April 4-5 and 16, 1862 - Peninsula Campaign: Young's Mill; Battle of Lee's Mill; Battle of Dam No. 1; Endview

April 4-5 and 16, 1862

Battle of Lee's Mill; Battle of Damn No. 1; AKA the Battle of Burnt Chimneys

Newport News, VA

 

McLellan: Union IV Corps- Brig. Gen. Erasmus Keyes > Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith's Division (Three Brigades) @ Lee's Mill; plus Vermont Boys (3rd Volunteer Infantry) and Mott's 3rd New Yorkers @ Young's Mill and Damn No. 1 

vs.

Lee: McGruder> (One Division) from Brig. Gen Lafayette McLaws Brigade w/ Peninsula Artillery; 15th NC and Cobb's Georgia Legion @ Damn No. 1  

* Lee's Mill is a minor battle with big impact: it convinced McClellan to besiege Yorktown rather than push further up the peninsula. 

* It's a bit crazy that Lee's Mill is AKA Damn No. 1 - they are two different events eleven days apart, but pieces of the same Union campaign up the VA peninsula. 

* Damn No. 1 includes the first assault by the Army of the Potomac upon an entrenched line.

Visiting the site of the Battle of Lee's Mill starts in a heavily populated suburban neighborhood outside Newport News. "Lee's Mill Historic Park" is essentially just a small green space nestled between residents, but goes right up to Warwick River too. Here's the plan....

"Battle of Lee’s Mill

Flames Appeared on all Sides

— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

The fortifications that appear before you are all that remain of the extensive Confederate fortifications defending the Warwick River crossing at Lee’s Mill.

After an uneventful march up the Great Warwick Road through Young’s Mill on April 4, the Union IV Corps resumed its march up the Peninsula the next day determined to reach the Half-way House between Williamsburg and Yorktown. The lead division, commanded by Brig. Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith, found its progress slowed first by torrents of rain that made the roads almost impassable and then by Brig. Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ 1,800 Confederate troops with three guns at Lee’s Mill. Smith reported that as his men approached the Warwick River “flames appeared on all sides.” and he halted the Union advance.

Maj. Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes, Union IV Corps Commander, immediately realized that his flanking movement to trap Magruder at Yorktown was stymied and wrote McClellan from Warwick Court House that “Magruder is in a strongly fortified position behind the Warwick River, the fords to which have been destroyed by dams, and the approaches to which are through dense forests, swamps and marshes. No part of this line as discovered can be taken without an enormous waste of life.”

Brig. Gen. John G. Barnard, the Union Army of the Potomac’s chief engineer, concurred and remarked that the “ line is certainly one of the most extensive known to modern times.” The little engagement on April 5, 1862, at Lee’s Mill cost the Confederates ten casualties, but it had far reaching importance. Brought up standing before the unexpected array of extensive enemy entrenchments, McClellan resolved to deploy the 103 heavy guns he had brought to the Peninsula and besiege Magruder’s defenses."

"all that remain of the extensive Confederate fortifications defending the Warwick River crossing at Lee’s Mill."

"The Warwick-Yorktown Line

1862 Peninsula Campaign

On May 24, 1861, Confederate Col. John Magruder assumed command of the Peninsula’s defenses. The Confederate capital at Richmond was only 80 miles from Fort Monroe, and “Prince John” Magruder did not have enough artillery or men to capture the Union stronghold. Instead, he fortified points along the James and York rivers to block any Union advance toward Richmond.

From local reconnaissance, Magruder formulated plans for three lines of fortifications. The first defensive line went from Young’s Mill on Deep Creek across the Peninsula to Ship’s Point on the Poquoson River. The second line stretched from Mulberry Island, following the swampy Warwick River, to within one mile of Yorktown and linked with the fortifications around the port. The third line consisted of 14 redoubts between College and Queen’s creeks. The Warwick-Yorktown Line was the strongest line, its flank anchored by the batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester Point on the York River and Fort Crafford and Fort Boykins along the James River. The Confederates strengthened this 12-mile line by adding three dams to the Warwick, which created an almost impassable barrier. There were already two antebellum grist mill dams at Lee’s Mill and Wynne’s Mill.

