The Bilharz, Hall, & Co. weapons factory site is located on the east side of Chatham's North Main Street, a short distance north of the Pittsylvania County Courthouse.
Virginia's governor, Major General William “Extra Billy” Smith, C.S.A., briefly moved his operations from Danville to Chatham at the end of the war, thus making Chatham, in effect, Virginia's capital for a day.
Lee's mapmaker Jed Hotchkiss was in Chatham when he heard news of the surrender at Appomattox.
Lt. Col. Rawley White Martin, CSA, of Chatham, led the 53rd Virginia Regiment including Company I, the Chatham Greys, to the “high water mark of the Confederacy” during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. However, lacking reinforcements, all of the Chatham Greys were killed, wounded, or captured.
Pvt. James Lafayette Oakes, CSA, of Blairs, with his dog Kate during his later years.
President John Tyler's daughter Letitia Tyler Semple took refuge in Chatham to escape fighting around her home on the Peninsula. Her estranged husband, Capt. James A. Semple, was Confederate paymaster in Danville at the time of the surrender and the simultaneous mysterious disappearance in Danville of the Confederate treasury's gold.
Sgt. John Richard Whitehead, Company G, 6th Virginia Cavalry, CSA.
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