Richmond National Battlefield Park

Richmond National Battlefield Park encompasses eleven units spread across the Richmond, Virginia, metropolitan area, preserving the sites of Union campaigns against the Confederate capital from 1861 to 1865. The park's primary Visitor Center is located at the Tredegar Iron Works on the banks of the James River, a complex of pre-war industrial buildings where Confederate forces manufactured artillery and ammunition throughout the war. The Tredegar facility houses the park's main interpretive exhibits on the defense and eventual fall of Richmond. The park's units document two major Union campaigns. The Peninsula Campaign of 1862, conducted by General George McClellan, brought Union forces to within a few miles of Richmond before a series of Confederate counterattacks—the Seven Days Battles of June 25–July 1, 1862—drove McClellan back to the James River. The Seven Days encompassed engagements at Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Savage's Station, White Oak Swamp, and Malvern Hill, with the latter representing one of the war's most devastating repulses of a Confederate assault against a prepared Union artillery position. The Overland Campaign of 1864, commanded by General Grant, saw Union forces fighting their way south from the Rapidan River before arriving before Richmond's defenses at Cold Harbor, where on June 3, 1864, Grant ordered a frontal assault that produced approximately 7,000 Union casualties in under an hour—one of the costliest military failures in American history. The Cold Harbor unit preserves surviving earthworks and interprets the attack through walking trails and wayside exhibits. The Fort Harrison unit, where Union forces breached the outer Confederate defenses in September 1864, and the subsequent fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865, are interpreted through additional park units. Walking trails at Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, and the Tredegar area allow direct contact with surviving earthworks across both campaigns.