NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview Richmond National Battlefield Park Virginia Contact Information For more information about the Richmond National Battlefield Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or (804) 226-1981 or write to: Superintendent, 3215 E. Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23223 Purpose Significance Significance statements express why Richmond National Battlefield Park resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit. • Embedded in the former capital of the Confederacy, whose capture and defense were principal war aims, the park comprises the most diverse and comprehensive collection of interconnected Civil War sites and stories in the country including battlefield landscapes, river warfare, fortifications, industrial sites, domestic landscapes, military medicine and RICHMOND NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD PARK hospitals, and the contributions and achievements of the preserves, protects, interprets, and United States Colored Troops. commemorates Richmond Civil War • The defeat of the U.S. Army in the June–July 1862 Seven battlefield landscapes, struggles for the Days Battles outside Richmond fundamentally altered the capital of the Confederacy associated course of the war, ending the possibility of a relatively short with the 1862 Seven Days’ Battles, the war, bringing emancipation more directly into the equation 1864 Overland Campaign, and the as a Union war aim, and emboldening the Confederate army to seize the initiative and take the war into the North in 1864–65 Richmond and Petersburg September 1862. Campaigns, including the American military, social, and political history as exemplified by the New Market Heights Battlefield. Resources, Values, and Interpretive Themes Fundamental resources and values are those features, systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other attributes determined to merit primary consideration during planning and management processes because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. • 1862 and 1864–65 Battlefield Landscapes • Archeological Resources • Historic Structures • Sense of Place and Setting • Museum Collections Richmond National Battlefield Park contains other resources and values that may not be fundamental to the purpose and significance of the park, but are important to consider in management and planning decisions. These are referred to as • The park includes pivotal sites connected to the careers of other important resources and values. three key, nationally significant figures in American political and military history: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, • Partner and Community Connections and George B. McClellan. Their actions in the Civil War • campaigns around Richmond continue to inform battlefield Commemorative Monuments and Markers leadership and strategy, and directly influenced the course of • Natural Communities two presidential elections, in 1864 and 1868. • Appropriate Recreation • Richmond’s battlefields are cemeteries. While Federal authorities built and filled five national cemeteries for Union Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories soldiers around Richmond in 1866, their work is known or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting to have been incomplete, and they intentionally left the a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes Confederate war dead in their original battlefield graves. are derived from—and should reflect—park purpose, Unlike other battlefield parks in Virginia, no systematic effort significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive ever occurred to remove those men; the balance of them themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary remain on the battlefields, unmarked and mostly unlocated. for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all of the park significances and fundamental • From the enslaved at Rural Plains and the Watt House to resources and values. the segregated Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Fort Harrison, Richmond National Battlefield Park uniquely • Richmond as the Capital of the Confederacy captures the complexity of the African American experience through three centuries. The New Market Heights Battlefield • Civilians at War is a premier landmark in black military history, as 14 black • The Battles for Richmond Union soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for valor for their sacrifices during the New Market Heights battle; • The Contributions of African American Soldiers helping to ensure