Category: General Philip Henry Sheridan

Abraham Lincoln, Dayton, Virginia, General Philip Henry Sheridan

October 4th, 1864 – Lieutenant Colonel Thomas F. Wildes Refuses To Burn Down Dayton, Virginia The Same Day The Cousin Of Abraham Lincoln Saves Her Home From Destruction

Hamilton Historical Records

“The Burning” was the period in 1864, where the Union was committed to burning the farms, mills and other buildings associated with the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy” in order to weaken General Robert Edward Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. On October 4th, 1864, the ninth day of the burning, Union troops attempted to burn down Abigail Lincoln’s home. Abigail told the troops that she was the cousin of the President, and the troops refrained from their order to destroy her home.

That day many women and children, living within Dayton, pleaded with Union Lieutenant Colonel Thomas F. Wildes to not burn down their down. Lieutenant Colonel Wildes defied General Philip Henry Sheridan’s burn order, with the risk of a court m-martial. General Sheridan, after hearing his subordinate’s concerns, rescinded the burn order.

Next to a World War I cannon, in downtown Dayton, is a plague dedicated to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas F. Wildes.

Battle of the Monocacy, Battle of Trevilian Station, Fort Stevens, General David Hunter, General George Armstrong Custer, General Jubal Anderson Early, General Philip Henry Sheridan, General Robert Edward Lee, General Wade Hampton III

The Battle of Trevilian Station – A Decisive Confederate Victory That Kept Supply Lines Open For The Army Of Northern Virginia

Hamilton Historical Records

During the Battle of Trevilian Station, General George Armstrong Custer used the Charles Goodall house as his temporary headquarters. During the battle General Custer got cornered, near the home that he used as his headquarters, and was almost captured by the Confederate Army. Confederate General Wade Hampton III utilized the nearby Netherland Tavern as his temporary headquarters during the battle.

Due to the Confederate General Wade Hampton III’s success at Trevilian Station, the Union forces, under the command of General David Hunter, who would later become the president of the military commission that was tasked with trying the individuals who plotted to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln and members of his cabinet, and General Philip Henry Sheridan, were unable to join forces to destroy the train station in nearby Charlottesville. Because of that, General Jubal Early had his army take a train, from Charlottesville, to combat David Hunter’s forces in Lynchburg from July 17th to 18th.

The Battle of Trevilian Station also prevented the Union from cutting off essential supplies that were heading from the Shenandoah Valley to General Robert Edward Lee’s army in Petersburg. It can be said that, the Siege of Petersburg lasted as long as it did because of General Jubal Anderson Early’s success in holding off the Union throughout 1864, and for his effort to go back on the offensive through the Battle of the Monocacy in Maryland and with the skirmish at Fort Stevens in Washington, D.C.

Athens of the South, Charlottesville Manufacturing Company, Charlottesville, Virginia, General George Armstrong Custer, General Philip Henry Sheridan, Henry Clay Marchant, Virginia Center Railroad

The Charlottesville Textile Mill, Within The “Athens Of The South”, That Was Accidently Burnt Down By Union Forces In March 1865

Hamilton Historical Records

In 1795, a grist mill, a mile from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, was established in the area around Moore’s Creek and the Rivanna River. In the early 1800s, locks and dams were built around the grist mill and the area became known as the “Athens of the South” and as the “Port of Piraeus”. After a textile mill was established by the Farish, Jones and Company, near the existing grist mill, the area later became known as the Charlottesville Woolen Mills. In 1852, John A. Marchant retained ownership of Farish, Jones and Company and renamed it to the Charlottesville Manufacturing Company.

During the course of the United States Civil War, the textiles produced uniforms for the Confederate military. In 1864, Henry Clay Marchant, the son of John A. Marchant, bought the Charlottesville Manufacturing Company. Towards the end of the war, during General Philip Henry Sheridan’s occupation of the city, the Union accidently burnt down the textile mill while attempting to burn down a railroad trestle, that had been built a few yards away from the mill for the Virginia Center Railroad in 1850. The same month that General Sheridan occupied Charlottesville, General George Armstrong Custer established a headquarters at a historic home known as, “The Farm”.

In 1867, a new brick textile mill was created, by the Charlottesville Manufacturing Company, and uniforms continued to be processed until the closure of the mill in 1964.