page_title: Fort Powhatan
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Powhatan
caption_attribution_description: English: Original map located in House of Delegates, Office of the Speaker, Executive Communications, Oversized, Box 9, Folder 14. Although included in a report of 1821, this plan represents the fort as it looked in 1819, before the cannon was removed. This item is in the Map Collection of the Library of Virginia; please contact the Library's Archives Research Services department for more information. Available also through the Library of Congress web site as raster image. C. 1, Sept. 1969, photocopy, LVA; c. 2, 2004, color ink jet, LVA (original in Archives); March 2004, Map Cataloging Team. Civil War project no.: lva00190. Conservation: Etherington Conservation Center, Jan. 2004. Copy 1: Map accession no. 2911 (1969), (negative photostat, LVA, Sept. 1969, aprox. 43 x 60 cm.) Digital image available: 22 x 15.7 in. Previously filed as: 755.61 M6 1861-1865 1819 (1).
context_page_description: Fort Powhatan is a former river defense fort located at Windmill Hill near Garysville, Virginia, 2.5 miles southeast of Flowerdew Hundred Plantation in Prince George County, Virginia. The fort was named for the area's Powhatan tribe of indigenous people; the name is also an English term for their leader. It is on the south bank of the James River, sited to prevent enemy vessels proceeding upriver to Richmond. The first fort on the site was a two-gun battery called Hood's Battery, built in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War and named after the owner of the plantation it was on. In January 1781, British forces under Benedict Arnold attacked and dismantled the battery and went on to burn Richmond. Later that year a larger fort was built, named Fort Hood. In 1808 this was replaced by the federal government with Fort Powhatan, part of what was later called the second system of US fortifications. The fort was not attacked in the War of 1812. In 1862, during the American Civil War, Confederate forces added a new earthwork battery on the site; the fort area was captured by Union forces in 1863. The fort was abandoned at the end of the war in 1865.
context_section_description: Fort Powhatan is a former river defense fort located at Windmill Hill (also called Hood's Bluff) near Garysville, Virginia, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of Flowerdew Hundred Plantation in Prince George County, Virginia. The fort was named for the area's Powhatan tribe of indigenous people; the name is also an English term for their leader. It is on the south bank of the James River, sited to prevent enemy vessels proceeding upriver to Richmond. The first fort on the site was a two-gun battery called Hood's Battery, built in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War and named after the owner of the plantation it was on. In January 1781, British forces under Benedict Arnold attacked and dismantled the battery and went on to burn Richmond. Later that year a larger fort was built, named Fort Hood (or Fort at Hood's Bluff). In 1808 this was replaced by the federal government with Fort Powhatan, part of what was later called the second system of US fortifications. The fort was not attacked in the War of 1812. In 1862, during the American Civil War, Confederate forces added a new earthwork battery on the site; the fort area was captured by Union forces in 1863. The fort was abandoned at the end of the war in 1865.
caption: Plan of Fort Powhatan in 1819
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