the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish slavery. Description Richmond National Battlefield Park was initially authorized The concentration of diverse Civil War resources found in by an act of Congress on March 2, 1936 (49 Stat. 1155), to the Richmond area is unparalleled. With carefully developed commemorate, interpret, and actively manage cultural and battlefield preservation commemoration and interpretive natural resources at American Civil War battlefields around efforts including close cooperation with other public and Richmond, Virginia, the industrial and political capital of the private agencies preserving Civil War resources, Richmond Confederacy. Initial sites included: Beaver Dam Creek, Cold National Battlefield Park has become a moving and eloquent Harbor, Gaines’ Mill, Frayser’s Farm (Glendale), Malvern place where visitors can explore the meaning of the American Hill, Fort Harrison, Drewry’s Bluff, and Totopotomoy Creek. Civil War and its relevance to the modern world. The Richmond National Battlefield Park Act of 2000 (114 Stat. 2373-2376) added the New Haw’s Shop Enon Market Heights Battlefield, Church V I RICHMOND NATIONAL Site of J.E.B. Stuart’s R Site of Atlee mortal wounding G Station I BATTLEFIELD PARK along with many other Civil War N I A R C I E C N Totopotomoy Creek H Tour Information T M sites, to the park’s authorized R (Rural Plains) Yellow Tavern A O L Tour route N 36th Wisconsin & D Monument R P , Tour stops for 1862 Peninsula O R F boundary and amended the T R ke i Campaign and Seven Days’ O E p n D r M 95 u Battles: E T A R le C vil I cs C ni Tour Stop-within park R a K h park’s maximum boundary R c Bethesda Church Tour Stop-not part of park S e B 295 M U R Tour stop for 1864 Overland G Meadow Bridge Campaign and Siege of in and around the City of Richmond-Petersburg site: Cold Harbor Tour Stop-within park Visitor Center Tour Stop-not part of park Richmond to 7,307 acres. As 64 Cold Harbor Cold Harbor National Cemetery Other Information Beaver Site Site of of Gaines’ Mill Approximate Dam Creek anoer ount Park aburnum Avenue Ellerson’s of 2016, the park has grown L Mill Garthright House location of Confederate Chickahominy fortifications extensively from the 764 acres Bluff Watt Gaines’ Mill Wartime railroad House (Watt House) 64 Site of Interpretive that existed in 1996, when the 195 95 360 New Bridge marker 64 Gouldin’s Farm North 0 last general management plan Garnett’s Site of Grapevine Bridge 1 2 Kilometers Dabbs Farm 0 1 2 Miles House CHI CKAH OM Trent IN was approved, to 3,632 acres RICHMOND & Y House DANVILLE R RR IV Richmond National Chimborazo E R Battlefield Park Medical Museum Fair R K spread over three counties. Y O Civil War Visitor Center Oaks D & Park Headquarters Seven R I C H M O N R Site of Tredegar Iron Works R R Pines Savage’s R I V E Seven Pines Station W Richmond National Oak National i lli Grove Cemetery am 64 Cemetery s Site of bu rg Bottom’s Road The park also protects historic RICHMOND Bridge INTERNATIONAL C AIRPORT h i p p resources and performs visitor e n h J a e m A u n P M e v a r A E services at a collection of k w S m a u y R rn u I b V a L Site of h E ut Long Bridge four additional sites that are R So Darbytown Road White Oak associated with Civil War era Swamp 95 Battery Alexander military, medical, and industrial Fort Gilmer Fussell’s Fort Gregg Glendale New Market Mill (Frayser’s Farm) Fort Johnson Heights operations in and around Fort Fort Harrison Glendale National Cemetery Drewry’s Visitor Center Bluff Harrison Glendale/Malvern Hill Site of open seasonally Visitor Center (Fort Darling) Chaffin’s Richmond: Chickahominy Bluff, Fort Harrison open seasonally Farm National Fort Cemetery Malvern Site of Parsonage Chimborazo Hospital, Tredegar Hoke Hill Deep Bottom Ne enrico ount Park w Ma Battery IV rket R o Fort a Fort d Iron Works, and Parker’s Stevens heterfield Brady ount Park Battery. Additionally, the 2000 Half-Way House R Dutch Gap I heterfield legislation specified that the C H ount Park M 295 O Battery Dantzler N heterfield park establish a monument D ount Park Trent’s Reach & P E T E R S Hundred Ro or memorial to honor the 14 B ad U R G Bermuda Hundred R Landing R Parker’s Battery Shirley Medal of Honor recipients Plantation H O from the United States Colored W L R I V E E S E R T Grant’s Cabin M Berkeley T Appomattox J A Harrison’s Plantation Troops who fought in the Battle Plantation L Grant’s Headquarters Landing I N Westover X City Point at City Point, E O Plantation National Cemetery T R Petersburg National of New Market Heights, in T E A V Battlefield I M 95 R O P eastern Henrico County.