Located in the southern part of Chesapeake not far from the Dismal Swamp Canal and the North Carolina border are two antebellum plantation houses, Wallaceton and Beechwood. Both were owned by individuals who served in the Confederate army and both are easily visible from in one case the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail (Wallaceton) and in the second from nearby Belle Haven Street (Beechwood). I was able to locate much more information on Wallaceton since it is on the National Register while Beechwood is not.

Wallaceton– from the National Register

A prosaic mid-19th-century building, Wallaceton was originally built as a store to serve the employees of the Wallace Company, a lumber company, as well as the residents of Wallaceton, a settlement on the Dismal Swamp Canal, now within the City of Chesapeake. The original section, built of vertical juniper logs, was made into a residence for John G. Wallace after the Civil War. The widening of the canal in the 1910s necessitated moving the building approximately 100 feet. The house at Wallaceton remains the property of the Wallace family.

The member of the Wallace family who established the extensive family land holdings in the area now known as Wallaceton was George T. Wallace, whose father, William Wallace, was superintendent of the Dismal Swamp Canal in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. George Wallace began buying property in the 1840s on the east side of the canal about halfway down its length at its intersection with the North West Canal.

By 1855, Wallace’s holdings in the area amounted to almost 14,000 acres on both sides of the Dismal Swamp Canal. His home, a large Greek Revival structure known as Glencoe built around 1841, was the centerpiece of the family estate. The Wallace’s business interests were primarily farming and timber. He built a sawmill on the west bank of the canal and began milling the abundant juniper on his own land, as well as the logs of other timber barons in the region. The milled lumber, especially juniper shingles, was transported to market via the Dismal Swamp Canal, which had become operational in 1829. The canal had been built largely to reach the vast timber grounds in the swamp area, and the Wallaces were among the first to profit from the combination of available timber and a means of  transportation to market.

George T. Wallace’s son John G. Wallace (1840-1910) was his business partner; by, the early 1860s, the family enterprises were extremely prosperous, and they built a two-room store building on a small parcel of leased land on the east bank of the Dismal Swamp Canal. The building functioned as a company store for workers in the Wallace company, who lived in the small community known as Wallaceton that grew up around the mill on both sides of the canal. John Wallace’s business dealings were interrupted by his service in the Confederate army, in which he was a captain in the 61st VA Regiment. After being wounded in the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, he returned home to Wallaceton with his bride, Veronica McGehee, whom he had brought from Louisa County to Glencoe. Because she was snubbed by the family women, Captain Wallace turned the store building on the canal into a house (called Wallaceton) for her after the Civil War. The store then became housed in the superintendent’s house just to the north, the only other Wallaceton building still standing today.

From a Civil War Trails sign that no longer stands- William C. Wallace was born at Wallaceton, Norfolk County, Virginia, on March 23, 1842, and mustered into Confederate service on June 11, 1861, with the Jackson Greys. Wallace was immediately elected the company’s 1st Lieutenant. He was slightly wounded on March 8, 1862, while serving at Sewell’s Point during the CSS Virginia’s (Merrimack) first attack against the Union fleet in Hampton Roads. In May 1862 Wallace was promoted to Captain and elevated to company commander. William C. Wallace continued to serve in this capacity until he was mortally wounded and captured on August 19, 1864, during the Battle of Weldon Railroad (Davis Farm). William Wallace’s mother, Elizabeth Custis Wallace, was one of the region’s most prominent citizens. She kept a diary of her experiences during the war, which has been published as the Glencoe Diary. This diary records the anxiety and pain that the Wallaces, and many others, suffered during the Union occupation. “Glencoe,” the home of Mrs. Wallace, stood until recently near the Dismal Swamp Canal in the area generally called Wallaceton near the North Carolina border. Here Mrs. Wallace lived with her husband, George T. Wallace, whom the 1860 Census listed as a timber-getter and the individual with the highest net worth in St. Brides Parish.

Beechwood

Beechwood was built by the Stewart family who purchased the land from Littleton Waller Tazewell of Norfolk. Tazewell, who was elected governor of Virginia in 1834, apparently procured the land through a bankruptcy case in 1818 from a Mr. Sexton who was jailed for debts owed. Beechwood is a two-story, frame, five-bay, center hall dwelling supported by a raised brick foundation. Inside, the hall runs the length of the lower level with two rooms on each side. The other floor contain two large rooms and one small one. Two one-story ells are located off each corner of the building and are also supported by a brick foundation. The exterior walls are clad in weatherboards and the hipped roof in seamed metal. Two large interior end chimneys are present in the main block of the house and in the rear gable ends of the ells. Between the ells across the rear elevation is a raised one-story shed-roofed porch which was screened in. The porch is no longer extant on the front facade. William C. Stewart, who owned the home during the Civil War, was imprisoned at Old Point by General Benjamin F. Butler because of his sympathy with and active loyalty to the Confederate cause. He died a couple of months after the Civil War ended and the daily farm management fell to his son, William until about 1870. After William H. Stewart left to pursue a career as a lawyer, Catherine, wife of William C. Stewart, continued on at Beechwood until her death in 1910. Catherine and William were buried in the family cemetery on the property. After Catherine’s death the property was inherited by the Stewart sons and remained in the Stewart family until 1958 when the parcel and house were sold to Jack B. and Lampy Cartwright. Beechwood is one of the few large antebellum houses still standing in Chesapeake.

William Henry Stewart organized and was elected the first Captain of the Jackson Greys. He was wounded three times during the war (Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor), promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and served as the commander of the 61st VA Volunteer Regiment. He was promoted to Major on May 22, 1862, and Lieutenant Colonel on May 12, 1864. He surrendered on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville.

Old images of Beechwood

The Stewart Family Cemetery- 36.60582,-76.3176. The cemetery, when I visited in October 2025, was very overgrown.

The pictures below are from findagrave when the cemetery was better cared for.

From Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville