Nature trail guide—Greenbank’s Hollow Historic Park

June 26, 2014Posted inHistorical sites

By Dave Houston

A field-use trail guide for the Greenbank’s Hol­low Nature Trail is avail­able at the His­tor­i­cal Park. How­ev­er, the fol­low­ing descrip­tion con­tains added detail and pho­tos (click on pho­tos and fig­ures to enlarge). Even so, this is a work in progress as more infor­ma­tion will be includ­ed as it becomes available.

Exam­ples of things to come:

  • Lists, descrip­tions and pho­tos where appro­pri­ate, of plants and ani­mals found here along the trail or sur­round­ing area, includ­ing birds, mam­mals, amphib­ians and  rep­tiles, and insects, as well as oth­er bio­ta such as fun­gi and archaea.
  • Detailed descrip­tions and loca­tion (map) of the soils present here, includ­ing their suit­abil­i­ty for sup­port­ing plants, etc.
  • Infor­ma­tion relat­ed to Joe’s Brook includ­ing sea­son­al flow data, water chem­istry, suit­abil­i­ty for fish habi­tat, and his­tor­i­cal use of water power.
  • Addi­tion­al geo­log­i­cal details con­cern­ing the ori­gin, for­ma­tion and char­ac­ter­is­tics of the bedrock beneath the Park.
  • The influ­ence of the bedrock and the last glacia­tion on the shape of our land­scape and the soils that blan­ket it.

THE SETTING:

Joe's Brook as it comes tumbling down just below the bridge.
Joe’s Brook as it comes tum­bling down just below the bridge.

Geology

March 1864–The Richmond Boondoggle and Tales of Assassination

March 19, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Union Brigadier Gen­er­al Hugh Jud­son Kil­patrick had big plans and even big­ger dreams. In des­per­a­tion, Lin­coln approved a raid by the 1st Ver­mont Cal­vary upon Rich­mond that even the Com­man­der of the Army didn’t sup­port. It was a star-crossed ven­ture with con­se­quences that no one could foretell.

March 19, 1864 Danville North Star

DEATH OF COL. DAHLGREN

Colonel Ulric Dahlgren
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren

The fol­low­ing is the arti­cle in the Rich­mond Sen­tinel of the 5th, announc­ing the death of Col. Dahlgren: “The gal­lant Dahlgreen is dead. After leav­ing Rich­mond, he pro­ceed­ed with a por­tion of his men toward the penin­su­la through the coun­try of King and Queen, where he met Lieut. Col. Pol­lard of the 9th Vir­ginia, and had a sharp encounter, in which Col. Dahlgren was shot dead. Some sev­en­ty or eighty of his men were cap­tured. The remain­der has joined Kil­patrick as has been already stat­ed. Col. Dahlgren was one of the bravest men of Amer­i­ca, and his death will be regret­ted by all who ever knew him. He had lost a leg in the ser­vice and had just arrived at that peri­od of con­va­les­cence when he could take the sad­dle, when he was cut down by war’s relent­less hand.

Upon his per­son were found an address to his men and a mem­o­ran­dum of the route he was to take with his com­mand, when he left Kil­patrick, where he was to go, what he was to do, when he was sup­posed to be there, and when he was to rejoin the main force.

The address to his men is a most spir­it-stir­ring and patri­ot­ic appeal to his sym­pa­thies and val­or on behalf of their fel­low sol­diers who are suf­fer­ing impris­on­ment in the loath­some dun­geons and upon the desert islands of the Con­fed­er­a­cy. He begs them not to fal­ter or flag, but to fol­low him to open prison doors and putting arms into the hands of their released brethren, they would march togeth­er to kill Davis and Cab­i­net, and then return home to their friends, ready and anx­ious for fur­ther deeds of valor.”

Lat­er accounts rep­re­sent that there is no doubt that the pre­tend­ed address said to have been upon the per­son of Col Dahlgren was a bold forgery. This decep­tion was nec­es­sary to excuse the bru­tal­i­ty with which his body was treat­ed. He was a brave, spir­it­ed young offi­cer, and noth­ing but the fear his true chival­ry inspired could have induced the cow­ard­ly revenge grat­i­fied in the abuse of his life­less remains.