Breakthrough • Pamplin Historical Park • Monuments & Markers • Petersburg Timeline
About Rohoic Dam
Rohoic Dam was built to flood land along Petersburg’s defensive line. Rohoic Creek ran in front of the Boydton Plank Road defenses on the south side of Petersburg. The large earthen dam was 300 feet long, 50 feet tall, 100 feet thick at the base, and 30 feet wide at the top. The resulting lake was half a mile wide and 30 feet deep in places, creating an insurmountable barrier to Union attacks.
After the war the dam was not maintained. It eventually broke, and the wall of water washed away everything on the way to the Appmottox Rover, including the canal and the Southside Railroad. It was not rebuilt.
Text from the moument
Rohoic Dam
Erected by Genl. R.E. Lee
Aug. 1864
Erected April 2, 1914
By A.P. Hill Camp S.C.V.
Location of the monument
The Rohoic Dam monument is on the west side of Dupuy Road about 100 yards north of Boydton Plank Road. (37° 11.882′ N, 77° 26.568′ W)
- The intersection is .95 mile west along Boydton Plank Road from the Squirrel Level Road interchage with I-85.
- It is .75 miles east of east along Boydton Plank Road from Stop Four, the last stop on the Petersburg Western Front Auto Tour.
- It is about 1/2 mile west along Boydton Plank Road from the Battery 45 monument and the Cottage Farm S43 Virginia Historic Marker, which are only 100 yards apart.