Riverside Plantation: Mannsfield

In 1862, the forests and fields here reflected the long-established practices of local farmers. The woods were a working part of Mannsfield Plantation, owned by Arthur Bernard, supplying timber for construction, wood for fuel, and forage for roaming livestock, and were as much a part of plantation life as the fields. On larger plantations such as Mannsfield, slaves often lived far from the big house, and one group of slave cabins stood in a field beyond these woods about 400 yards away. Known as Bernard's Cabins, they became an important landmark on December 12, 1862, when Confederate artillery gathered around them and Union artillery answered, devastating the Confederate batteries and leaving the homes of Bernard's slaves in ruins, never to be rebuilt. The area also preserves a historic road trace, Confederate earthworks, and prewar property ditches likely built by slaves.

Virginia · United States