Capt. Isaac St. John and Capt. Alfred Rives (engineers on Magruder’s staff) designed the Lee’s Mill earthworks built between the summer of 1861 and the spring of 1862. This was a strategically vital point that commanded Lee’s Mill dam over which the Great Warwick Road crossed the Warwick. Confederate soldiers and slaves dug rifle pits and redoubts overlooking the river. Col. Antoine de Marigny’s 10th Louisiana camped at Lee’s Mill during the winter, and Private Edward Seton noted in March 1862: “Appearances here are quite changed all breast-works have been renewed and all the timber cut down.” St. John and Rives had the timber on the bluffs cleared for a good field of fire and prepared the fortifications at this important crossing to repel the coming Union advance."

More, again, from two unphotographed markers on the historic park's trail loop.

"The Battle of Lee’s Mill

1862 Peninsula Campaign

In March of 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac landed at Fort Monroe and Camp Butler. This large force contained 121,500 soldiers, 44 batteries of field artillery and 101 heavy siege cannons. Confederate Maj. Gen. John Magruder, promoted for his June 10, 1861 victory at the Battle of Big Bethel, rightly viewed his situation as precarious and requested more cannons and troops for the Peninsula’s defenses.

On April 4, 1862, the Army of the Potomac moved up the Peninsula in two columns. The III Corps marched from Fort Monroe up the Hampton-Yorktown Road toward the Yorktown defenses, and the IV Corps advanced up the Great Warwick Road from Camp Butler toward the Halfway House between Yorktown and Williamsburg. Gen. McClellan planned to trap the Confederates in a two-pronged maneuver with the III Corps holding Magruder’s forces at Yorktown while the IV Corps blocked their retreat toward Williamsburg.

The Battle of Lee’s Mill on April 5, 1862, stopped the Union flanking movement. Gen. McClellan’s maps incorrectly showed the Warwick River flowing parallel to the James River. Therefore, he was unaware that Warwick flowed from near Yorktown and blocked the Union advance. Lee’s Mill was defended by one brigade from Brig. Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ division and supported by Capt. Joseph Cosnahan’s Peninsula Artillery. Brig. Gen. William F. Smith’s division led the Union advance from the Warwick Court House towards Lee’s Mill. Lt. Col. John Weems marched four companies of the 10th Georgia Infantry across the river to skirmish with the advancing Union soldiers. Moreover, Capt. Cosnahan’s two cannons in the extreme right redoubt dueled with Capt. Charles Wheeler’s Battery E, 1st New York Light Artillery and forced their withdrawal. Halted by the Confederate defenses, Gen. Smith deployed his three brigades under heavy fire along the Warwick. Brig. Gen. Erasmus Keyes, IV Corps commander, reported to McClellan that “No part of this line as far as discovered can be taken by assault without an enormous waste of life.” The Battle of Lee’s Mill only cost the Confederates seven casualties and the Union twelve, but it thwarted McClellan’s plans and convinced him to besiege the Warwick-Yorktown line."

"Union Occupation

1862 Peninsula Campaign

The Battle of Lee’s Mill set the stage for an elaborate ruse as Gen. Magruder maneuvered his troops along the 12-mile line and created the illusion of double his numbers. Moreover, Gen. McClellan was daunted by the Confederate defenses and had siegeworks and 15 separate batteries for the heavy siege cannons and mortars erected between April 5 and May 4, 1862. Gen. Joseph Johnston arrived mid-April with three divisions that increased the Confederate force to 56,000. The only real battle occurred at Dam No. 1 on April 16, 1862, when the 3rd Vermont Infantry broke through the Confederate defenses. The Green Mountain boys did not receive reinforcements and retreated under heavy fire. McClellan wasted this opportunity, and his siege operations provided the Confederate high command time to prepare Richmond’s defenses and reorganize their army.

