history

A Chuckatuck Connection to Pickett’s Charge

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Most folks have heard of Pickett’s Charge and the battle of Gettysburg. Fewer know that one of the family stories connected to that famous moment in American history runs right through Chuckatuck.

Meet James Jasper Phillips.

Born in Nansemond County in 1832, Phillips came from a local family tied to the Chuckatuck area. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1853 — ranked near the top of his class — he returned home and became an educator.

In 1854, he helped establish what became known as the Chuckatuck Military Academy, also remembered as the Chuckatuck Male and Female Institute. Imagine that for a moment: before public schools as we know them today, Chuckatuck had its own school, led by a young VMI-trained teacher, with boys and girls receiving an education right here in the community.

But history soon came calling.

When the War Between the States began, Phillips helped organize the Chuckatuck Light Artillery, a local company of men from this area. Despite the name though, the unit became Company F of the 9th Virginia Infantry. Phillips was elected captain, later rose to colonel, and served through some of the hardest fighting of the war. He was wounded at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge, and was later captured at Sailor’s Creek just days before the surrender at Appomattox.

And here is where the family story becomes even more interesting…

James Jasper Phillips was actually the uncle of LaSalle “Sallie” Corbell Pickett, the Chuckatuck-born wife of General George E. Pickett! (… their story will definitely be a future post!) Through the Phillips and Corbell families, our little corner of Nansemond County had a direct family connection to one of the most famous names and moments of the Civil War.

That is what makes local history so powerful.

The great events of history may be remembered in capitals, battlefields, and textbooks — but they were lived by real people from real places. Sometimes, those places are closer than we realize.

Chuckatuck has always been more than a spot on the map. It has been a crossroads of families, faith, education, service, hardship, memory, and story.

And James Jasper Phillips is one of those stories worth remembering.

Render Under Caesar

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It’s Fred on History Friday!

Last week, we talked about the “original” King’s Highway. And along that same old road, in what is now the Driver community, stands Glebe Church originally known as the Bennett’s Creek or “Lower Parish” Church, a historic place where local life and revolutionary feeling collided.

Interestingly, Glebe Church has a direct connection to Chuckatuck. Because of the lack of clergy, particularly in rural areas during colonial times, the minister at Glebe Church – the Rev. John Agnew – also served as minister at St. John’s Church in the Chuckatuck Parish. So, this isn’t the story of some distant colonial minister. It’s the story of a man whose ministry reached into Chuckatuck and whose choices reflected the divisions of the Revolution.

In 1775, with revolutionary feeling rising across Virginia, Agnew stepped into the pulpit at Glebe Church to influence his flock. As an Anglican clergyman, he was loyal to the Crown, and on this particular Sunday he took as his text the words of Jesus: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” But the congregation knew where he was headed.

Agnew began his preaching, warning against disloyalty to lawful government — and in his view, disloyalty to the King. But before he could finish, William Cowper, a local vestryman and magistrate, stood and ordered him down from the pulpit.

Agnew reportedly replied, “I am doing my Master’s business.”

Cowper answered with the question that captured the Revolution: “Which master? Your Master in heaven, or your master over the seas?”

That question would mark the conclusion of the sermon. Agnew walked out of the Church that day, never returning.

During the War, Rev. Agnew left Virginia, casting his lot fully with the Loyalist cause. He served as a Chaplain with the “Queen’s Rangers,” a regiment in which his son was serving as an officer. In 1781, both father and son were captured by a French squadron while aboard the British frigate Romulus. They would be imprisoned for the remainder of the war in Rhode Island, Saint-Domingue — present-day Haiti.

Of course, because of the Colonies’ success, the Agnews found that the old world they had known was gone. They were unwelcome to return to Virginia and the new American republic, so they returned to England. But Rev. Agnew eventually immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, among other loyalist exiles. He lived and prospered there – serving for at least one term in their House of Parliament – until his death in 1812.

This is why local history matters. The Revolution wasn’t simply America versus Great Britain. It divided families, neighbors, congregations — even pulpits.

Along the old King’s Highway in Chuckatuck and Nansemond County, people faced the same question that echoed across the colonies: When Caesar and conscience collide, who gets the final word?

As we remember America’s 250th Anniversary, stories like this remind us that independence wasn’t only declared in Philadelphia on July 4th — it was lived, debated, and defended here at home, along the roads, in the churches, and among the people who would help shape a new nation.

And that, too, is part of the Chuckatuck Life.

What’s in a name? King’s Highway Edition

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Welcome to a “Fred on History” Friday here at The Chuckatuck Life….

So, what’s in a name?

Most people driving through Chuckatuck today have no idea they may be traveling over a road system older than our country itself.

Long before there was a State Route 10 or 125, or even a good ol’ U.S. of A., this part of Virginia was tied into what was known in colonial times as King (Charles II’s) Highway.

But the story starts even earlier than that.

Many of Virginia’s early roads followed older American Indian paths — trails that crossed rivers and creeks at the narrowest, most practical points. As English settlers arrived in the 1600s, those paths slowly became primary roads, mail routes, ferry routes, and eventually pieces of a larger highway system connecting communities across the colonies.

