Core Work: Preserving the Center at the Ream’s Station Battlefield

A wooded portion of the Ream’s Station Battlefield where Union forces twice attempted to destroy the Confederate railway hub there in the summer of 1864.

Matt George/American Battlefield Trust

Recipient: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
Sub-Recipient: American Battlefield Trust

Amount: $163,251.69
Acres: 101

By the summer of 1864, Union victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga wrested Federal control of much of the American South and brought the fighting perilously close to the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. In attempt to cut the city off from the rest of the Confederacy, Union troops targeted the train lines and stations that served Richmond and Virginia’s industrial infrastructure.

Ream’s Station, nearby Richmond in the city of Petersburg, served as the northern terminus of the Weldon Railroad connecting central Virginia to the port at Wilmington, North Carolina. In June 1864, U.S. calvary under the command of August Kautz and James Wilson advanced on Ream’s Station intending to destroy the railway nexus and cut Confederate supply lines from Wilmington. Reaching the station on June 29, Federal forces destroyed 60 miles of railway, temporarily severing an important logistical transportation artery, before Confederate troops surrounded them and forced a retreat.

Within months the Confederates repaired the railway. On August 25, the 7,000-strong Union II Corps approached Ream’s Station, hellbent on destroying it for good. The corps took the station with little resistance, but as US troops began fortifying their position General Henry Heth’s Confederate infantry overran them. Without the complete destruction of Ream's Station, the Siege of Petersburg ground on in six more months of trench warfare until Gen. Robert E. Lee abandoned both Richmond and Petersburg in March 1865 on the road to his final surrender. With financial assistance from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, in partnership with the American Battlefield Trust, will protect 101 acres at the core of Ream’s Station Battlefield. The acquisition preserves the ground under both Union assaults as well as wetlands and streams vital to the health of human and other natural communities.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grants: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, and Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation Grant programs. This financial assistance sustains community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.

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Check out the American Battlefield Protection Program's website for more information about various grant offerings and eligibility.

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