Gen. Johnston criticized the Peninsula’s defenses and believed that Richmond was best defended nearer the capital. President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee wanted the Union Army held at the Warwick-Yorktown line. During the summer of 1861, Gen. Lee had counseled Magruder that "A defensive line between Yorktown and Mulberry Island by damming and defending the Warwick River promises the happiest results." Johnston, however, argued that McClellan outnumbered and outgunned his forces. The Union commander scheduled the grand barrage of the Confederate defenses for May 5, 1862. Johnston disobeyed orders and retreated on the night of May 3, 1862.

The Confederate artillery covered the night march toward Williamsburg. The Union soldiers, who occupied the Warwick-Yorktown line on May 4, 1862, discovered a new type of weapon. The Confederates buried subterra torpedoes (land mines). As the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry occupied Lee’s Mill, Sergeant Caldwell stepped on a torpedo which was calmly extinguished by Private Albert Barry pouring his canteen over the smoking shell. Not all encounters were bloodless and at least three dozen Union troops were injured and one civilian telegraph operator died. The Union Army occupied Yorktown and pursued the retreating Confederates. The May 5, 1862 Battle of Williamsburg delayed the Union pursuit and allowed Johnston’s forces to retreat safely to Richmond. The Peninsula Campaign continued for another two months, culminating in McClellan’s defeat during the Seven Days battles around Richmond."

As promised, the Warwick River seen from the site of the battle.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=11331

"Overlooking one of the James River’s tributaries, Lee’s Mill is a watershed property with a long history of settlement. The Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederation hunted and fished along the banks of the Warwick River. During the 1600s, English settlers established tobacco plantations along the Warwick River and other major waterways. The tobacco harvests were floated down on barges to Hampton Roads for transatlantic shipment. The Warwick River and its marshes teemed with waterfowl, game birds, mammals, fish and shellfish which provided sustenance for the English settlers. Beyond transporting tobacco and providing habitat for game, the Warwick also supplied power for local industry.

The Peninsula switched to grain production after the American Revolution. By 1810, Warwick County farmers no longer cultivated tobacco and focused on truck crops and livestock farming. Truck crops were shipped to Richmond and Norfolk by the James River and its tributaries. Grist mills were established on most of the Peninsula’s waterways to process corn and wheat. By 1860, there were two grist mills and one saw mill on the Warwick. Earlier in 1856, Mr. Richard D. Lee purchased a 30-acre tract along the Warwick River and established a grist mill. In 1860, Lee’s Mill ground 12,000 bushels of corn, reaping a profit of $9,900. The grist mill was destroyed during the Civil War, and the Warwick River was altered with the creation of the Lee Hall Reservoir in the early twentieth century.

Today, the Lee’s Mill site contains oak, hickory and pine timber. The forest and marshes support white-tailed deer, gray squirrel, opossum, rabbit, raccoon and other small mammals. Canada geese and other waterfowl find habitat along the river and the Lee Hall Reservoir. Moreover, the woods contain several species of owl, hawk and a variety of songbirds. This natural area also contains preserved Civil War fortifications and provides green-space in a rapidly developing area."

"Fortification Design

1862 Peninsula Campaign

The Confederate field fortifications constructed on the Virginia Peninsula were influenced by seventeenth-century French military engineer Marshal Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban and nineteenth-century American engineering professor Dennis Hart Mahan. Vauban designed superior fortresses with many fronts and bastions which presented an impenetrable defense in depth. He also revolutionized siegeworks by developing a system of parallels and zig-zag trenches for reducing fortresses with only minimal casualties to the attacking force. Vauban built over 30 fortresses, conducted 50 sieges, and wrote several engineering texts during his 50-year military career. His designs and writings influenced military engineers into the twentieth century.

Mahan graduated from West Point in 1824 and studied military engineering in Europe from 1826-30. He spent his last year at the French military school of engineers and artillery in Metz. There he read texts influenced by Vauban. Mahan returned to West Point in 1830 and taught there until 1871. As professor of engineering, Mahan instructed virtually every West Pointer who later served in the Confederate or Union armies. He wrote many articles and books during his 39-year tenure. His Triest on Field Fortifications was used extensively by Civil War engineers for constructing redoubts, bastion fortifications, redans and other earthworks.

