Flowerdew Hundred Plantation: Difference between revisions

The plantation survived the [[Indian massacre of 1622]] with only six deaths, remaining an active and fortified private plantation unlike many others in the area, such as the Citie of [[Henricus]] and [[Martin's Hundred]], that were abandoned. The first windmill erected in English North America was built at Flowerdew Hundred by 1621, and was an English [[post mill]]. In 1624, [[Abraham Piersey]], Cape Merchant of the Virginia Company, purchased Flowerdew Hundred renaming it Piersey's Hundred. Piersey’s Stone House was the first home with a permanent foundation in the colony. The 1624 Muster lists approximately sixty occupants at the settlement, including some of the first Africans in Virginia.

Throughout the seventeenth century, Flowerdew Hundred continued to prosper with the establishment of a secondary settlement. In 1683, with the passage of the king’s Advancement of Trade Act, Flowerdew Towne was formed down river, but it was not very successful within the James River planter economy. Sometime after 1720, a ferry ran from Flowerdew Hundred across the stretch of the James known as "Three Mile Reach" to the north bank of the James. An ordinary or tavern was eventually built there for the convenience of the passengers.

The Civil War came to Flowerdew in June 1864 when the Commanding General of the Armies of the United States [[Ulysses S. Grant]] ordered his men to cross the James River in an effort to outflank Gen. [[Robert E. Lee]] and capture the City of Petersburg and its rail hub that was vital to the Confederate war effort. In support of the Overland Campaign, the Corps of Engineers, in a remarkable feat of construction, built a [[pontoon bridge]] across the James in one evening, that setsetting a record for the longest floating bridge ever built. Grant’s Crossing from [[Weyanoke, Virginia|Weyanoke]] to Flowerdew (or Wilcox Landing as it was then known) held this record until [[World War II]]. The Army of the Potomac with three corps and a supply train crossed the river in about three days heading for [[City Point, Virginia|City Point]] to begin the [[Siege of Petersburg]]. The site of the pontoon bridge was “found” again in 1986 by Eugene Prince and Taft Kiser. Using Prince’s Principle,<ref name="Purser and Prince">{{cite web |url= http://www.archaeocommons.org/sha2006forum/viewtopic.php?p=3063& |title= The Principle Then and Now: An Update on Photography for Discovery and Scale |author= Margaret S. Purser ([[Sonoma State University]]) and Eugene Prince ([[University of California, Berkeley]]) |work= The Society for [[Historical archaeology|Historical Archaeology]] |date= November 2005 |quote= In 1988 Gene Prince of the [http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/ Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology] published a short note in ''[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]]'' entitled "Photography for discovery and scale by superimposing old photographs on the present-day scene." The technique he'd developed was simple, relatively low-tech and low cost, and lent itself to a myriad of applications. Dubbed "Prince's Principle" by [[Ivor Noel Hume]], the technique has had a fascinating if not highly publicized career. In the intervening years, it has been used for purposes of site location, architectural reconstruction, and public interpretation. Experiments have extended the application from historical photographs to paintings and lithographs, and have reproduced the technique digitally for website applications. }}</ref> a simple 35&nbsp;mm camera, a cypress tree on the riverbank, and an [[Alexander Gardner (photographer)|Alexander Gardner]] [[photograph]] taken in 1864, they were able to place the bridge into the modern landscape. A dead limb on a cypress tree in the Gardner photograph was still present 122 years later and confirmed the location as the site of the crossing.

*Dawson, Henry B., ‘’Battles''Battles of the United States’’States'', (Vol. I. New York. 1858).

*Deetz, James, ‘’Flowerdew''Flowerdew Hundred: the Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation 1619-1864’’1864''. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993).

*Frassanito, William A., ‘’Grant''Grant and Lee, the Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865’’1865'' (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983).

*Hatch, Charles E., ‘’The''The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624’’1624'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1957).

*Huston, James A. "Grant's Crossing of the James" (''The Military Engineer''. 1953. Vol. XLV, No. 303. P. 18-22).

*Jester, A., ed., ‘’Adventures''Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia 1607-1624/5’’5'' (Alexandria: Order of First Families of Virginia, 1987).

*Hume, Ivor Noël, ‘’The''The Virginia Adventure’’Adventure''. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf. 1994).

*Prince, Eugene. "''Antiquity"''. (March, 1988. Vol. 62, No. 234. P. 113-116).