Chickahominy River

Chickahominy River
River
Name origin: Chickahominy people
Country	United States
State	Virginia
Mouth
- location	James River
Map of the James River watershed with the Chickahominy highlighted

The Chickahominy is an 87-mile-long (140 km)river in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. The river which serves as the eastern border of Charles City County rises about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Richmond and flows southeast and south to the James River. The river was named after the Chickahominy Indian tribe who lived near the river when it was claimed by English colonists in 1607 and whose descendants live in Charles City, VA today.

During the American Civil War (1861–65), the upper reaches became a major obstacle to Union General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, a failed attempt in 1862 to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. Docile, narrow, and relatively easily crossed during dry weather, after periods of rain, it grows across a flood plain with swamps as much as a mile across. The Chickahominy was in flood stage and divided the Union Army during crucial periods, despite continuous efforts to build and maintain bridges by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Other battles were fought nearby again in 1864.

In modern times, the lower Chickahominy River has become a major source of drinking water for the lower portion of the Virginia Peninsula and a popular recreational area for boating and sport fishing, featuring Walker's Dam and Chickahominy Lake. It serves as a border for the Chickahominy Wildlife Management Area.

The Chickahominy River is a Coastal Plain tributary to the James River with headwaters northwest of Richmond. For its first 15 miles (24 km) the Chickahominy flows over igneous and metamorphic bedrock of the Piedmont, but soon becomes a Coastal Plain stream near Mechanicsville. The low-gradient Chickahominy sluggishly flows through broad swampy lowlands for 40 miles (64 km) from Henrico County to eastern New Kent County. 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Providence Forge the Chickahominy River becomes an estuary and makes a turn towards to the south.