Fort McCausland
The Confederate Right Flank
To your right, Confederates built an earthen redoubt in 1864 to defend the strategic Virginia & Tennessee Railroad trestle over Ivy Creek. The six-gun battery of the Botetourt Artillery manned the redoubt and a position on the other side of Forest Road (Langhorne Road) crossing in front. To capture Lynchburg, Union Gen. David Hunter had divided his army and sent Gen. Alfred N.A. Duffie’s cavalry to seize the city by turning the Confederate right flank.
Gen. John McCausland cavalry moved to this location on the evening of June 17, after fighting a delaying action against the Union forces near the Quaker Meeting House. Firing from the redoubt and shallow trenches on this side of the creek, McCausland repulsed several Federal assaults from the west. The fighting here continued all day, June 18, until Duffie ordered a withdrawal and joined Hunter that night in retreat.
Marker is on Langhorne Road (U.S. 501), on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
