Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the south side of the James River.

He ordered Lt. Col. Simcoe and some Queen's Rangers to spike the guns near Hood's fort on the eastern edge of the property and then continued to the capital of Richmond, setting it afire.

He married the last Poythress heiress and bought up the surrounding tracts that were part of the original land grant that had been sold off during the 18th century.

In 1804 they built a new farmhouse on the high ridge overlooking the fertile bottom lands along the James, but maintained their primary residence in nearby Petersburg.

The Army of the Potomac with three corps and a supply train crossed the river in about three days heading for City Point to begin the Siege of Petersburg.

Using Prince's Principle,[5] a simple 35 mm camera, a cypress tree on the riverbank, and an Andrew Joseph Russell photograph[6] taken in 1864, they were able to place the bridge into the modern landscape.

A dead limb on a cypress tree in the Gardner photograph was still present 122 years later and confirmed the location as the site of the crossing.

The old Willcox house was torn down in 1955 though a magnolia planted in 1840 still survives in the yard of the large mansion that was built on its former site in the late 20th century.

The original land grant of 1,000 acres contains over 60 archaeological sites ranging from archaic Native American encampments to twentieth century homesteads.

Archaeological investigations began at Flowerdew in the late 1960s and continued through 1995, when archaeologist James Deetz led the final excavation within the original limits of the fortified area.