Bermuda Hundred, Va. makes the CWPT Top 10 List of Endangered Battlefields

Bermuda Hundred, Virginia
May 6, 1864 - April 2, 1865

Bermuda Hundred was never intended to be a battlefield. Instead, this peninsula jutting into the James River was supposed to be the starting point for a victorious Union effort to seize control of the Confederate capital at Richmond. Unfortunately for the Union cause, cautiousness and mediocrity conspired to transform the Bermuda Hundred Campaign into a series of bloody but inconclusive battles that eventually developed into grim trench warfare.

Current Status: Today, the fate of the Bermuda Hundred battlefields seems equally grim. Most of the siege lines and battlefields have already succumbed to sprawl. Chesterfield County has protected 122 acres of hallowed ground associated with the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, creating a chain of small parks that protect isolated parts of the battlefields. NPS has protected some additional land at Parker's Battery and nearby Drewry's Bluff (Fort Darling). However, much more work needs to be done. Ware Bottom Church, the site of fighting on May 20, 1864, is considered the most threatened. Commercial development along Route 10 is also having an adverse effect on the remaining Bermuda Hundred battlefields.

There is no comprehensive CWSAC priority classification for the Bermuda Hundred battlegrounds. Five Bermuda Hundred sites
(Chester Station, Drewry's Bluff, Port Walthall Junction, Proctor's Creek, Swift Creek, and Ware Bottom Church) appeared in the commission's report.