Savage's Station was the wartime name of a

supply depot Supply depots are a type of military installation used by militaries to store battlefield supplies temporarily on or near the front lines until they can be distributed to military units. Supply depots are responsible for nearly all other types of ...

ammunition dump {{Commons cat Logistics Logistics logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (ec ...

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile ...

, and command headquarters of the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the Battle of ...

during the

Peninsula Campaign The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The oper ...

of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It was a strategic center for the Army and also the site of the 1862

Battle of Savage's Station The Battle of Savage's Station took place on June 29, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as the fourth of the Seven Days Battles (Peninsula Campaign) of the American Civil War. The main body of the Union Army of the Potomac began a general withdr ...

From farmhouse to headquarters

Savage's Station was located in

Henrico County, Virginia Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is a County (United States), county located in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population wa ...

on what was the

Richmond and York River Railroad The Richmond and York River Railroad Company was incorporated under an act of the Virginia General Assembly on January 31, 1853.Interstate Commerce Commission. ''Southern Ry. Co.'', Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, Nov ...

, however the historical department of the

Norfolk Southern Railroad The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The compa ...

, the railroad track's current owner, has no record that an actual train station or station house ever existed on the property. A farmhouse is known to have been located in a copse of trees on a small knoll next to the railroad track and is visible in several period drawings and photographs made during the war. The farm house served as the nucleus of a large field hospital during and after the

battle of Seven Pines The Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks or Fair Oaks Station, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union's Army of the Po ...

and the

Seven Days Battles The Seven Days Battles were a series of seven battles over seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Confederate States Army, Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army ...

. The house also functioned as General

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...

's headquarters during the

battle of Savage's Station The Battle of Savage's Station took place on June 29, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as the fourth of the Seven Days Battles (Peninsula Campaign) of the American Civil War. The main body of the Union Army of the Potomac began a general withdr ...

on June 29, 1862.

Post war history

The Savage's Station house survived the battle in 1862, but was burned by Federal

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

under General

Philip H. Sheridan Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularized the n ...

in 1864. The house appears to have never been rebuilt, and no trace of it remains today. However, a smokehouse from the 19th century still existed on the property as late as the 1930s when it was photographed during a survey of local historical structures as a project of the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

. The smokehouse fell into ruin and collapsed sometime prior to the 1980s. A small brick-walled

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

from the 18th century still sits near the former location of the house not far from the railroad track.

Modern battlefield area

Today the battlefield of Savage's Station is considered "lost" by preservationists, the area of heaviest infantry fighting being covered by the nearby cloverleaf interchange of interstate highways I-295 and I-64. However the land that comprised Savage's Station itself, such as the Union field hospital, supply depot, ammunition dump and rear areas of the Federal battle line, remains in a remarkably pristine condition, the nearby interchange barely noticeable during seasons when the foliage is in full bloom. In the late 1980s, a last-ditch effort by local residents attempted to preserve the rolling farmland from being rezoned for commercial uses, but their desires were overruled by the Henrico Country Board of Commissioners. A developer had proposed to build a large truckstop and cargo transfer station on the property, but the close proximity of the interchange would have made reasonable and safe ingress and egress to the property difficult. Such a use would have also clashed with the bucolic residential neighborhoods in the surrounding area. As such, to this day the land remains undeveloped, and is now under lease for agricultural purposes, however the property is currently owned by a prominent Richmond area real estate holding company and is listed for sale. The land is now a solar farm.

Recent history

In 2024, the Richmond Battlefields Association sought to acquire the land to prevent it being developed into a technology park. Other proposals put the site at risk of development by data center development. Despite objections from environmentalists and historians, plans to build a data center on the site have been approved, putting the site at risk.

References

Savage's Station Savage's Station {{AmericanCivilWar-stub Historic sites in Virginia