Richmond National Battlefield Park

06Feb17

Unlike most Civil War sites in the National Parks Service, the Richmond National Battlefield Park doesn’t commemorate a single battle.

That’s left for Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga and the rest.

No, Richmond National Battlefield Park tells the story of a series of battles around the Virginia city throughout the war. And that’s not all. There are also units with the park that commemorate a key industrial complex and the Confederacy’s largest hospital all with the intent of showing how the citizens of the Confederate capital dealt with a war at their doorstep.

There are 13 units in the Richmond National Battlefield Park. I made it to almost half before moving onto another nearby Civil War locale.

The battles highlight sites associated with the Seven Days’ Battle fought during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and 1864 skirmishes that preceded the end of the war.

The primary visitor center is located in downtown Richmond and features three floors of exhibits on civilian life in the war-torn capital. It is also the home of the historic Tredegar Iron Works, the Confederacy’s important iron foundry where much of the South’s limited cannon and other military goods were manufactured.

This was a much different Civil War site than I had ever been to before. Here there is nothing to describe the troop movements and the strategy of a battle. It was refreshing and I wish I had spent more time here.

But with so much to see in the park, I left Tredegar Iron Works to journey to the Cold Harbor battlefield. I was more than a little disappointed in my visit to Cold Harbor. I took the short auto tour that offered few stops along the way to learn more about the battle. It was good that I was somewhat knowledgeable of the battle, otherwise I wouldn’t have learned much.

To be fair, the Cold Harbor Visitor Center did provide sufficient information about the battle but I had several other stops planned for the day so I didn’t dawdle.

Before leaving Cold Harbor I drove a short distance to see both the Gaines’ Mill and Garthright House and made brief stops at both. I probably should have just kept driving.

After visiting Cold Harbor I traveled my final stops in the Richmond National Battlefield. Glendale, followed by Malvern Hill, were both pleasant surprises. Both sites feature interpretative walking trails with a cool split-rail fence.

To be honest I should have probably cut my losses early on and concentrated my visit in the Richmond National Battlefield Park and just the Tredegar Iron Works. Outside of a few things, the most interesting, and different, things about this Civil War site was there and not at the battlefields.

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