Qualla: Berkeley Plantation

Berkeley Plantation: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joe Orbin, CC BY-SA 4.0. A cannonball is still lodged in the side of the guest house. In 1862, Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart fired it across the James River while the Union Army of the Potomac was camped on the plantation grounds. Nobody ever removed it. A small marker points it out to visitors today, one more layer in a place that has been accumulating American history since 38 settlers stepped off the ship Margaret on December 4, 1619, and held a day of thanksgiving - two years and 17 days before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth.

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Image: Joe Orbin | CC BY-SA 4.0

Berkeley Plantation: Before the Mayflower

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steveprutz, CC0. The Berkeley Hundred was established through a 1618 land grant from the Virginia Company of London, named for Richard Berkeley of the Berkeley family in Gloucestershire, England. The grant placed settlers on the north bank of the James River, about 20 miles upstream from Jamestow...

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Image: Steveprutz | CC0

Berkeley Plantation: The Harrison Dynasty

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steveprutz, CC0. After decades of changing hands, a portion of the Berkeley Hundred patent was purchased by Benjamin Harrison III. His son, Benjamin Harrison IV, used bricks fired on the plantation to build a Georgian-style mansion on a hill overlooking the James River in 1726 - one of the first ...

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Image: Steveprutz | CC0

Berkeley Plantation: Taps at Harrison's Landing

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Civil War brought Union occupation to Berkeley Plantation, and the grounds became Harrison's Landing, a massive encampment for the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. President Abraham Lincoln visited twice that summer to confer with General George B. M...

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Berkeley Plantation: The Drummer Boy Returns

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joe Orbin, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1907, John Jamieson purchased the ruined plantation. As a youth, Jamieson had been at Berkeley as a drummer boy in McClellan's army. His son Malcolm inherited the property in 1925 and spent over a decade restoring the mansion with his wife Grace Eggleston. The Jamiesons finall...

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Image: Joe Orbin | CC BY-SA 4.0