Wynne's Mill

Wynne's Mill, also known as Wynn's or Winn's Mill, was one of two antebellum tide mills on the Warwick River. Important for grinding grain and sawing lumber, mills were one of the primary economic cogs in agrarian Warwick County. In 1862, Wynne's Mill became part of the southern defenses built across the Peninsula to stall Union forces advancing toward the Confederate capital at Richmond. The second line of fortifications stretched from Mulberry Island and Lee's Mill to Wynne's Mill and the batteries at Yorktown. The redoubt and earthworks at Wynne's Mill helped support nearby Dam No. 1, where the river had been purposely backed up to make passage impractical for artillery and infantry. During the month-long siege, Confederate soldiers there suffered from exposure and enemy fire. Lieutenant Robert H. Miller of the Concordia Rifles wrote that he and his men had dug rifle pits and were compelled to eat, sleep, and stand in them from day to night and from night to day, and that the fire was so deadly that zig-zag trenches, or bayous, were needed to reduce exposure moving to and from the works. On April 11, Cadmus Wilcox sent a strike force from Wynne's Mill that drove enemy skirmishers back from the river's edge into their entrenchment. On April 16, Union troops crossed the Warwick River at Dam No. 1 and briefly entered Confederate works before being forced back across the water. As the siege dragged on, balloons occasionally rose over the lines from Wynne's Mill, Lee Hall, and Yorktown to observe Federal siege preparations. On the evening of May 3, after General John B. Magruder decided to retreat, the Confederates opened a tremendous bombardment to cover their withdrawal toward Williamsburg, and by morning the trenches at Wynne's Mill were empty.

Virginia · United States