Virginia – The View from Signal Hill: New Perspectives on the Battle of New Market Heights

Soldiers of Company E, 4th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops, a regiment that fought in the Battle of New Market Heights.

Library of Congress

Recipient: Capital Region Land Conservancy

Amount: $172,900

During the final days of the Civil War, the Confederacy teetered on the edge of collapse. For nine months of grueling trench warfare, Union forces surrounded the Confederate capital at Richmond. General Ulysses Grant ordered battalions from the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) to secure the satellite town of New Market Heights on the south bank of the James River, hoping to draw his adversary from defenses at Petersburg. In the early morning hours of September 29, 1864, USCT battalions pushed towards the Confederate lines, but were forced to retreat after suffering heavy casualties. After regrouping, they pushed through swampy terrain and seized a breach in the Confederate defenses, forcing Confederate commanders to divert troops away from Petersburg to defend the southern outskirts of the Richmond: The Union Army was one step closer to ending the war.

Free and freed Black soldiers of the USCT fought in many of the most pivotal engagements of the Civil War. They fought to defend the Union, to define and claim their humanity, and to destroy a slave society that considered African Americans property rather than people: To take up arms against the slavocracy was a claim to full citizenship. In recognition of their bravery at New Market, Congress awarded Medals of Honor to fourteen USCT soldiers of the 5th United States Colored Cavalry and the 38th Colored Infantry.

With support from a Preservation Planning Grant awarded by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program in 2022, the Capital Region Land Conservancy will complete an archeological field survey and assessment of a portion of New Market Heights Battlefield. The project will center on several Confederate earthworks on Signal Hill attacked by the USCT during the battle. The Conservancy aims to use this archeological assessment to gain a better understanding of the site’s history and of the people who fought, suffered, and perished there and to produce a land management plan for the continued interpretation and preservation of New Market Heights.

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Preservation Planning Grants are the American Battlefield Protection Program's broadest and most inclusive grant program, promoting the stewardship of battlefields and sites of armed conflict on American soil. In addition, the program administers three other grants: Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants, the newly authorized Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation grant programs. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.

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