Westover

After the last of the Seven Days' Battles on July 1, 1862, at Malvern Hill, Gen. George B. McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac continued its retreat to the James River. McClellan had earlier decided to change his base from the Pamunkey River to the James and chose the Harrison's Landing and Westover area as his new base. Until the army's final evacuation to Fort Monroe on August 16, the 90,000-man force largely remained within its defensive fortifications, protected further by Union gunboats in the river. Elements of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at first searched for a weak point to attack but, finding none, limited themselves to watching the Federals. While camped at Berkeley, Union Gen. Daniel Butterfield of V Corps and bugler Pvt. Oliver W. Norton reworked the last few bars of the lights out call into what became known as Taps. On July 8, President Abraham Lincoln arrived by steamboat for a one-day visit, met with McClellan, and reviewed the troops. Westover served as the headquarters of McClellan's protégé, Gen. Fitz John Porter. Just after midnight on August 1, 41 Confederate guns at Coggins Point across the river fired on the gunboats and the Union encampment around the house, causing 25 casualties according to McClellan. The eastern flanking building at Westover, the library, may have been destroyed by fire at this time. Later that day, a Union party occupied Coggins Point after the Confederates abandoned it.

Virginia · United States