Powhatan Virginia & The Civil War

Powhatan County lies in the heart of Dixie, a scant twenty miles from Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.

Yet Powhatan never found itself the site of a battle.

Union troops did not intrude; Confederate troops passed through just once, on their last fateful march to Appomattox Courthouse.

This is not to say that Powhatan was not affected by the War Between the States, nor that long-ago residents did not play a role in the Civil War.

Our look at "Powhatan and the Civil War" is to give you some understanding of the forces of history which shook, however lightly, our own little corner of the world.

Robert Wilcox, a Powhatan resident and long-time Civil War historian, provided his expertise, time, and writing abilities to what you read here.

We hope you enjoy, learn from, and appreciate the experiences of our common forefathers, described here with respect, affection, and honesty.

The year 1861 would long be remembered in Powhatan -- remembered as a year of jubilant anticipation.

Months and years of debate over the prospect of a great civil war finally became stark reality as political and philosophical differences between North and South came to a head.

Secession fever was at a high pitch -- enthusiasm for the proposal to leave the United States of America -- and Powhatan county’s citizens were trapped.

Whether or not they supported the concept of a new, southern nation, their lives would be forever changed.

With all the clamor for secession, surprisingly little thought was directed towards the potential impact on the population should any engagement become prolonged.

Most people doubted that a hostile confrontation would develop, or that if hostilities turned into open warfare, the duration would be less than ninety days.

The prospect of four long years of bitter warfare -- or the decades it could take to recover -- was far removed from most people’s imaginations.

That Powhatan was essentially an agricultural community becomes obvious when the makeup of the population is considered.

Of the 8,391 individuals living in the county in 1861, 5403 were slaves; 399 free blacks; and the remaining 2,589 were white.

Powhatan was the home of many wealthy planters, vast land holdings and luxurious mansions.

In this setting, Powhatan’s ratio of non-free to free population provides an indication of the dependency of Powhatan County’s economy on the institution of slavery.

South Carolina’s secession from the Union, announced on December 20, 1860, became an event that caused a rapid exit from the Union of several other Southern states. Mississippi followed on January 9, 1861, and from January 10 to February 1, 1861, came Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seceded states adopted a provisional Confederate constitution.

The inauguration of Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as the Confederacy’s provisional president of February 18, 1861, brought together the first skeleton of a Confederate administration.

The March 4, 1861, inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as the President of the United States completed the top administrative structures in each part of the now-divided country.

Virginians remained divided as to which faction they owed their allegiance.

Virginians had contributed heavily to the formation of the United States; destruction of the country it so intently helped found was not embraced in total.

However, many Virginians believed that the government they had so greatly shaped in the late 1700s was rapidly becoming a government vastly different from its original concept, moving towards a tightly controlled central government.

The southern states were adamant in their commitment to their own independent self-government. The were willing to split the country and risk a civil war.

A Virginia convention, attended by delegates selected by the white male population for the various counties and cities across the state, was held for a test vote on secession on April 4, 1861. The results of the test vote indicated the state’s desire to remain with the union.

On April 11, 1861, the Confederacy demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and opened fire on the fortification on April 12. The Union troops at Fort Sumter surrendered April 13.

Over the next four years, Powhatan was spared the experience of open warfare across its landscape.

Except for various troop maneuvers and being crossed by a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia on its way to the fateful rendezvous at Appomattox, the citizenry of Powhatan would not be touched directly by the hostilities of war.

But without cannon and gunshot, Powhatan residents suffered just as horribly as other residents of the Confederacy.

The hardships of shortages caused by supporting an army in the field and the effectiveness of the Union Navy blockading the Southern coastline took their toll on supplies. The eventual loss of the Mississippi River was a devastating setback from which the South never recovered.

The shortages were crippling, and before the war was over almost everyone was affected in some form. Many folks went hungry -- some nearly starved.

Innovation was the focal point for survival. Richmond, Vicksburg, and many other areas sacrificed their dignity, eating rats. President Davis was heard to say they were "as good as squirrels."

