The Chickahominy River is a 87-mile-long river in eastern Virginia which rises 15 miles northwest of Richmond and flows into the James River. In 1607, the English explorer John Smith sailed up the river with the mistaken belief that it would lead him to the Pacific Ocean, and he was captured by the local Chickahominy tribe, for which the river is named. It later became a major obstacle for the Union forces during the American Civil War, particularly during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862.