State Route 38 (SR 38) is a primary
state highway in the U.S. state of
Virginia. Known for most of its length as Five Forks Road, SR 38 runs from
U.S. Route 360 Business (US 360 Business) in
Amelia Court House east to
SR 153 at
Scotts Fork.
Route description
SR 38 begins at an intersection with US 360 Business (Goodes Bridge Road) in Amelia Court House. In Amelia, SR 38 makes a series of stairstep right-angle turns at the courthouse square: It heads south on Virginia Street, turns east onto Court Street, turns south onto Washington Street to follow the east side of the courthouse property, turns east onto Church Street, and turns south onto Five Forks Road, passing
Amelia Academy. One mile south of Church Street, at
Amelia County High School, SR 38 turns east, at a junction formerly called Five Forks.
From this intersection,
SR 614 runs northwest as Otterburn Road and south as Dennisville Road; and SR 38, still named Five Forks Road, heads east through countryside for 5.9 miles to SR 153 (Military Road) at Scotts Fork. Scotts Fork marks the eastern terminus of SR 38, but the roadway continues east as
SR 602 (Bevils Bridge Road) into
Chesterfield County toward
Petersburg.
History
SR 38 follows a portion of the route
taken by
Confederate general Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...
and
his army in their retreat westward during the final days of the
Civil War. Confederate forces, hoping to reach a promised delivery of desperately needed rations at the
Court House
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
rail depot, had just fought an inconclusive battle at
Namozine Church on April 3, 1865. Lee surrendered to
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...
at
Appomattox on April 9.
All of SR 38, plus extensions east to
Sutherland and northwest to
Tobaccoville, was State Route 406 before the
1933 renumbering. At that time, SR 38 was assigned to the piece from Amelia Court House east to Sutherland; Amelia Court House to Tobaccoville became part of
State Route 49. In the
1940 renumbering, SR 49 was greatly truncated, and SR 38 was extended northwest over former SR 49 to Tobaccoville. SR 38 east of the south junction with SR 153, a section of "little primary significance", was transferred to the secondary system in 1951 as SR 708; the rest of SR 38 east of Amelia Court House became an extension of SR 153. However, later that year, SR 38 returned to the piece from Amelia Court House to the SR 153/SR 708 junction, and SR 153 was rerouted to go north from Scotts Fork. The
overlap
Overlap may refer to:
* In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram.
* In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases
* Ove ...
with SR 153 has since been removed. The piece of SR 38 from Tobaccoville via
Morven to Amelia Court House became
SR 681 in 1954.
Major intersections
References
External links
Virginia Highways Project: VA 38
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State Route 038