a town in the Richmond Metropolitan Area in
Virginia. A suburb of Richmond, and apparently a bad place to be by the negative things that
people say about it. Anyways, Mechanicsville was the site of a
small Civil War battle that occurred between the divisions of Confederate Major General A.P. Hill and Union General George G. Meade and portions of other divisions. It was a battle fought during a week-long series of battles known as the "Seven Days' Campaign". A Union victory resulted because of the successful defense backed by the
Yankees who had a lot of artillery (big guns with explosive ammunition) and because of terrain advantages: they were on the bank of a creek, had some forest cover, all while the Southerners had to go down the western creek bank where this town was located about a mile from and go through the creek and slight swamps while under
heavy fire.
Mechanicsville was one of the
five or so battles of the Seven Days Campaign during early summer of 1862 that allowed General Lee and the
Army of Northern
Virginia to save Richmond, and the war effort.