The fortifications at Lee’s Mill contained two types of earthworks detailed in Mahan’s book. The first was the breastwork with its chest-high parapet and interior ditch for protecting infantrymen. The second was the redoubt for mounting artillery pieces. This many sided fortification provided protection from enemy fire and slowed their advance. Confederate engineers Isaac St. John and Alfred Rives astutely situated the earthworks along the Warwick River and three redoubts above on the heights. Their fortification designs incorporated the natural landscape and delayed the Union advance from Fort Monroe and Camp Butler at Newport News Point."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10196

"Lee’s Mill, a pre-war tide mill, formed part of Confederate Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder’s second Peninsula defensive line. When Union Gen. George B. McClellan began his Peninsula Campaign, his advance against Richmond was blocked here on 5 April 1862. Elements of the Union IV Corps led by Brig. Gen. William F. Smith skirmished with Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. Lafayette McLaws at Lee’s Mill. The Federals believed that the extensive defenses could only be taken with heavy casualties, and Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan besieged Yorktown from 3 April to 3 May 1862 rather than assault the fortifications."

We are going to talk about Skiffes Creek here/now too if that's OK with everybody. It's at the other end of the Yorktown-Warwick line; the end that is not Yorktown. 

"Skiffes Creek

The Defense of Mulberry Island

— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

The redoubt before you is one of five earthworks built by the Confederates to help defend the Mulberry Island/James River flank of Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder’s 2nd Peninsula Defensive Line. This series of redoubts (of which only two remain) stretched from Lee’s Mill on the Warwick River to Skiffes Creek, thereby blocking any Federal flanking movement by way of Mulberry Island or Skiffes Creek.

Until the emergence of the powerful ironclad ram CSS Virginia (Merrimack), Magruder had been concerned about his small force’s ability to effectively fortify its James River flank. He wrote Gen. Robert E. Lee in early 1862 that he could “only hope that Yorktown and Mulberry Island will be made impregnable, else the Peninsula and perhaps Virginia overrun.”

The fortifications constructed throughout Mulberry Island (actually a peninsula jutting into the James River bounded by the Warwick River and Skiffes Creek) are a good example of Magruder’s extensive effort to defend this invasion route to Richmond. Despite being plagued by a lack of troops and artillery, Magruder’s troops, supported by as many as 600 to 1,000 slaves a day, built extensive fortifications throughout Mulberry Island. Entrenchments at Land’s End and Brick House Creek, as well as batteries at Mulberry Island Point and redoubts near Skiffes Creek, were all supported by Fort Crawford. Fort Crawford was the largest earthwork within the 2nd Defensive Line. The fort covered 8 acres with inner walls almost 20 feet high and armed with 8 heavy cannon.

Magruder considered the fortifications on Mulberry Island capable of withstanding a month-long siege; however, these earthworks did not play a major role in the Warwick River–Yorktown Siege because of the Virginia’s (Merrimack) ability to block the James River to Union use. The Mulberry Island and Skiffes Creek fortifications were abandoned on May 3, 1862, when the Confederate army began its retreat towards Richmond."

IDK- lost in NOVA

You may recall a passing reference to Young's Mill, also along the Peninsula defensive line. The skirmish here occurred on April 4th with all the major players from the action at Lee's Mill on the 5th. So sorry- this part should have come first. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=184974
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=184973

"Magruder considered the fortifications on Mulberry Island capable of withstanding a month-long siege; however, these earthworks did not play a major role in the Warwick River–Yorktown Siege because of the Virginia’s (Merrimack) ability to block the James River to Union use. The Mulberry Island and Skiffes Creek fortifications were abandoned on May 3, 1862, when the Confederate army began its retreat towards Richmond."

