Union Town The Confederate Monument

One half mile When the War Between the east stood Union States ended, Thomas Town, a camp Washington Smith, who was built by slaves with General Lee at who had escaped Appomattox, made his way or been freed by home by foot to Nansemond Union troops County. On this long journey occupying Suffolk home he vowed to erect a in 1862-1863. monument honoring the The “contraband memory of his fellow soldiers. Earthworks, unattributed war era photograph camp,” as it was His dream was finally realized sometimes called, was described by a Rhode Island in November 1889, on officer as “a large village, compactly built of split Dedication Day. Thousands hemlock boards, and all its inhabitants were came by horse, carriage, train ‘contrabands’ who had left their masters and found or on foot to remember the refuge within our lines. The style of the exterior of Confederate dead. The some of (the buildings) would be credible to a monument’s base was summer resort like Martha’s Vineyard.” The camp constructed by a Norfolk man; was laid out in streets, and included one building Photograph by Dana Adams the soldier is made of used as a school and church. Union Town residents zinc cast in Bridgeport, helped Union troops in construction of defensive Connecticut. In 1874, these zinc monuments were earthworks around Suffolk and along the produced under the name “white bronze.” Nansemond River. All manufacturing ceased in 1930, and molds were melted down and the metal used for implements in The Old Union Church WWII. Zinc monuments are rare and can be identified in cemeteries by their blue-gray color and by the lack of In a clearing (near the moss and mildew on them. present day fountain) stood the Old Union The Watering Fountain Church, sometimes called the Old Restored in 2007 by the Nansemond River Garden Club, Meeting House, built this circa late 19th C fountain was utilitarian. Originally in 1802. Until the it was fed by a shallow well. Water was drawn by a foot A Brief History of late 1820’s it was pump and rainwater helped fill the used by the basin. The fountain was used to Cedar Hill Cemetery community for water plants and the work animals worship and for other Drawing by Gertrude Riddick Pruden that drew the hearses or carried the and the Surrounding Area meetings. The building was the birthplace of several gravediggers and their equipment to Suffolk churches that remain in operation today. the burial area. During restoration a The original church yard was once called Green shallow pond was discovered under Hill Cemetery and holds numerous unmarked the fountain basin; it likely was the Suffolk, Virginia graves. This later became the nucleus of original source for people to access Cedar Hill Cemetery. collected rainwater. The surrounding area holds early unmarked graves. Drawing by Alva Joyner

References Compiled by Kermit Hobbs, Cormier, Steven A. The Siege of Suffolk: The Forgotten Campaign, April 11-May 4, 1863. Lynchburg, VA 1989. Dana Adams and Sallie Sebrell Dunn, Joseph B. The History of Nansemond County Virginia, 1907. MacClenny, W. E. “History of Suffolk Covers Two Full Centuries”, Suffolk News-Herald, for October 22, 1942. The Nansemond River Garden Club MacClenny, W. E. Untitled article reprinted in Flag Day, Suffolk Virginia, June 12, 1976. Pollock, Edward, Sketch Book of Suffolk, VA. Portsmouth, VA, 1886. P.O. Box 344 www.sonofthesouth.net/civil-war-pictures/photography/photography.htm “Rededication Confederate Monument”, October 2001. Suffolk, Virginia 23439 Clancy, Paul. Riddick’s Folly filled with Civil War tales, Virginian Pilot, 04.13.08. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:De_Bry_Chief_Virginia.jpg The British burned the town of Suffolk. The waterfront Suffolk Civil War Map warehouses, with their stores of tar, pitch, and turpentine, spread the fire across and along the river. After the outbreak of the War Between the States, It was recalled that “This immense sheet of fire … most of the young men of Suffolk and Nansemond contributed to form a collective scene of horror and County enlisted in the Confederate army and left sublimity such as could not be viewed without emotions their homes for war. During the first year of the war not to be described.” a training camp was established in Suffolk for new recruits from states farther south, and their presence Riddick’s Folly was a comfort to the citizens who remained at home.

