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. Te 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.

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First Peninsula Defense Line
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