Young’s Mill, one of the few remaining tide mills on the Peninsula, stands near several surviving redoubts and rifle pits, the last remains of the Confederate 1st Peninsula Defensive Line. Since the Colonial era, Deep Creek had a dam, pond, and mill at this site, and the dam provided an important crossing for the Great Warwick Road linking Hampton, Newport News Point, Warwick Court House, and Williamsburg. The present mill was built in the 1820s by the Youngs, local landowners who owned nearby Denbigh Plantation. After the June 10, 1861, Battle of Big Bethel, Confederate commander John Bankhead Magruder established three defensive lines across the Peninsula, and Young’s Mill became the western strong point of the 1st Defensive Line, which extended east to Harwood’s Mill and along the Poquoson River to Ship’s Point. The fortifications near the mill served as the Confederate forward base for operations against Federal forces at Camp Butler. When Union forces advanced against Richmond, 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, but Magruder abandoned the 1st Defensive Line for a stronger stand on his 2nd Defensive Line along the Warwick River to Yorktown. Keyes’ troops passed through the entrenchments at Young’s Mill with little resistance, and Union Private Wilbur Fisk recalled that they drove the enemy from the fortified position, occupied it that night, and found a village of huts or barracks showing that the Confederates had enjoyed more comfortable winter quarters. By April 4, the Union army had made good progress, and from Young’s Mill Keyes expected to reach the Half-Way House the next day.
