Flowerdew Hundred
Voices From the Past

Wainwright

In April of 1864, Union troops crossed the James River and camped on Flowerdew Property, then owned by Mary Jane Willcox.


Wainwright
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Wainwright's description of Flowerdew Hundred, written June 16th1864

After crossing I moved about a mile to where the road from Flower Landing (the other terminus of the ferry from Wilcox's) joins the ones we were on. Here we parked up and waited till all the infantry were over, which brought it to three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The day was hot, far more so than any other we have had before this season; but we made ourselves quite comfortable under the trees of another Mr. Wilcox's house. Many men suffered a good deal from the heat. The ladies in the house, of whom there seemed a number, were very kind to these poor fellows; they could not have been more so had they been "Yankees" themselves instead of Virginians. This place is very different from any other I have before come across in Virginia, in that the grounds around the house had all been laid out and planted in the modern style, and shew that before the war they had kept up in good order. But the most remarkable thing was the immense number of birds, and so tame too. Every bush and tree was full of them, so that it resembled a confined aviary more than an open garden. Their numbers, too, and the dense shade of the bushes, caused them to keep up a continual singing even in the heat of the day. As I lay on the grass I counted near twenty mockingbirds in sight at on time, besides as many others.

From the diary of R. B. Willcox III


Exhibit

Grant's Crossing
June 4th, 1864
June 12th, 1864
June 14th, 1864
June 15th, 1864
June 16th, 1864

Interpretations

Mary Jane Willcox

Wainwright

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