By the 1700s, the “King’s Highway” stretched in various forms for more than 1,300 miles, linking Boston, Massachusetts, to Charleston, South Carolina. And here in Tidewater, that route helped connect travelers moving between Richmond and Petersburg east to Suffolk, Portsmouth/Norfolk, and onward into North Carolina.

That made Chuckatuck more than just a quiet village. It made Chuckatuck a crossroads within a much larger network of travel.

Because of its location near both the Nansemond River and Chuckatuck Creek, this area became important for farming, trade, and transportation. Tobacco, corn, cotton, livestock, supplies, mail, merchants, soldiers, and the like all moved through here.

And one of the most important local connections along the King’s Highway was of course, Sleepy Hole Ferry.

Before modern bridges, ferries were lifelines. Sleepy Hole Ferry connected both sides of the Nansemond River and served as a critical crossing point for travelers, commerce, and — at times — armies.

Speaking of, during the American Revolution, Benedict Arnold’s British troops crossed near Sleepy Hole Ferry in January of 1781, as they were returning from a raid on Richmond. Famed Continental General Marquis de Lafayette would do the same, chasing after Arnold. And later that same year, British Commanding General Cornwallis crossed on the Sleep Hole Ferry on his way toward Portsmouth.

Think about that for a second.

British and Continental troops moving through this area — right here near Chuckatuck — during the fight for American independence.

That is what makes local history so fascinating.

History did not only happen in Boston, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, or Yorktown.

It happened along quiet roads. It happened at ferry crossings.

It happened in small communities like Chuckatuck that helped connect early America together.

And as we approach America’s 250th birthday, roads like the King’s Highway remind us that the story of America runs not just through the major cities or battlefields that make the history books, but through the places we pass by every day.

Even right here at home.

So from my porch to yours — cheers to more local history, until the next time!

Image: Excerpt from Map of Isle of Wight and part of Nansemond, made under the direction of A.H. Campbell and J.F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer’s Office, Army of Northern Virginia, 1864. Courtesy of the Archives of the United States Military Academy.

The Chuckatuck Life

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Hey friends!

Adrienne and I are excited to share something we’ve been working on — our new blog, The Chuckatuck Life 🪴

It’s a space where we’ll be honoring traditions passed down through generations while creating new ones worth holding onto, and celebrating the everyday moments that make life in and around Chuckatuck so special. Think homemade recipes, seasonal traditions, local history, and a little bit of small-town charm along the way.

Welcome to The Chuckatuck Life 💛

Samuel Barron, 1836-1892

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Samuel Barron
Carte-de-visite by photographer Penabert, Paris, France, taken circa 1864-1865 and inscribed to his future wife, Agnes Muse. 

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Born in Virginia in 1836, this Samuel Barron would be the fifth by that same name in a long line of Barron family members committed to naval service.

His father, Samuel Barron (1809-1888) served as Commodore in both the U.S. and C.S. Navy.  His grandfather, Samuel Barron (1765-1810), fought as a junior officer in the American Revolution and later rose through the ranks of the new U.S. Navy, concluding his career as a Commodore.  His grand-uncle, James Barron (1769-1851), was another Commodore and the most senior member of the U.S. Navy upon his death in 1851.  And finally, his great-grandfather, James Barron (1740-1787) served as Commodore of the small Virginia state navy during the American Revolution.

From his obituary in The Norfolk Landmark, Barron was described as “…conceived and nourished in a fondness for the sea, which was gratified at the early age of 16, when he went to the East Indies as cabin boy and returned as first mate, the trip lasting three years. After cruising all over the world, he, about the year 1855, began life anew on a cattle ranch in Brazil from which place he soon drifted to California and was there at the breaking out of the Civil War. When the news reached him, together with… George E. Pickett… he started for the Confederacy, and their experience and thrilling escapes from capture would read more like romance than facts.”

Upon arrival in Richmond, Barron was appointed Acting Master, and assigned to the C.S.S. Jamestown, in which he served during the battle of Hampton Roads (March 8-9, 1862), and on the C.S.S. Beaufort (renamed Roanoke) during the battle of Drewry’s Bluff (May 1862), and with the James River Squadron. 

Barron was promoted to Lieutenant in February 1863, and 1st Lieutenant in January 1864, during which he spent most of his time in “service abroad” on behalf of the Confederate States Navy.  This included work under his father in Europe, who was coordinating a variety of naval support efforts alongside Commander James D. Bulloch.  During this time, the younger Barron aided in cruises of the C.S.S. Florida and C.S.S. Stonewall. 

At the conclusion of the War, Barron traveled abroad, spending significant time in Mexico before returning to the United States in 1868.  He married and settled back in his native Virginia, farming and later operating a ship brokerage company.  In 1892, he died at the age of 56, following complications from a stroke.  He is buried at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Warsaw, Essex County, Virginia, beside his wife and a number of other members of his immediate family.

Image:  Carte-de-visite by photographer Penabert, Paris, France, taken circa 1864-1865 and inscribed to his future wife, Agnes Muse.  Provenance:  Barron family; former Bill Turner collection; courtesy of the collection of Fred D. Taylor.