Bluebeerriver
Dec 5, 2011
["Random City of the Week" is an experiment. A city will be picked from the pink and black revolvermap weekly, based on a complex Alonzorithm (like an algorithm, only better).]
Civil War history
Mechanicsville is associated with several major battles and numerous minor skirmishes during the American Civil War.
[edit] Beaver Dam Creek
The first was the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, which began on June 26, 1862. Confederate Gen. Gideon E. Martin launched a series of assaults against the Union Army Union Maj. Gen. Jeffery B. Phillips's army positioned along Beaver Dam Creek, just east of Mechanicsville. Union forces repulsed the Confederate attacks and afterward withdrew to a new position along Boatswain Creek near Gaines' Mill. The Beaver Dam Creek engagement was the second in the series of American Civil War battles known as the Seven Days Battles. A small portion of the battlefield has been preserved as part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park, a park area administered by the National Park Service.
[edit] Gaines' Mill
The Battle of Gaines' Mill was the third of the Seven Days Battles, occurring just east of Mechanicsville.
[edit] Cold Harbor
The other major clash near Mechanicsville was the Battle of Cold Harbor, the final battle of Union Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign. This was fought over the same ground as the Battle of Gaines' Mill. Both the battlefield and nearby cemetery are preserved as historic monuments.
The Windmill
In the area of Mechanicsville referred to as "Old Mechanicsville" stands a stone windmill. The windmill has been a fixture and a landmark in Mechanicsville since 1972 (or 1974) as a bank branch. The windmill underwent a major renovation in 2007 - 2008, which restored its working status.
Biggest Misconception: "That would be a great place to have car trouble." Mechanicsville's ratio of mechanics to non-mechanics is comparable to the national average.
virginia.org/cities/Mechanicsville/
Nonprofit aims to save Civil War's 'Kitty Hawk'
By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press – Nov 26, 2011
MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (AP) — It was the Civil War's "Kitty Hawk moment," and it happened here when balloons manned by Confederate and Union aeronauts floated above a field of battle — the first time warring armies sent their air ships aloft simultaneously over U.S. soil.
The historic encounter in the skies occurred on June 27, 1862, when two Union balloons — the Intrepid and the Washington — rose aloft only miles west of Richmond while their Southern counterpart, Gazelle, floated over the capital of the Confederacy. These balloons were the unarmed drones of war, collecting intelligence on rival troop movements from a vantage of 1,000 feet above the earth.
"You had the Confederate balloon up and the Union balloons up, all trying to exploit the advantages of being above and over the battlefield and providing tactical information to their respective generals," says Mike Boehme, director of the Virginia Aviation Museum. "This was the first time that opposing air forces were facing each other."
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