Originally built in 1623 as “The Castle” to protect colonists against “Spaniards by sea and Indians by land,” the fort was rebuilt during the Revolutionary War and renamed Fort Boykin in honor of Major Francis Boykin, and it was activated again during the War of 1812 to defend Virginia against the British. Its steep cliffs and commanding view of the James River later made it an important Confederate position for the defense of Richmond, and it was quickly manned after Virginia’s secession from the Union. The poet Sidney Lanier was among the Confederate soldiers stationed there in the war’s early months, and while serving at Boykin he wrote “Beautiful Ladies,” “Hoe Cakes,” and began the novel Tiger Lilies. Fort Boykin formed the south side anchor of Major General John Bankhead Magruder’s Confederate arc of fortifications, the 2nd Peninsula Defensive Line, which stretched from Burwell’s Bay across the James River to Mulberry Island, then followed the Warwick River to Yorktown and crossed the York River to Gloucester Point. With help from the ironclad ram CSS Virginia (Merrimack), this defensive system blocked Major General George Brinton McClellan’s advance toward Richmond during the initial phase of the Peninsula Campaign. After Norfolk fell to the Union and the Virginia was destroyed, the James River opened to the Union fleet. On May 8, 1862, the USS Galena, USS Minnesota, and USS Susquehanna shelled Fort Boykin, and because the Federal fleet’s guns out-ranged those of the fort, the Confederates abandoned the earthwork. The Union ships returned on May 17th and blew up the fort’s powder magazines, ending its 239-year career defending the Commonwealth against its enemies.