Cultural Landscape Report for Gaines' Mill Battlefield, Richmond National Battlefield Park

Bowman, Brenden; Krick, Robert; Hammond, John; Layton, Tim; Little, Kelsey; Foulds, Eliot

Gaines’ Mill Battlefield, eight miles east-northeast of Richmond, Virginia, is part of Richmond National Battlefield Park (NBP). The park is composed of eleven Civil War battlefields and engagement sites and related resources. These sites are variously associated with the events of the Civil War, including the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, 1864 Overland Campaign, naval operations along the James River, and the 1864–1865 Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. Today, the Gaines’ Mill Battlefield cultural landscape comprises 590.18 acres of the battlefield, acquired in eight tracts, including 60 acres of the former Watt farm south of Boatswain Creek. The eight federally owned parcels lay within a mosaic of large and small private properties, all enclosed within a legislated boundary authorized to guide future land acquisition. The authorized boundary line embraces 2,177 acres of public and private lands. This area includes the locations of the center and left of the Union line, which on June 27th, 1862, was positioned along the edge and slope of the Watt house plateau, and areas of the approach of Longstreet’s and A.P. Hill’s divisions, as well as the point at which Gen. John B. Hood’s brigade broke through the Union line, compelling a Union retreat. Key resources within the landscape include the Watt house, which served as Union General Porter’s headquarters and then as a Union field hospital, and Boatswain Creek and its ravine, a formidable natural obstacle used to advantage by General Porter. The cultural landscape also includes agricultural and domestic features from during and after the historic period, commemorative markers installed in the twentieth century, and park visitor and administrative infrastructure developed from the 1930s onward. The park setting remains rural, but is urbanizing, with agricultural properties and suburban development interspersed with forested land. Interstate 295 follows the study boundary to the southwest but is well screened from park areas by trees. Difficult to see, the highway is easily heard, with the sounds of cars and trucks transmitted over long distances. Although the core areas of fighting are contained within the park, significant portions of the battlefield remain in private ownership north and south of the park unit.

Cultural Landscape Report for Gaines' Mill Battlefield, Richmond National Battlefield Park

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