Lee’s Headquarters

Just to the east stood the Clarke house (Lockwood), wherein Gen. Robert E. Lee made his field headquarters, 28-31 May 1864. While here, and though ill, Lee deployed troops to key positions in Hanover County, including Haw's Shop, Totopotomoy Creek, and Bethesda Church, and laid plans for his desperately outnumbered army to intercept Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's advance on Richmond. Lee telegraphed urgent appeals for reinforcements from nearby Atlee's Station on the Virginia Central Railroad. On 29 May President Jefferson Davis and Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard visited the stricken Lee here. Lee's planning culminated in the Battle of Cold Harbor, 31 May-12 June 1864, which stalled the Union offensive. The house was removed in 1990.