{"nrhp_refnum":"03000568","name":"Lee's Mill Earthworks","other_names":["Mill Tract","121-0050"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"280 Rivers Ridge Cir.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport News","county":"Newport News","state":"VA","lat":37.16732873350006,"lon":-76.55318483147138,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-06-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A wooded Civil War earthwork site on the Warwick River in Newport News, Virginia, made up of rifle pits and a redoubt built by the Confederates between summer 1861 and spring 1862 as part of the Warwick-Yorktown defensive line.","why_significant":"The earthworks were a strong point in Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's twelve-mile Warwick-Yorktown line. The April 5, 1862 Battle of Lee's Mill halted Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan's flanking maneuver and led to a three-week siege. The site is also linked to Confederate engineers Isaac St. John and Alfred Rives and is described as among the best surviving examples of the line.","narrative":"Rifle pits and a large redoubt survive in a wooded tract beside the Warwick River in Newport News, remnants of the Confederate defensive line built across the Virginia Peninsula in 1861 and 1862. Engineers Isaac St. John and Alfred Rives, serving under Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder, laid out the works on bluffs above Richard D. Lee's gristmill, and soldiers and enslaved laborers dug them. The redoubt held two cannons, and its remains include a surrounding ditch, gun ramps, and depressions where bomb proofs and a magazine once stood. On April 5, 1862, Confederate defenders here stopped a Union advance under Brig. Gen. William Smith, delaying McClellan's march toward Richmond and prompting a siege of the line that lasted about three weeks. Today a trail and a Civil War Trails sign serve visitors, and housing and Fort Eustis border the site. The property was bought in 1995 to prevent its destruction by developers.","period_of_significance":"1861-1862","architect_builder":"Rives, Alfred; St. John, Isaac","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Wooded public park with a walking trail, parking lot and interpretive sign; the earthworks survive under forest cover, though the powder magazine has collapsed and the bomb proofs are now depressions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.211875-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/95/6820/41682095/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/03000568.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000568/7e2f467cfb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000568/7e2f467cfb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Petra Holden","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lee%27s_Mill_Marker,_1862.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Petra Holden</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lee%27s_Mill_Marker,_1862.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682095","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee%27s_Mill_Earthworks","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16894077"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/newport-news/lees-mill-earthworks-03000568/"}