And from that Civil War Trails marker hiding next to the bench:

Young’s Mill

Magruder’s First Peninsula Defensive Line

— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

The mill located behind you is one of the few remaining tide mills on the Peninsula. In the woods across the private road to your left are several redoubts and rifle pits. These fortifications are all that remain of the Confederate 1st Peninsula Defensive Line.

Since the Colonial era, Deep Creek has had a dam and a pond here with a mill. The dam provided an important crossing over Deep Creek for the Great Warwick Road, a dirt roadway that connected Hampton, Newport News Point, and Warwick Court House with Williamsburg. This mill was built in the 1820s by local landowners, the Youngs, who owned nearby Denbigh Plantation.

Following the June 10, 1861, Battle of Big Bethel, Confederate Commander John Bankhead Magruder decided to establish three defensive lines across the Peninsula. Young’s Mill became the western strong point of the 1st Defensive Line, which stretched eastward to Harwood’s Mill and followed the Poquoson River to Ship’s Point. The fortifications constructed near the mill became the Confederate forward base for operations against the Federal forces at Camp Butler.

When the Union forces began their advance against Richmond, Union Gen. McClellan sent Brig. Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes’ IV Corps up the Warwick Road to flank the Confederate positions by way of the Half-Way House west of Yorktown. Magruder abandoned the 1st Defensive Line for a more resolute stand at his 2nd Defensive Line along the Warwick River to Yorktown.

Keyes’ troops moved through the Confederate entrenchments at Young’s Mill encountering little resistance, as Union Private Wilbur Fisk recounted, “We drove the enemy from a position they had fortified and that night occupied the place ourselves. The rebels left quite a village of huts or barracks, and from appearances, they had enjoyed much more comfortable quarters during the winter than we had ourselves.”

The Union army had made good progress on April 4, and from Young’s Mill, Gen. Keyes expected to be able to reach the Half-Way House on the morrow."

Back of the mill

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10175

"Earthworks on the hillside above mark the southernmost of three fortified cross-peninsula defense lines built by Confederate Gen. John B. Magruder in the spring of 1862 and extending three miles from Deep Creek here at Young’s Mill, to the Poquoson River at Harwood’s Mill. Although rated formidable by Union Gen. C.D. Keys, this line was abandoned in favor of a firm stand on the second defense line at Lee’s Mill, April 5, 1862."

Awesome map from the CW Trails marker showing various lines of defense along the Peninsula. And this representation has convinced me to do "Dam Number 1" here and now too. So here it is

"Battle of Dam No. 1

The Water Boiled with Bullets

— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

You are presently standing at the site of Dam No. 1, one of three dams constructed by Confederate commander John Bankhead Magruder to make the sluggish Warwick River into a defensive barrier. Dam No. 1 was the mid-point between two prewar tide mills at Lee’s Mill and Wynne’s Mill. The Union attack against the Confederate earthworks across the river on April 16, 1862, would veer to the left of the existing foot bridge. 

On April 5, 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Union army found its progress toward Richmond blocked by the Confederate fortifications at Lee’s Mill. As the Union commander investigated the entire Warwick-Yorktown line, “Prince John” Magruder “played his ten thousand before McClellan like fireflies,” wrote diarist Mary Chestnut, “and utterly deluded him.” McClellan, despite outnumbering the Confederates almost ten to one, resolved to besiege the Southern defenses.

Southern soldiers expected an assault at any time, as Surgeon James Holloway of the 18th Mississippi wrote, “why they do not attack is strange for they have a heavy force and every day’s delay only gives us the opportunity to strengthen our defenses.” An attack finally came on April 16, 1862, when McClellan ordered Brig. Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith, USA, to disrupt the Confederate control of Dam No. 1.

