benjamin Butler (Henrico Co. and Library of Congress)

Bald eagles, ducks and geese routinely take flight near a weathered two-story brick home that sits on a sloping hill southeast of Richmond. The dwelling has a circle driveway on one side and a view of the James River on the other. Fields that have been tilled for generations lie just to the north and west.

For all its bucolic setting, Varina Farms, or Varina on the James, has another facet: history as deep and rich as the soil. The former plantation is considered the birthplace of Henrico County, which curves around Richmond and is home to 340,000 residents.

In the early 1600s, English settler John Rolfe, husband of indigenous Princess Pocahontas, discovered the soil and climate at the site were suited for growing mild tobacco, with the name Varina linked to a form of Spanish tobacco.

The Civil War came to Varina Farms about 250 years later, and the property was a scene of combat, prisoner exchanges and the headquarters of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. Confederate cannonballs struck the 1853 Classic Revival home, and there are signs of those today.

At one point, Butler built a pontoon bridge to carry his men and supplies across the river to attack Richmond in 1864.

Property fronts the James River, 10 miles south of Richmond (Henrico County map)

With land preservation and public use in mind, Henrico County leaders recently purchased the property from the Stoneman family, which had been its guardian since the early 1900s. The total for two purchases, which includes the battle-scarred 1853 Classic Revival home, came to about $18.5 million. Interstate 295 slices through the farm.

“By acquiring this beautiful, vast and irreplaceable property, Henrico County is making a once-in-a-lifetime move to ensure that our history as a county, a commonwealth and a nation are preserved and that our precious, scenic riverfront will remain protected and accessible for generations to come,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone E. Nelson.

County has ideas for site, but wants input from citizens

County officials will now begin the process of determining future use for the farm, known as Aiken’s Landing during the Civil War.

The possibilities are as broad as the view of the river, says Julian Charity, division director for history, heritage and natural resources in the county park system.

The home has not been occupied for at least a decade (Henrico County photo)

“We have a number of ideas, but we’re also interested in what the public would like to see out there,” Charity told the Picket in an email.

The possibilities include:

-- Archaeology across the site, including colonial days;

-- Restoration of the house and interpretation of each lower-floor room for different aspects of the plantation’s history;

-- A new Civil War museum, riverboat historic tours and archaeological excavations of the original Varina site;

-- A commemorative site for the enslaved persons who worked the fields and house for about 250 years. The family of Albert Aiken owned about 60 enslaved people on the eve of the Civil War, according to Charity. Officials have begun compiling a listing of known names;

-- A Native American interpretive site

-- Wetlands restoration with the James River Association, pollinator gardens and agriculture classes for county schools.

View of home from "land" side, just past farmland (Henrico County photo).

County officials said any opening of the property is at least a year away. There are no facilities available to the public at this time and there are no restrooms.

Marc Wagner, senior architectural historian for the state Department of Historic Resources, said the agency has advised the county on possible archaeology and how to interpret the dwelling. “We are hoping the county will invite us back out.”

A lot more of Varina's history lies below the surface

The Department of Historic Resources champions preservation statewide and has an online database of sites. It is familiar with Varina Farms and is standing by to assist Henrico County, said Mike Clem, the department’s eastern regional archaeologist.

According to Charity, archaeology surveys done in the 1970s and 1996 were all surface observations and collection.

(Marc Wagner, Va. Department of Historic Resources)

“One of the first things we would like to do is archaeology,” Charity said. “We are intending to pinpoint the locations of the early buildings (courthouse, glebe, parish, ordinary, etc.), Butler’s wharves, enslaved cabin sites, and anything listed in the vast histories.” This goes back to the early colonial period.

He says the site has been picked over during the years, so many historic items are no longer available.

“As archaeology is performed, we fully expect to recover hundreds of artifacts pertaining to the Civil War,” Charity said.

Plantation was a busy crossroads, troops site

Not long into the Civil War, Richmond became a prime objective for the Union army, and dozens of battles and skirmishes took place in Henrico and nearby counties.

Varina on the James served as an eastern depot for the August 1862 exchange of about 6,000 prisoners, according to a history in the state’s archives. A brick barn – about 400 yards from  the home – briefly held Union prisoners during the war. The barn was near a wharf used for the exchanges. (Some histories say the plantation was home to the first cotton mill in the South.)

Federal bridge crosses James River at Varina Landing (Library of Congress)

The farm was also used as a major crossing point for Union troops, according to the county.

In November 1863, the controversial Butler received command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and the following May was in the field again, this time at the head of the new Army of the James.

