Fort Crafford is a historic archaeological site located at Fort Eustis, Newport News, Virginia. It is a pentagonal-shaped earthwork located on Mulberry Island and built by Confederate forces in 1862. The earthworks on Mulberry Island are considered part of the Warwick Line. The purpose of these works was to prevent the Union from flanking the line on the James River. The fort formed the James River terminus of the second trans-peninsula defensive line, which included fortifications at Lee's Mill, as well as Dam No.1 and Wynne's Mill in Newport News Park.
Mulberry Point Battery, a water battery, guarded the Swash Channel along the James River. This battery was a complement to Fort Huger on the south side of the river. [3] In February 1862 a pentagonal earthwork enclosing approximately eight acres [4] was constructed inland from the Mulberry Point Battery to protect the battery from overland attack and to be a refuge for soldiers if the Minor Farm Line (a short rifle line constructed to defend the rear of the battery) was overrun. The fort was called the "covering work at Mulberry Island," or Mulberry Island Fort; later it became known as Fort Crafford after the owners of the land where it was built. Construction was overseen by Pvt. James P. Hopkins of the Warwick Beauregards, who was noted as illiterate but possessing uncanny abilities in design, clearing land, and construction. [5] This fort was not intended to be part of the main Warwick Line, [6] but was separated from it by about half a mile so that troops could withdraw from the line into the fort if necessary. [7] Confederate forces withdrew from Mulberry Island in May 1862 to move closer to Richmond, so Fort Crafford never saw combat. [8]
The foundation of the Crafford house located within the earthwork was excavated in the 1970s by amateur archaeologists of the Fort Eustis Historical and Archaeological Association. The brick and oyster-shell mortar foundation of the house remains, surrounded by a protective fence. [8]
In 1998, archaeologists from the Colonial Williamsburg Department of Archaeological Research conducted investigations into a seventeenth-century occupation of the area within the Civil War fortification. Three areas of seventeenth-century domestic activity were identified. [9]
Fort Crafford was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. [1]
James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg.
The Virginia Peninsula is located in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.
Fort Monroe is a former military installation in Hampton, Virginia, at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, United States. It is currently managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service, and the city of Hampton as the Fort Monroe National Monument. Along with Fort Wool, Fort Monroe originally guarded the navigation channel between the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads—the natural roadstead at the confluence of the Elizabeth, the Nansemond and the James rivers.
Drewry's Bluff is located in northeastern Chesterfield County, Virginia, in the United States. It was the site of Confederate Fort Darling during the American Civil War. It was named for a local landowner, Confederate Captain Augustus H. Drewry, who owned the property.
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Newport News on July 16, 1952. Located on the Virginia Peninsula on the northern bank of the James River between Hampton Roads and Jamestown, the area consisted primarily of farms and small unincorporated villages until the arrival of the Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881 and development led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington.
Fort Eustis is a United States Army installation in Newport News, Virginia. In 2010, it was combined with nearby Langley Air Force Base to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis.
Lee Hall is a community located in the extreme northern portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
Fort Magruder was a 30-foot-high (9.1 m) earthen fortification straddling the road between Yorktown and Williamsburg, Virginia, just outside the latter city during the American Civil War. At the center of the Williamsburg Line, it was also referred to as Redoubt Number 6.
Kingsmill is a geographic area in James City County, Virginia, that includes a large planned residential community, a resort complex, a theme park, a brewery, and a commercial park.
Mulberry Island is located along the James River in the city of Newport News, Virginia, in southeastern Virginia at the confluence of the Warwick River on the Virginia Peninsula.
The Warwick Line was a defensive works across the Virginia Peninsula maintained along the Warwick River by Confederate General John B. Magruder against much larger Union forces under General George B. McClellan during the American Civil War in 1861–62.
Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia, and operated as a partnership between Preservation Virginia and the U.S. National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park.
Quarterpath Road is one of the oldest roads in James City County and the independent city of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Camp Wallace was a facility of the United States Army located near the unincorporated town of Grove in southeastern James City County in the Virginia Peninsula portion of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States.
Fort Pemberton was one of the larger confederate forts was constructed in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina during the American Civil War. At the war's outset in 1861, it became evident that control of the western regions of James Island and the Stono River was to be an important element in the defense of the city. Confederate military authorities of the time believed that Union occupation of James Island would leave Charleston subject to attack from the southeast. From this position, the city would assuredly fall to the Union. Although there were many gun batteries in place along the south and east side of James Island, Fort Pemberton was the only fortress in defense of this region.
Fort Huger is a historic archaeological site located near Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The site is the location of an abandoned American Civil War fort on the south side of the James River across from Fort Eustis/Mulberry Point. It was named for Major General Benjamin Huger, commander of the Confederate States Army's Department of Norfolk at the time it was built. Fort Huger was an integral part of the Confederate Army's James River defenses in late summer 1861 through spring 1862.
The Matthew Jones House is a historic plantation house located on Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia. The house sits on a hill toward the northern end of Mulberry Island, overlooking the James River. It was built ca. 1725 as a one-and-a-half-story frame dwelling with brick chimneys and later underwent two major renovations. During the first renovation, in 1730, the walls were bricked in and a shed room and porch tower were added. During the second, in 1893, the house was raised to a full two stories. In 1918 the house and its surrounding land were acquired by the U.S. government for the establishment of an army post. By the late twentieth century, the Matthew Jones House had fallen into grave disrepair. In 1993 it was preserved and rehabilitated by the National Park Service in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Today it serves as an architectural museum.
Lee's Mill Earthworks is a historic archaeological site located at Newport News, Virginia. The earthworks formed part of the fortifications along the James River, which included fortifications at Fort Crafford, as well as, Dam No.1, and Wynne's Mill in Newport News Park. On April 5, 1862, advance units of Union Brigadier General Erasmus D. Keyes' IV Corps, under the command of Union Brigadier General William Farrar Smith, encountered Confederate units commanded by Brigadier General Lafayette McLaws at Lee's Mill. Heavy rains and massive earthen fortifications defending the river crossing stopped the Union troops from proceeding to Richmond. Confederate Major General John B. Magruder's extensive defensives beginning at Lee's Mill and extending to Yorktown along the Warwick River caused the Union Army of the Potomac Commander Major General George B. McClellan to initiate a month-long siege of the Warwick-Yorktown Line which lasted until May 3, 1862 and contributed to the eventual failure of McClellan's campaign.
Fort Boykin is a historic site in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, located along the James River. The history of the site is believed to date back to 1623 when colonists were ordered to build a fort to protect them from attacking Native Americans or Spanish marauders. Today the remains of the fort, mostly from the American Civil War, are preserved in a public park.
The Warwick Beauregards was a volunteer infantry company of 80 members in the Confederate States Army organized by Dr. (Capt.) Humphrey Harwood Curtis Jr. of Endview Plantation in May 1861.