Battle of Lee’s Mill-Flames Appeared on all Sides - Newport News VA - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

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

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/26/2023 Don.Morfe visited it