Seven Pines is a community located in the unincorporated town of Sandston in Henrico County, Virginia. Cemetery records state the name is derived from for a group of seven pine trees planted within the national cemetery in 1869 near the intersection of the old Williamsburg-Richmond Stage Road and the Nine Mile Road, however, the name Seven Pines pre-dates the establishment of the cemetery. Earlier maps and records, especially those from the American Civil War, commonly refer to the location as Seven Pines. Today, the surrounding area is still referred to as Seven Pines although it lies within the census-designated place of Sandston and uses Sandston postal addresses.
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not governed by a local municipal corporation; similarly an unincorporated community is a settlement that is not governed by its own local municipal corporation, but rather is administered as part of larger administrative divisions, such as a township, parish, borough, county, city, canton, state, province or country. Occasionally, municipalities dissolve or disincorporate, which may happen if they become fiscally insolvent, and services become the responsibility of a higher administration. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. In most other countries of the world, there are either no unincorporated areas at all, or these are very rare; typically remote, outlying, sparsely populated or uninhabited areas.
Sandston is a census-designated place (CDP) in Henrico County, Virginia, United States, just outside the state capital of Richmond. The population as of the 2010 Census was 7,571.
Henrico County, officially the County of Henrico, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 306,935. In 2015, the population was estimated to be 320,717, making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia and the sixth-most populous county-equivalent in Virginia. Henrico County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. There is no incorporated community within Henrico County, therefore, there is no incorporated county seat either. Laurel, an unincorporated CDP, serves this function.
During the Civil War, several major battles of the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 took place nearby, including the Battle of Seven Pines (as named in Confederate records; the name in Federal records was Fair Oaks for the nearby town of that name), and the smaller engagements of Oak Grove, Golding's Farm, Allen's Farm, Savage's Station, and White Oak Swamp.
The Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat.
The Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks or Fair Oaks Station, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive up the Virginia Peninsula by Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, in which the Army of the Potomac reached the outskirts of Richmond.
Fair Oaks is an unincorporated community located in Henrico County, Virginia. Fair Oaks Station was located on the Richmond and York River Railroad and played a role in the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 during the American Civil War. A major battle was fought nearby, known variously as the Battle of Fair Oaks or the Battle of Seven Pines.
The local Seven Pines Elementary School takes it name from the town.
