Lee’s Headquarters

At the Clarke house (Lockwood) just east of this site, Gen. Robert E. Lee made his field headquarters from 28-31 May 1864. While there, and though ill, he deployed troops to key positions in Hanover County, including Haw's Shop, Totopotomoy Creek, and Bethesda Church, and laid plans for his desperately outnumbered army to intercept Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's advance on Richmond. Lee telegraphed urgent appeals for reinforcements from nearby Atlee's Station on the Virginia Central Railroad. On 29 May, President Jefferson Davis and Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard visited the stricken Lee there. His planning culminated in the Battle of Cold Harbor, 31 May-12 June 1864, which stalled the Union offensive. The house was removed in 1990.

Chamberlayne, Virginia · United States