Kingsmill, Virginia
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.
The Kingsmill area is between the north bank of the James River just east of the site where the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown was established in 1607 and Interstate Highway 64. Highway access to most of the area's businesses and attractions is from U.S. Route 60 between the eastern city limits of Williamsburg and the adjacent community of Grove, or from Virginia State Route 199, which forms a semi-circular beltway of sorts around Williamsburg's southern side.
History
Kingsmill Plantation
A prominent member of the Virginia Company, Richard Kingsmill, became the namesake of the Kingsmill Plantation. The Virginia Company was a for-profit organization chartered in England which was charged with the founding and settlement of Virginia under the reign of King James I. Richard Kingsmill was given one of the first land grants of in the southwest area of what later became a much larger plantation. Elizabeth Kingsmill married Col William Tayloe and he inherited the land from her father. After his death in 1655, the administrator for his estate Col William Tayloe sold 1,200 acres to Lewis Burwell II in 1693. In the mid-1730s, British Colonel Lewis Burwell III established a plantation which he named Kingsmill Plantation. It included a mansion, outbuildings and garden. He was the colonial customs inspector for the upper James River. Along the river, Burwell's Landing, site of his inspection station, also featured a tavern, storehouse, warehouse, and ferry house. Quarterpath Road extended between Burwell's Landing and Williamsburg.The Kingsmill area saw action during the American Revolutionary War. During most of the 19th century, the house was owned by several related men named William Allen, who also owned plantations in Surry County, as well as Curles Neck downriver in Henrico County. The Kingsmill manor house burned in 1843, before William Allen had reached legal age and shortly before his mother had purchased nearby Jamestown Island on his behalf. A Confederate sympathizer and perhaps the wealthiest man in Virginia in 1860, he continued to operate the plantation using enslaved labor, but by the terms of his inheritance, was required to preserve the property for his eldest son. Only the office and the kitchen still stand; they are among the earliest brick dependencies still extant in Virginia.
American Civil War
Action during the American Civil War also skirted Kingsmill Plantation lands. In 1862, Union troops under Major General George B. McClellan engaged in a failed attempt to seize the Confederate capital of Richmond. Slowly and carefully, much to the frustration of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, McClellan assembled huge naval forces and a massive siege train of land-based troops, arms and supplies around a staging area based at the union stronghold of Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, where the harbor of Hampton Roads had been under federal control via siege for about a year already.Forces under McClellan for what has become known as the Peninsula Campaign dwarfed all previous American expeditions at the time, transporting 121,500 men, 44 artillery batteries, 1,150 wagons, over 15,000 horses, and tons of equipment and supplies. An English observer remarked that it was the "stride of a giant."
McClellan's plan initially was to utilize the James and York rivers, especially the former, which was known to be navigable to Richmond, in combination with his land-based forces, to attack simultaneously and overwhelm the unknown resources of the rebels at Richmond. However, even as several months were spent through the winter of 1862 training new troops and bringing these many Union assets into position, the portion of the scheme which depended upon control of the James River ran into trouble. In March, the Battle of Hampton Roads between the first ironclad warships took place. Although the conflict between the two ships was inconclusive, the new technologies were to change naval warfare dramatically, and control of the harbor of Hampton Roads was brought into serious question.
Although the Union never lost control of the entrance to the harbor, and was able to retake Norfolk and Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth shortly thereafter, Union ships were unable to move past heavily defended Drewry's Bluff east of Richmond along the James River. It appeared unlikely that situation would improve. McClellan realized that his plan to take Richmond would almost certainly depend upon his land forces alone.
In early April 1862, McClellan's massive siege train began moving cautiously westerly up the Peninsula toward the Confederate citadel. Throughout the campaign, McClellan was convinced that he was facing much larger opposing forces than he was. At times, he even estimated these forces to greatly outnumber his own, frequently and bitterly complaining to Lincoln, who had withheld from McClellan a much smaller force of federal troops to maintain a defensive position around Washington, D.C.
The Confederate strategy of the early portion of the Peninsula Campaign became one of delays, providing vital time for defenses to be built outside Richmond. The advancing Union forces were confronted with a series of three defensive lines erected across the Peninsula, which were manned primarily by greatly outnumbered forces led by General John B. Magruder. The first, about north of Fort Monroe, contained infantry outposts and artillery redoubts, but was insufficiently manned to prevent any Union advance. Its primary purpose was to prevent the Union from learning much about the second line. Known as the Warwick Line, this second, and by far largest of the three defensive lines, was about a dozen miles east of Williamsburg, along the Warwick River. It was anchored by Yorktown on the north and Mulberry Island on the south. It consisted of redoubts, rifle pits, and fortifications behind the Warwick River. By enlarging two dams on the river, the Confederates developed the river as a significant military obstacle in its own right. The third defensive line was a series of forts just east of Williamsburg, which waited unmanned for use by the army if it had to fall back from Yorktown.
