Revolutionary War Kittiewan Plantation
Kittiewan In The Revolution
Kittiewan Plantation is located in Tidewater Charles City County, VA, off Rt. 5 midway between Richmond and Williamsburg. That historic road is just north of the plantation. The first and most important transportation corridor was the James River to the south. Both provided access during wartime to Kittiewan.
Kittiewan Plantation has the historic plantation house and hundreds of acres of fields, pastures and woodlands. Built in the 18th Century, the first known owner of the house was Dr. William Rickman. In 1776 Rickman was appointed by the Continental Congress to oversee the Virginia hospitals during the American Revolutionary, becoming in effect the first Surgeon General of the United States.
Dr. Rickman married Miss Elizabeth Harrison around 1776. She was the daughter of Benjamin Harrison, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the owner of nearby Berkeley Plantation. She was also the older sister of William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States. Rickman's own administrative position and his marriage cemented the family firmly into the elites of Virginia and the USA. With this position would come expectations that the Kittiewan Manor was more than able to meet. There is some thought that the paneling came to be built as an expression of their social and political status.
British ships passed by Kittiewan on the James River during the war. The raids of Tarleton and Arnold did not affect Kittiewan. The nearest action during the Revolutionary War took place at Providence Forge on the Chickahominy River where Arnold burned the ironworks there.
The property contains the Rickman Family Cemetery.
