Fort Huger stood one mile northeast at Hardy’s Bluff on Lawne’s Neck as a Civil War earthen fortification. Virginia State Engineer Col. Andrew Talcott authorized it and other forts to block any Union naval advance up the James River to Richmond. Beginning in July 1861, enslaved and freed blacks assisted in its construction. In 1862, it formed the right riverine flank of Confederate Gen. John B. Magruder’s Peninsula defenses. Union gunboats engaged Fort Huger on 8 May 1862, and USS Monitor shelled it on the 12th. After several bombardments, Confederate forces abandoned it by 19 May.