The winding James flows by Deep Bottom and Turkey Bend, and one
elongated neck of land after another, passing the noted battlefield of
Malvern Hill, which ended General McClellan's disastrous "Seven Days"
of battles and retreat from the Chickahominy swamps in 1862. The great
ridge of Malvern Hill stretches away from the river towards the
northwest, and in that final battle which checked the Confederate
pursuit it was a vast amphitheatre terraced with tier upon tier of
artillery, the gunboats in the river joining in the Union defense.
Below, on the other shore, are the spacious lowlands of Bermuda
Hundred, where, in General Grant's significant phrase, General Butler
was "bottled up." Here, on the eastern bank, is the plantation of
Shirley, one of the famous Virginian settlements, still held by the
descendants of its colonial owners--the Carters. The wide and
attractive old brick colonial house, with its hipped and pointed
roof, stands behind a fringe of trees along the shore, with numerous
outbuildings constructed around a quadrangle behind. It is built of
bricks brought out from England, is two stories high, with a capacious
front porch, and around the roof are rows of dormer windows, above
which the roof runs from all sides up into a point between the tall
and ample chimneys. The southern view from Shirley is across the James
to the mouth of Appomattox River and City Point.
The Appomattox originates in the Blue Ridge near Lynchburg, and flows
one hundred and twenty miles eastward to the James, of which it is the
chief tributary. It passes Petersburg twelve miles southwest of its
point of union with the James, this union being at a high bluff thrust
out between the rivers, with abrupt slopes and a plateau on the top,
which is well shaded. Here is the house--the home of Dr. Epps--used by
General Grant as his headquarters during the operations from the south
side of the James against Petersburg and Lee's army in 1864-65. Grant
occupied two little log cabins on top of the bluff, just east of the
house; one his dwelling and the other his office. One is still there
in dilapidation, and the other is preserved as a relic in Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia. A short distance away is the little town of City
Point, with its ruined wharves, where an enormous business was then
done in landing army supplies. To the eastward the James flows, a
steadily broadening stream, past the sloping shores on the northern
bank, where, at Harrison's Landing, McClellan rested his troops after
the "Seven Days," having retreated there from the battle at Malvern
Hill. His camps occupied the plantations of Berkeley and Westover, the
former having been the birthplace of General William Henry Harrison,
who was President of the United States for a few weeks in 1841, the
first President who died in office. The Berkeley House is a spacious
and comfortable mansion, but it lost its grand shade-trees during the
war. A short distance farther down is the quaint old Queen Anne
mansion of red brick, with one wing only, the other having been burnt
during the war; with pointed roof and tall chimneys, standing at the
top of a beautifully sloping bank--Westover House, the most famous of
the old mansions on the James. It was the home of the Byrds--grandfather,
father and son--noted in Virginian colonial history, whose arms are
emblazoned on the iron gates, and who sleep in the little graveyard
alongside. The most renowned of these was the second, the "Honourable
William Byrd of Westover, Esquire," who was the founder of both
Richmond and Petersburg.
William Byrd was a man of imposing personal appearance and the highest
character, and his full-length portrait in flowing periwig and lace
ruffles, after Van Dyck, is preserved at Lower Brandon, farther down
the river. He inherited a large landed estate--over fifty thousand
acres--and ample fortune, and was educated in England, where he was
called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and made a Fellow of the Royal
Society. The inscription on his Westover tomb tells that he was a
friend of the learned Earl of Orrery. He held high offices in
Virginia, and possessed the largest private library then in America.
In connection with one Peter Jones, in 1733, he laid out both Richmond
and Petersburg on lands he owned, at the head of navigation
respectively on the James and the Appomattox. He left profuse
journals, published since as the _Westover Manuscripts_, and they
announce that Petersburg was gratefully named in honor of his
companion-founder, Peter Jones, and that Richmond's name came from
Byrd's vivid recollection of the outlook from Richmond Hill over the
Thames in England, which he found strikingly reproduced in the soft
hills and far-stretching meadows adjoining the rapids of the James,
with the curving sweep of the river as it flowed away from view behind
the glimmering woods. He died in 1744. Westover House was McClellan's
headquarters in 1862. The estates have gone from Byrd's descendants,
but the house has been completely restored, and is one of the
loveliest spots on the James. Major Augustus Drewry, its recent owner,
died in July, 1899, at an advanced age. Coggins Point projects
opposite Westover, and noted plantations and mansions line the river
banks, bearing, with the counties, well-known English names. Here is
the ruined stone Fort Powhatan, a relic of the War of 1812, with the
Unionist earthworks of 1864-65 on the bluff above it. Then we get
among the lowland swamps, where the cypress trees elevate their
conical knees and roots above the water. The James has become a wide
estuary, and the broad Chickahominy flows in between low shores,
draining the swamps east of Richmond and the James. This was the "lick
at which turkeys were plenty," the Indians thus recognizing in the
name of the river the favorite resort of the wild turkey.