Markers and Remains of Newport News-- Part 3: Skiffes Creek and Lowe's Balloon

SKIFFES CREEK REDOUBT--

22 Enterprise Drive.  Earthwork that was part of the Skiffes Creek Line built to defend Mulberry Island and the James River during the 1862 Peninsular Campaign.

WARWICK COURT HOUSE

1401 Old Courthouse Way.  1810 courthouse was Union General Erasmus D. Keye's IV Corps Army headquarters.  Professor Thaddeus Lowe's gas balloon Constitution provided reconnaissance of Confederate troop movements from here.

--Old Secesh

Markers and Remains of Newport Defenses-- Part 1

From the Newport News (Va.) Department of Parks site.

Markers:

BATTLE OF DAM #1:  Newport News Park at 13564 Jefferson Avenue.    On April 16, 1862, this engagement was Union Gen. George B. McClellan's only major attempt to break attempt to break through the Confederate lines constructed by Gen. John B. Magruder.  Five miles of earthworks remain.

BATTLE OF LEE'S MILL--  180 River's Ridge Circle.  Earthen fortifications were the scene of an April 5, 1862, engagement that prompted McClellan to besiege the Confederate Warwick-Yorktown Defensive Line during the 1862 Peninsular Campaign.

--Old Secesh

Confederate Defenses at Newport News, Va.-- Part 2

From North American Forts.

Confederate forces fortified around Newport News before the Peninsular Campaign started.

Union works opposing Dam #1 Battery still exist.

WYNN'S MILL REDOUBT--  and supporting earthworks in the upper Warwick River in York County.  (about 3000 yards south of the RED REDOUBT in Yorktown) are still extant and well-preserved.

YOUNG'S MILL REDOUBT--    (4 guns) on Deep Creek, at 13055 Warwick Boulevard, near Oyster Point Road, was part of the Poquoson River Line.

HOWARD'S BRIDGE REDOUBT--  ( 4 guns)

HARWOOD'S MILL REDOUBT--  (1 gun)  These last two were near Tabb in York County.  (Both may no longer exist.)  Confederates evacuated this line in April 1862.

--Old secesh

Confederate Defenses of Newport News-- Part 1

From North American Forts.

There are about ten miles of preserved Confederate earthworks from the 1862 Peninsular Campaign are located along the Warwick Line in various city parks.

These include:

Dam #1.  Battery (1 gun) at Newport News Park on Constitution Way.

Lee's Mill Redoubt  (3 guns) at River's Ridge Circle (Lee's Mill Park).  There is a Confederate "Lee's Mill Earthworks" state marker at Warwick Boulevard at Lee's Mill Drive.

Lee Hall mansion (built 1858) on Yorktown Road (admission fee).

Skiffe's Creek redoubt (3 guns) at 22 Enterprise Drive.

--Old Secesh

Mulberry Island Point Battery and Land's End Battery

These are by Fort Crafford, Virginia.

The Confederate Engineer Bureau was asked in 1862 to compile a list of fortifications in the Confederacy.  Part of their March 12, 1862, report to Secretary of War Judah Benjamin said  that the Mulberry island Point Battery had five 42-pdr. guns mounted en barbette and two 8-inch Columbiads enroute to the site.  Fifteen casemates building rapidly and a large covering work nearby (Fort Crafford) nearly completed.

There is also a map of Fort Huger & Mulberry Point Battery with soundings.  This was made by  Confederate Engineers.  This is available at Amazon for $15.

I have been unable to find out anything about the Land's End Battery, the 2-gun battery that North American Forts mentions might have been built.

--Old Secesh

Fort Crafford, Va.-- Part 5: Built to Cover the Water Battery

From North American Forts.

Built 1862 in Newport News, Confederate 16-gun earthwork fort near Mulberry Point in modern Fort Eustis military reservation.  Built to cover the four-gun water battery built in 1861, Mulberry Island Point Battery, (no remains).

Abandoned to Union forces who never did use it afterwards.

Three magazines and two bombproofs remain today within existing earthworks.

The foundation of the 1749 Crafford House (demolished 1924) are also within the fort's walls.

Another small 2-gun battery may have been located at the southern end of the island (Land's End Battery) to cover the mouth of the Warwick River.

Public access to the site restricted.  require at the gate of Fort Eustis.

--Old Secesh

Fort Crafford, Va.-- Part 4: Never Saw Action

The Mulberry Point Battery, on the north side of the island, was a water battery erected to guard the Swash Channel on the James River.  It was a complement to Fort Huger on the south side of the river.

In 1862 and enclosed earthwork covering approximately eight acres was constructed near the battery to protect it from land attack and to be a refuge in case the Minor Farm Line was overrun.

This new fort was eventually called Fort Crafford (sometimes confused with the name Crawford) after the name of the family that owned the land.  The house itself was inside the fort.Since this new fort was about a half mile from the Warwick Line, it was not considered a part of it

Confederates withdrew from the fort in May 1862 with the approach of McClellan's troops.  The fort never saw action.

The foundation of the Crafford House was investigated in the 1970s.  The brick and mortar foundation is now surrounded with a fence.  Other archaeological investigations have found three sites within the fort with artifacts dating to the 1600s.

--Old Secesh

Fort Crawford (Va.)-- Part 3: Fort Crafford?

The first place I read about this fort referred to it as Fort Crawford, but I was unable to find out anything about it in search other than a Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin.  Evidently, it is actually Fort Crafford, taking its name from the family that owned the land where the fort was built.

From Wikipedia.

Fort Crawford was a pentagonal earthwork built 1862 and became part of the Confederacy's Warwick Line established to thwart Union soldiers coming up the Virginia Peninsula from Fort Monroe.  It was the James River terminus of the line and included fortifications at Lee's Mill as well as Dam No. 1 and Wynne's Mill in Newport News Park.  This line extended to the York River to the north.

--Old Secesh

Fort Crawford (Va.)-- Part 2: Evacuated With McClellan's Approach and the Stolen Commission

From various sources.

Confederates under Gen. John B. Magruder fortified the James River shore to deter Union ships from proceeding upriver and attacking Richmond.

In 1861 they built Fort Crawford on Mulberry Island and it was abandoned a year later as Union Gen. McClellan and his 125,000 troops approached.

One of the families on the island were the Greens.  Their son Bennett Green had become a surgeon in the Confederate Navy.  Homes left abandoned by Southerners on the island were ransacked by Union troops.  One man found Bennett's commission and took it as a souvenir, but years later returned it to the Green family.

--Old Secesh

Fort Crawford, Virginia (Fort Eustis Now)

I wrote about Fort Crawford, a Confederate fort, in my Not So Forgotten War of 1812 blog today.  Today the fort is part of Fort Eustis Army Base, which was named after Abraham Eustis, a War of 1812 veteran and first commander of Fort Monroe.  It was also used during both world wars.

For more information go to the site on My Blogs List to the right of this and click on Not So Forgotten.

--Old Secesh