Chesterfield Court House
Soldiers and Refugees
Late on the morning of Monday, April 3, 1865, part of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia briefly halted here at the Chesterfield County seat. The day before, a series of Federal attacks had broken through Lee’s lines at Petersburg and ended the siege there. Lee ordered his army to withdraw from the Richmond-Petersburg fronts. The last of the Confederates came off the line that night when the moon went down. A member of the 12th Virginia Infantry on picket duty outside Petersburg later wrote, “I’ll never see the calm moon again without remembering this sad night.”
The army withdrew in four columns, three through Chesterfield County and one through Dinwiddie County, to reunite at Amelia Court House south of the Appomattox River. Gen. William Mahone’s troops were ordered to “Take the road to Chesterfield Court House, thence to old Colville to Goode’s Bridge [on the Appomattox River north of Amelia Court House].” After arriving here, a line of battle was formed “to resist a dash which was expected from the enemy but never made,” the picket recalled. Resuming the march, Mahone’s column camped that night on Captain Flournoy’s farm. A soldier wrote of the day’s march, “I am all right and not half so demoralized as I imagined. Feel much better than last night. We have resolved to fight them to the bitter end.” The next morning the column marched to Goode’s Bridge.
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“The Division reached Chesterfield C.H. in the fore noon of that Monday morning the third day of April. …We found the court house ground ... crowded with all manner of vehicles and women with their children - who had fled mainly from Petersburg. … A halt was made … and the troops given an opportunity to breakfast while I busied myself in bringing off and away such military wagons as had reached that place and the retreating caravan of vehicles and folks.” - Gen. William Mahone
Marker can be reached from the intersection of Iron Bridge Road (Virginia Route 10) and Wagners Way.
Courtesy hmdb.org
