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The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, approximately 184 mi (294 km) in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge, or Blue Ridge Mountains, is a Physiographic regions of the world of the larger Appalachian Mountains division. The province consists of the Northern and Southern physiographic sections, which divide near the Roanoke River gap....
 in the west across the Piedmont
Piedmont (United States)

Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New Jersey in the north to central Alabama in the south....
 to Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
 south of the Potomac
Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. The river is approximately 383 statute miles long, with a Drainage basin of about 14,700 square miles ....
. Due to its continued significance as an obstacle to north-south movements, it effectively functioned as the Eastern Theater boundary between the "North" (the Union
Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the Federal government of the United States of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America....
) and the "South" (the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America formed as the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern United States U.S. state of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S....
) during the Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
.






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Encyclopedia


The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, approximately 184 mi (294 km) in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge, or Blue Ridge Mountains, is a Physiographic regions of the world of the larger Appalachian Mountains division. The province consists of the Northern and Southern physiographic sections, which divide near the Roanoke River gap....
 in the west across the Piedmont
Piedmont (United States)

Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New Jersey in the north to central Alabama in the south....
 to Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
 south of the Potomac
Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. The river is approximately 383 statute miles long, with a Drainage basin of about 14,700 square miles ....
. Due to its continued significance as an obstacle to north-south movements, it effectively functioned as the Eastern Theater boundary between the "North" (the Union
Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the Federal government of the United States of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America....
) and the "South" (the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America formed as the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern United States U.S. state of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S....
) during the Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
. An important river in U.S. history, it was the site of early settlements in the Virginia Colony and was later at the center of major theater of battle in the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
. It drains an area of 2,848 sq mi (7405 kmē), approximately 6% of the state of Virginia. Much of the watershed is rural and forested but has seen growing development in recent decades with the southward expansion of the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....


Rappahanockmap

Description


The Rappahannock rises in the mountains at Chester Gap in Rappahannock County, Virginia.It flows southeast past Remington
Remington, Virginia

Remington is a small, incorporated town in Fauquier County, Virginia, Virginia, United States. The population was 624 at the United States Census 2000....
 and through Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg, Virginia

Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., and 58 miles north of Richmond, Virginia....
. Southeast of Fredericksburg it widens into a brackish tidal estuary approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, flowing past Tappahannock
Tappahannock, Virginia

'Tappahannock is the oldest town in Essex County, Virginia, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,068 at the 2000 census. Located on the Rappahannock River, Tappahannock is the county seat of Essex County, Virginia....
 on the southern shore. It enters Chesapeake Bay approximately 15 mi (24 km) south of the mouth of the Potomac between Windmill Point and Stingray Point
Stingray Point

Stingray Point is a small community on the Chesapeake Bay near the village of Deltaville, Virginia in Middlesex County, Virginia. It is located at the eastern terminus of State Route 33 ....
, approximately 50 mi (80 km) east of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the Capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county....
. The estuary
Estuary

An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
 of the river south of the Northern Neck
Northern Neck

The Northern Neck is the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This peninsula is bounded by the Potomac River on the north and the Rappahannock River on the south....
 peninsula provides for oyster
Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
 and crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
 fishing.

It is joined by the Rapidan River
Rapidan River

The Rapidan River is the largest tributary of the Rappahannock River in North-central Virginia. The two rivers converge just west of the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia....
 from the west approximately 10 mi (16 km) northwest of Fredericksburg.

Above the fall line in Fredericksburg the Rappahannock provides fine opportunities for canoeing and kayaking. Most of the rapids are class I and II, but near Remington there are some rapids that are considered class III.

History


The name of the river comes from an Algonquian language
Algonquian languages

The Algonquian languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic languages language family ....
 word lappihanne (also noted as toppehannock), meaning "river of quick, rising water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows." This name was taken from the name given to it by the local native population the Rappahannock Tribe
Rappahannock Tribe

The Rappahannock are a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas....
.

The settlement of the river valley began in the 1710s with the urging of Governor Alexander Spotswood
Alexander Spotswood

Alexander Spotswood was a lieutenant colonel in the British Army and a noted Lieutenant List of Governors of VirginiaAlexander Spotswood was born in the Tangier Garrison, Morocco, Africa about 1676 to Catharine Maxwell and her second husband, Dr Robert Spottiswoode , the Chirurgeon to the Garrison....
. The James River
James River (Virginia)

The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is a long river, including its Jackson River source. It drains a Drainage basin comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people ....
 had been surveyed up to its fall line, and Spotswood encouraged settlement in a separate river valley. In 1714 he encouraged settlement by immigrants from the Palatinate and Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 on lands he controlled near Germanna
Germanna

Germanna was a German people settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony....
 in order to extract the iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
 ore deposits of the region.

During the American Civil War the river provided a recurring barrier and defensive line for the movement of troops. It was an especially difficult barrier for Union
Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the Federal government of the United States of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America....
 troops in attempts to advance into southern Virginia. Control of the river changed hands multiple times during the course of the war. Significant battles fought along the river include the Battle of Fredericksburg
Battle of Fredericksburg

The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, from December 11 to December 15, 1862, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate States Army Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major general Ambrose E....
 and the Battle of Rappahannock Station, fought in 1862. The defensive line of the river was finally circumvented by Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant , was an United States general and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States ....
 in the Overland Campaign
Overland Campaign

The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War....
 of 1864, resulting in the final Union victory in the war. In some 18th and 19th century documents, including some Civil War records, the Rappahannock River was also referred to as "Hedgeman's River"; a 1736-1737 survey showed the Rappahannock above the mouth of the Rapidan as "Cannon", and further upstream as "Hedgeman's River."

See also



External links