Holding the High Ground - Mechanicsville VA
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 37° 35.712 W 077° 21.487
18S E 291815 N 4163517
The charging Confederates faced more obstacles than they could overcome: open fields, steep slopes, a broad and swampy creek, Union infantry using a millrace for protection, and powerfully positioned Union artillery crowning the ridge.
Waymark Code: WM19HBD
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 03/01/2024
Views: 0
TEXT
Holding the High Ground- Beaver Dam Creek unit of the Richmond National Battlefield Park--Today’s landscape makes it difficult to appreciate the many strengths of the Union position. The charging Confederates faced more obstacles than they could overcome: open fields, steep slopes, a broad and swampy creek, Union infantry using a millrace for protection, and powerfully positioned Union artillery crowning the ridge. These circumstances help explain how the Confederates lost 1,500 men here, the Federals only 350.
Despite the decisive victory here, army commander George B. McClellan decided to withdraw this exposed portion of his force on the night of June 26. Stonewall Jackson’s Confederates stood poised to threaten the rear of this Beaver Dam Creek position. The first phase of the Confederate plan to drive the Union army away from Richmond by manueuver had succeeded, but only after a battlefield defeat.
“We were deployed at intervals of eight or ten paces, along the [mill]race….A brigade of rebels in close column charged madly down the opposite hillside….Rushing unhesitatingly across the narrow valley that intervened…they were about to ascend our hill, when one of our regiments…which lay concealed in a position near the base, arose and poured such a murderous volley into the rebel ranks that they broke and fled in dismay.”
A. F. Hill, 8th Pennsylvania Reserves
LOCATION: Marker can be reached from Cold Harbor Road (Virginia Route 156). This marker is located in the Beaver Dam Creek unit of the Richmond National Battlefield Park. Postal address: 7423 Cold Harbor Road, Mechanicsville VA 23111
Name of Government Entity or Private Organization that built the monument: National Park Service
Union, Confederate or Other Monument: Union
Rating (1-5): 
Related Website: [Web Link]
Photo or photos will be uploaded.: yes
Date Installed or Dedicated: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:To log a visit, a waymarker must visit the monument or memorial in person and post a photo. Personal observations and comments will be appreciated.