In Richmond, ladies exchanged recipes for them.

As a result of the shortage of flour, bread was made from rice flour and became known as "secession bread."

The shortages of foods and medication were so severe that it has been estimated the Southern women had to find substitutes for three-fourths of the articles of everyday life.

The lack of medication was extremely difficult. Even more difficult was the lack of doctors, who were traveling with the armies.

Scarcity placed pressure on the supply and demand cycle then, just as it does now. The results were inflation and profiteering, which drove prices up sharply.

To complicate matters further, as the Confederate gold supplies disappeared, the value of Confederate money fell.

In January 1862 it took $120 in Confederate currency to purchases $100 in gold.

By the war’s end, that figure was up to $5,500 in Confederate currency to buy $100 in gold.

Perhaps the worst shortage was the scarcity of men at home to maintain the small farms. Fields and homes, if not abandoned, fell into great disrepair.

Very little livestock remained and life became a meager existence.

All too often, news of the death of loved one brought the realities of war to closure. If deprivation had not been bad enough, this news made it intolerable.

The people of Powhatan lived the war as intimately as if the battles were fought within its boundaries. As they learned, war has many facets, and they experienced their share.

For some who survived the hardships, they could justifiably ask the question, "Where was the real war, at home or on the battlefield?" The Powhatan Troop

Without question, one of the most famous Civil War units of all armies was our own Powhatan Troop. This unit’s involvement in the war effort was distinguished.

Part of their recognition is based on the fact that they never surrendered, during the war or at Appomattox.

The formation of the Powhatan Troop followed John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry.

Local militias were formed for protection from future potential hostilities to come from the northern states.

The Powhatan Troop was organized by Philip St. George Cocke of Belmead Plantation in Powhatan County. Wealthy and successful, Cocke used his own finances to outfit the troop. A West Point graduate and the son of a brigadier-general of the War of 1812, Cocke aspired to achieve military decoration, as had his father before him.

Well-financed, well-equipped, and anxious for a fight, the troop was offered for service, in March of 1861, to Virginia Governor John Letcher, who instructed them to remain as they were, but to be prepared to move as needed.

Drilling, marching, and camping were the order of the day for the next month, all taking place at St. Luke’s Church on Huguenot Trail (now Route 711).

During April, 1861 the troop was called to Richmond, along with the Goochland Light Dragoons, inspiring a comment by an observer that the company was "composed of the very flower of the aristocracy of the James River Valley."

Marching to Richmond, then to Manassas, General P. G. T. Beauregard retained the unit as a body guard. Eventually the troop was combined with other units from various counties of Virginia and participated with distinction at the Battle of First Manassas on July 21, 1861.

The troop saw action in the Valley Campaign, and later on the Peninsula.

The unit had the distinct misfortune to participate in the battle of Sharpsburg (or Antietam, as the Union called it) where 23,000 casualties established America’s single bloodiest day, by most accounts the most savage battle of the War.

With war, death is an everyday occurrence. In this war, however, not only did bullets and mortars kill, but disease also spread its devastation, perhaps at a level unequaled in any other period of warfare.

During the war, 1,922 men served in the 4th Virginia Cavalry.

More than 200 of them lost their lives, either in battle, while imprisoned, or from disease; 137 horses were killed in action.

At Appomattox, only 55 men surrendered; the majority disbanded in Lynchburg and just went home.

Rather than return to the surrender proceedings, some of the members of the Powhatan Troop were probably part of the group who did not surrender.

As noble as not surrendering may be considered by some, their rationale was more than likely, "The war is over, why go through the exercise?"

The glory days were gone, forever left to be retold at family gatherings and reunions.

But the Powhatan Troop was not forgotten. A monument was erected on the Courthouse Green that reads:

Erected to keep in tender remembrance The Powhatan Troop Company E, Fourth Virginia Calvary Second Brigade, First Division Stuart Calvary Corp.

On another face of the monument the following words bring to awareness the high regard embraced by the citizens of Powhatan of that era: To honor valor is mankind’s delight.