Although greatly outnumbered, defenders along the first and second lines under former thespian "Prince" John Magruder took advantage of the poor visibility due to the seasonally heavy undergrowth of the naturally-wooded and swampy terrain. They used elaborate ruse tactics and guerrilla raids to intimidate McClellan and his leaders into thinking they were facing far larger forces, which increased their caution and greatly slowed their progress westward. Stephen Sears, the author of the To The Gates of Richmond, described Magruder's having his troops march back and forth behind the lines with great fanfare to appear to be a larger force, as "performances of the Prince John Players." Magruder's efforts appeared successful, as the ever-cautious McClellan moved very slowly with his forces. These were substantially larger than those of the Confederate defenders, even when the latter were reinforced by the arrival of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Joseph E. Johnston. Meanwhile, the Confederates built their long defensive line outside Richmond.
While there were several armed conflicts with loss of life, after finally overtaking the first line and meeting minimal resistance, McClellan chose to carefully amass his troops and plan a major offensive, taking the better part of 30 days to do so. He had huge cannons brought up the York River by ship and installed in a position favorable for his planned assault of Yorktown. The night before McClellan was finally positioned to launch his major offensive against Warwick Line, the Confederate troops quietly withdrew and retreated toward Richmond via Williamsburg. Discovering only empty works and Quaker gun in the abandoned fortifications on May 3, McClellan sent his cavalry racing after the escaping Confederates. He also loaded a division of infantry aboard ships to sail up the York River to the west in an attempt to outflank the Confederates' apparent retreat toward Richmond.
Only two roads led from the abandoned Warwick Line to be used by the massive equipment and numerous troops of the Union siege train in pursuing the fleeing Confederates, who had a head start. These were the Williamsburg-Yorktown Road and the Williamsburg-Lee's Mill Road. They converged about east of Williamsburg. The weather had been rainy, and both armies slogged along the dirt roads of the sandy terrain. These undoubtedly became deeper in mud and more difficult to traverse.
The Williamsburg Line was the third line of defensive fortifications across the Peninsula. It was anchored by College Creek, a tributary of the James River, on the south and Queen's Creek, a tributary of the York River on the north. Under the leadership of local planter Benjamin S. Ewell, president of the College of William and Mary, a series of 14 redoubts were built along the line. Named Fort Magruder, Redoubt Number 6, was the center of the convergence of the roads from Yorktown and Lee's Mill. It was shaped as an elongated pentagon, with walls high and nine feet thick. The earthworks were protected by a dry moat nine feet deep. It mounted eight guns. Several of the redoubts were just east of the Quarterpath Road, which lead from Williamsburg to the landing for Kingsmill Plantation on the James River.
Despite the significant head start of the southern forces, cavalry forces from each side met, and began skirmishing on May 4. Union General George Stoneman's cavalry encountered and began skirmishing with Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, the Confederate's rearguard. Learning of this, and frustrated by the slow progress of his own forces which were passing through Williamsburg, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston detached a portion of his troops to confront the advancing Union troops. On May 5, 1862, the single-day Battle of Williamsburg took place. During the day, several groups of Union troops battled with Confederates near the Williamsburg line, with much of the action at or near Fort Magruder. Confederate casualties, including the cavalry skirmishing on May 4, were 1,682. Union casualties were 2,283.
Although McClellan claimed a Union victory in his reports, and he took the Williamsburg Line within slightly more than 24 hours, most historians rate the Battle of Williamsburg as a Confederate victory. The Williamsburg Line had served its intended purpose. The primary goal of the defenders had been to enable the retreat of the main Confederate force to the defenses of Richmond, and this was accomplished.
Those Union forces sent up the York River by McClellan met limited success in stopping fleeing rebels. Their conflict on May 7 became known as the Battle of Eltham's Landing. That conflict in New Kent County was little more than a heavy skirmish, resulting in 194 Union casualties and 48 Confederate. The remaining battles of McClellan's campaign were fought either outside the gates of Richmond or during his later retreat to the protection of the Union Navy at Harrison's Landing.
In the areas along the Williamsburg Line, including the Quarterpath Road north of modern-day Virginia State Route 199 and along U.S. Route 60, portions of the redoubts were preserved. This includes the core of Fort Magruder. Several additional preserved redoubts remain along the Colonial Parkway north of Fort Magruder.