Richmond National Battlefield Park - Fort Harrison Visitor Center - Richmond, Virginia
Posted by: 
gparkes
N 37° 25.668 W 077° 22.360
18S E 290062 N 4144974
Fort Harrison was re-named Fort Burrham, after a fallen General who died taking the fort.
Waymark Code: WM991H
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 07/16/2010
Views: 1
The National Parks Service website says of Fort Harrison:
Fort Harrison was key to General Butler's plan of attack. It represented the strongest point on the Confederate line of defenses. From it, one could see all the way to the James River. However, in 1864 most of the Confederate forces were in Petersburg and here the Confederate defenders numbered barely 200. Their guns were mostly so poor as to be scorned by the main field artillery. The Union attack pierced the fort quickly, with relatively few casualties. Had the Union attacks on the rest of the Confederate line succeeded as well as at New Market Heights and Fort Harrison, the overall military significance would have been greater.
On September 30, Robert E. Lee personally organized a major effort to recapture the lost fort. His attack also lacked coordination, and the well prepared Union defenders-some of them armed with multiple shot weapons crushed the Confederate effort and inflicted great loss on the attackers. The victors abolished the Confederate title for the fort and renamed it Fort Burnham after the Union general killed in the attack of September 29.
Fort Harrison is open throughout the summer months, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. It is also open during the weekends of the Spring and Fall. A ranger is on site to give information and context to the site as well as the string of defenses one might see in the area.