On the morning of April 16, Union artillery, including Mott’s 3rd New York Battery, began shelling the Confederate earthworks. By noon it appeared as if the Southerners had abandoned their defenses, and at 3:00 p.m. Smith sent 200 men of the 3rd Vermont forward as skirmishers. The Vermonters dashed across the river and captured the first line of rifle pits held by the 15th North Carolina. The Federal troops, however, were forced to withdraw under the stress of a vicious counterattack by Cobb’s Georgia Legion since their ammunition was wet and they had not received any reinforcements. The water “Boiled with bullets” as the Vermonters recrossed “that fatal stream.” A second attempt to capture Dam No. 1 failed to reach the Confederate lines as the Southerners had reinforced the position. The engagement resulted in 165 Federal and 145 Confederate casualties. Pvt. Wilbur Fisk, of the 2nd Vermont, called the battle, “nothing but a dam failure.”

The April 16, 1862, Battle of Dam No. 1 (also called the Battle of Burnt Chimneys) was a missed opportunity for the Union to break the Warwick River defenses. Two Federal soldiers, Capt. Samuel E. Pingree and musician Julian Scott, were awarded the Medal of 

Honor for heroism during the short, vicious fight along “a creek with a wide dam, which drank the blood of many of our men.”

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=180522

"Ten Pound Parrott Rifle and Limber

The Civil War Parrott Rifle was a muzzle loaded rifled cannon capable of firing a 10 pound projectile about 3000 yards at 12º elevation. Invented by Robert P. Parrott, the cast iron Parrott Rifle gave greater accuracy and a larger effective range compared to the more commonly used smooth-bore Napoleon.

The barrel of this cannon is an original, manufactured in 1864 at West Point Foundry, Cold Spring, New York. The gun carriage and limber are cast iron replicas. The limber, to which the horses were attached, carried a chest containing tools and items necessary for firing the cannon. When the cannon was actually firing the limber was located about 10 yards behind the cannon.

During the battle of Dam No. 1 the 3rd New York Artillery used 10 pound Parrott Rifles to support the assault of the 3rd Vermont Infantry."

"Mott’s Battery

1862 Peninsula Campaign

On April 4, 1862, Major General George B. McClellan launched his offensive on the Virginia Peninsula against the Confederate capital at Richmond. Major General John B. Magruder’s 13,000 troops halted the Union advance along the Warwick-Yorktown line on April 5, 1862. With aggressive troop maneuvers and artillery duels, Magruder deceived McClellan into believing he faced impregnable fortifications defended by over 100,000 troops. “Our reconnaissance of yesterday,” reported McClellan, “shows the strength of the enemy’s positions. The Warwick River grows worse the more you look at it.” For the next month, McClellan concentrated 121,500 troops, 103 siege guns, and 44 artillery batteries against the Confederate defenders.

This earthwork, part of McClellan’s extensive siege works, marked the second position of Captain Thaddeus Mott’s 3rd New York Battery during the April 16, 1862 Battle of Dam No. 1. Mott’s battery, containing two 12-pound Napoleon smoothbores and four 10-pound Parrott rifles, supported the strike against the Confederate one-gun battery at Dam No. 1. During the engagement, Mott’s battery suffered ten casualties, and Confederate counter-battery fire disabled one of the Parrot rifles."

"Following the 10 June 1861 Battle of Big Bethel, Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Confederate Army of the Peninsula, organized the construction of three defensive lines of fortifications across the peninsula. The main line extended 12 miles from Yorktown to the Warwick River and downstream to Lee’s Mill, then westward to Skiffes Creek, which flowed into the James River at the Mulberry Island Point battery. When Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan began his Peninsula Campaign to capture Richmond, the Warwick River fortifications blocked the progress of Army of the Potomac on 5 April 1862. McClellan ordered a siege that lasted from 5 April to 4 May 1962."

"Third RegimentVermont
Volunteer Infantry

April 16, 1862(left side)3rd Regiment
Vermont Volunteer Infantry
Col. Breed N. Hyde Commanding

1st Brig., Smith's Div.
4th Corps Army of Potomac

April 16, 1862
Killed: 26, Wounded: 63
Medal of Honor
Recipients
Julian A. Scott
1846—1901
Drummer Co. E
Samuel E. Pingree
1832—1922
Captain Co. F(right side)Near this SpotFour companies of the 3rd Vermont Regiment made the first assault by the Army of the Potomac upon an entrenched line. Led by Captain Samuel Pingree they crossed the Warwick River on a reconnaissance of the Confederate position. Occupying several rifle pits on the far shore, the Vermonters held off four Confederate Regiments for nearly an hour. Not being reinforced, the Vermonters withdrew through the rivers swollen waters carrying their wounded while the Confederates kept up a steady shower of musket balls striking the water like hail in a storm."

