State Route 38 (SR 38) is a primary

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. 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 stairstep series of single-block 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 Amelia Academy is an independent co-educational college preparatory school in Amelia, Virginia. It was founded in 1964 as a segregation academy. The campus is located within the rural Piedmont region of central Virginia. History Amelia Aca ...

. 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 A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

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 structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

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 the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

at Appomattox on April 9. All of SR 38, plus extensions east to

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

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 deemed 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, the SR 38 designation was restored 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 to

US 360 U.S. Route 360 (US 360) is a spur route of US 60. The U.S. Highway runs , entirely within the state of Virginia, from US 58 Business, Virginia State Route 293 (SR 293), and SR 360 in Danville east to SR 644 in Reedville. US 360 connects D ...

. 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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038 38 may refer to: *38 (number) *38 BC *AD 38 *1938 *2038 Science * Strontium, an alkaline earth metal in the periodic table * 38 Leda, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Other uses *.38, a caliber of firearms and cartridges ** .38 Special, a re ...

State Route 038