His army spent months southeast of  heavily defended Richmond, unsuccessful in making significant gains, though he notched a victory at New Market Heights, northwest of Varina, in September 1864. Fourteen members of the U.S. Colored Troops were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor.

Butler used Varina for his headquarters during part of 1864. According to one history, the general rode one day to inspect his camps.

“As he passed some ditches which he thought were filled with his own men, the Rebels fired upon him. They had reclaimed the land. Butler outran the Rebels and made it safely to the fort where he met Grant.”

Home was struck by Rebel cannonballs

The history says Butler built a log cabin for his headquarters near the home and used it until war’s end, having failed in his assault on Petersburg and being driven back by Confederate troops.

“The dwelling still shows the damage by cannon balls, fired by the Confederate batteries, from the Chesterfield side near Dutch Gap,” according to a 1937 report on the plantation. (Photo of damaged area, Henrico County)

The brick west wall of the home today is pocked with small craters made by the artillery rounds.

Wagner said: “You can tell the cannon balls are cemented into the damaged brick.  On site we wondered if that was done for effect by later owners.  Would the cannon fire have hit the wall and lodged in or just bounced out -- possibly both happened?”

Charity says officials believe the round shots in the wall replaced original cannonballs removed in the 1960s.

“We do not believe that the cannonballs are modern, but we believe that they are replacements. More than likely, leftover cannonballs found on the property from Butler’s time there,” he said.

The Union pontoon bridge was later removed, but different references mention remnants still on or in the James River, according to Charity.

None of the other buildings of the time, other than the 1853 home and its kitchen outbuilding, along with remnants of the barn, are still standing, said Charity.

Cannonballs in the west wall (Marc Wagner (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

Home was modernized, but still has original elements

For fans of antebellum homes, the Aiken home just about has it all.

The interior has a variety of decorative elements, according to a 1976 nomination form for the home’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

The form says of the dwelling:

“The dwelling house is a two-story, common-bond brick structure connected by a long hyphen to a kitchen at the east and was built in 1853. It is five bays long with six-over-six sash and white wooden sills and lintels, except on the ground story of the river front where all of the window openings have French doors set into them. A one-story, decastyle Ionic porch, rebuilt after a 1941 tornado, stretches the length of the river front and is returned halfway along the west end. A one-story tetrastyle Ionic portico shelters the land front. “

Civil War photo shows flat roof, renovations included taller chimneys (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

The home is showing its age, though county officials say the Stonemans did a good job maintaining it and the property. No one has lived in the house for at least 10 years, and the electrical has not been updated since the 1970s.

“We have some work to do, but I’ve definitely seen structures in far worse condition,” said Charity.

Wagner with the state DHR said the house was updated in the early 20^th century so the interior reflects a lot of that period. “The roof blew off the house during a tornado at one point so the whole roof area was rebuilt.”

He said the house appears to have undergone a substantial remodeling a little more than a 100 years ago.

One of the rooms at the old Varina home (Marc Wagner, Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

“This was the period when farms got upgraded all over Virginia. Farming became more prosperous operations with the growth of cities, RR (railroads) and improved scientific farming methods -- and the owners would often upgrade these old plantations with modern bathrooms and kitchens.”

Parts of Varina’s main house interior date back to the 1850s, especially the room plan and central hall circulation. All of the brickwork, and some of the exterior trim is from the 1850s. The porches have been rebuilt over time in the same 1850s Greek Revival style, Wagner said.

“The kitchen interior is all modern,” he told the Picket. “It likely housed 5-10 enslaved persons (a guess) and had a large cooking space. It is rare to find the covered connected kitchen to house structure, original to the design -- the only one left in Henrico that is pre-1860. You can see in later years that a new entrance was added to the kitchen and the small upstairs window. The new entrance on the kitchen signals a difference use of the kitchen building, as just residential space.”

(Marc Wagner, Virginia Dept. of HIstoric Resources)

Charity said the county plans to move forward on preservation talks and work soon.

“We’ve gone through the general assessment phase where we’ve identified priorities (electrical, windows, plumbing, etc.), now we are in the contractor estimation phase. We have a number of contractors under contract (due to the other historic properties we manage), and are getting more information on exactly how to proceed.” (Aerial view of Varina, below, Henrico County)

Henrico County owns other Civil War-related properties, including portions of Malvern Hill, New Market Heights, Deep Bottom and Savage’s Station battlefields.

It is working with a consortium of groups and governments to build a bike/walking trail through the New Market Heights property to a Civil War site and one to Four Mile Creek, from the Revolutionary War.

The New Market Heights site has been master planned for a large passive park site, but it has not yet come to fruition.