Engraving from John White’s Drawing (deBry) and The Nansemond On May 10, 1862, after the fall of Norfolk to the County Courthouse Union forces, the Confederates withdrew to the Blackwater River, 20 miles west. Two days later Colonial Suffolk Early Suffolk grew from the members of the 1st New York Mounted Rifles rode waterfront southward along In the summer of 1608, Captain John Smith sailed up into Suffolk and later assumed control of the town. Main Street, with most of the Nansemond River to the home of the Nansemond Soon there were 15,000 Union troops camped in the structures being built of Indians. The word “Nansemond” meant “fishing fields all around Suffolk. In September, Major wood. Just after noon on angle” and described the location of the Indians’ main Riddick’s Folly During the General John J. Peck took command of the Union June 3, 1837, a fire broke Civil War—from an 1863 lithograph village at the mouth of the Western Branch. A year forces and ordered the construction of a ring of out in the cabinet shop of later, when starvation threatened the survival of earthwork forts, batteries, and trenches around Suffolk. Edward Arnold a quarter mile south of this point. Jamestown, Smith sent Captain John Martin to found Fanned by a strong southwest wind, the flames spread In April 1863, General ’s corps of a settlement on the site. The new settlement failed along Main Street and destroyed most of the town of 20,000 Confederate troops surrounded the north, west, because of conflict with the Indians. In the years that Suffolk. Among the 130 buildings lost were the and south sides of Suffolk as they sent forage wagons followed, the Nansemonds lost their lives and their courthouse, the jail, and numerous residences. through the countryside to purchase the food supplies lands to the English such that by 1744, there were so for the Confederate army. The Federals, commanded few left that they joined the Nottoways to the west. After the fire, construction began on a new courthouse by General Peck, erected new earthworks along the building that stands before you today. It was build of The land south of the James River was well suited to east bank of the Nansemond River to resist any brick to be more resistant to fires than the two the production of tobacco, and around 1720, John attempt by the Confederates to cross. courthouse buildings that had previously occupied the Constant built a warehouse on the riverfront for the site. The first had been lost when the British had burned This map, trade of tobacco. A community called Constant’s the town 58 years earlier. showing Wharf developed around the warehouse. In 1742, the Suffolk House of Burgesses approved a bill “to establish a town Mills Riddick, a wealthy landowner and prominent and the at Constance’s Warehouse, on the Nansemond River, citizen of Suffolk, lost several properties in the fire, Nansemond to be called Suffolk!” including his own residence on Main Street. River during Mr. Riddick used the proceeds from the insurance on In 1767, George Washington, Fielding Lewis, and Longstreet’s his other buildings to build for himself a new brick Thomas Walker obtained a grant for much of the land campaign, mansion on two lots next door to the Courthouse. in the Dismal Swamp and formed the Dismal Swamp was drawn According to tradition, the local citizens referred to the Land Company. This company dug the Washington by John E. lavish home as “Riddick’s Folly.” Ditch, as well as the Jericho Canal, which connected Morris, a Lake Drummond in the swamp with Shingle Creek and After Norfolk surrendered to the Union forces, most of Union the Nansemond River. A lucrative trade developed in the well-to-do families, including the Riddicks, packed soldier of nd lumber, tar, pitch, shingles, and other wood products up, boarded trains and left town. Union troops occupied the 22 on the Nansemond, further strengthening the economy the town of Suffolk during the Civil War from May Connecticut of the fledgling town of Suffolk. 1862 until June 1863. During most of that time Major Infantry.

General John J. Peck commanded the 15,000 troops, In May 1779, British General Matthews led a force of and his headquarters were in Riddick’s Folly. When 600 troops toward Suffolk after taking control of General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Nansemond Militia, the Union Troops left, they ransacked the place and forces in Virginia, recalled Longstreet and his only 200 strong and mostly unarmed, assembled to took most of the furnishings. The building has now command to help resist the ’s push to take meet them. By the following day, May 13, the Militia been restored and its walls still bear graffiti from the Richmond. Longstreet arrived too late to assist Lee in had dwindled to 100 and was no match for the men who occupied the house. It is thought that the defeating Union General at the oldest Riddick daughter, Anna Mary, loved her tutor, approaching enemy. Battle of Chancellorsville. Jonathan Smith, who was killed in action near Richmond. She lived to be 95 and like many of the young women of the time, she never married. Her grave is in Cedar Hill.