**************************************************

And finally, here's Endview plantation, first occupied by the Rebs, then the Yanks: 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185292

"Endview Plantation

Building a House and a Nation

Situated halfway between the James and York Rivers and adjacent to the Warwick River, Endview Plantation occupies a strategic spot on Virginia's Lower Peninsula. The main house was built in the 1760s by William Harwood, a member of the sixth generation of his family to cultivate crops on this land. At the time of the home's construction, political tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies were also building. During the American Revolution, Endview's occupants witnessed military activity during the 1781 Siege of Yorktown, four miles northeast of this spot.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis owned Endview. As captain of the Warwick Beauregards, he organized local volunteers to protect life and property from advancing Union forces. However, by the spring of 1862 the Curtis family were among the estimated 200,000 residents of Confederate states who fled their homes due to safety concerns. Members of the Curtis household relocated to the region around Danville, Virginia for the duration of the war.

Endview became a campground and hospital for Confederates, serving as headquarters for Brigadier Generals Lafayette McLaws and Robert Toombs. In early May 1862, the Confederate Army withdrew from its Warwick-Yorktown line of defenses as the Union Army occupied the entire Lower Peninsula. Later in 1862, Endview was used as a Union army camp.

When the war ended in 1865, displaced property owners began to return home. Endview was returned to Dr. Curtis by the United States government on November 7, 1865. The property was owned by Curtis family descendants until 1985."

"Sidebar: 

John L. Harwood, the brother of Humphrey K. Harwood, was a Confederate veteran. Harwood enlisted on May 27, 1861, in Company H of the 32nd Virginia Infantry Regiment. His cousin, Dr. Curtis, organized and drilled Company H on Endview’s lawn. Private Harwood was slightly wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, and was later captured at Saylor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. He died in Norfolk, Virginia in 1890."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=59727

"This traditional farmhouse was probably built for William Harwood around 1769. His great grandson, Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis, acquired the plantation in 1858. In May 1861, Dr. Curtis organized the Warwick Beauregards (Company H, 32d Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment) and commanded them until May 1862. Confederate Generals Lafayette McLaws and Robert Tombs used Endview as their headquarters during the early stages of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. Union regiments camped here as part of the Federal occupation of nearby Yorktown. Dr. Curtis regained possession of Endview (also called Curtis Farm) after the Civil War and his descendants continued to live here until 1985."

Endview

Home of the Warwick Beauregards

— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

The white two-and-a-half story frame building in front of you in the distance is Endview. Endview was built circa 1760 by Col. William Harwood, Jr., who was a member of the House of Burgesses, a signer of the Virginia Resolves, and a Warwick County militia officer. When the French-American army began its march to begin the Revolutionary War’s Siege of Yorktown on September 28, 1781, Maj. Gen. Thomas Nelson, Jr.’s, 3,000-strong Virginia militia used Endview as a campground. Because of its location at a midpoint between the James and York rivers, Endview once again served as an important militia muster point and campground during the War of 1812.

When the Civil War erupted Endview was owned by Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis. Dr. Curtis organized local volunteers into the Warwick Beauregards (Co. H, 32rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry) at Endview and was elected the unit’s captain. Endview became a major campground and hospital for Confederates during the early stages of the Peninsula Campaign. Once the Southern army withdrew from its Warwick River – Yorktown defenses, the Union army occupied Endview and used the building as a hospital during 

the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg."

I didn't quite make it to Williamsburg or Yorktown parts of the Peninsula Campaign - -yet. I'll be back...after the Valley Campaign....

Sources include:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/lees-mill

https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/lees-mill-rivers-ridge-circle

https://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/620416d.html