Category: 1700s
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Life of a James River Batteauman
Text and photos by Barry Long The James River has been a watery highway of boat transportation since before John Smith sailed into its mouth in 1607, whereupon he was greeted by people traveling in dugout canoes. It remained the single most important avenue of transportation in the Colonies for hundreds of years, not only…
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Colonel Henry Gantt of Valmont
by Richard Ludlam Nicholas “On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Henry Gantt bravely led the regiment assigned to Garnett’s Brigade of Pickett’s Division up Cemetery Ridge in the battle of Gettysburg – arguably the most famous charge in American history.” Perhaps the most overlooked and forgotten man in Scottsville’s history is Colonel Henry Gantt,…
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Let’s Roll a Hogshead!
by William E. Trout, III,Virginia Canal Museum, Madison Heights, VA A picturesque phase of tobacco marketing in the Colonial and Early National period in Virginia was the practice of rolling the hogshead of tobacco from the plantation to the place of inspection and sale. Transportation of tobacco in this manner was considered by William Tatham…
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Paving Route 20 to Charlottesville
The road (Route 20) between Scottsville and Charlottesville was known as the ‘Road of the Presidents’ in the 1800’s because Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe often traveled over it. In those years, the trip between the two towns was arduous and bone-jarring as the macadam used on the road was a thin, poor tar mixture…
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Last Crossing of the Scottsville Ferry – 1907
The image above is a stereoscopic card, a popular way to view travel, historic, and novelty photos at the turn of the century. When placed in a special handheld viewer, the images appear three dimensional. In the detail of the image below, Samuel R. Gault stands in the lower right corner of the Scottsville Ferry…
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