In the American Civil War, the Peninsula Campaign was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater.

The Confederate strategy of the early portion of the Peninsula Campaign became one of delays, providing vital time for defenses to be built outside Richmond.

General Magruder had been an amateur actor, and was successful in the early stages of the Peninsula Campaign partially by using elaborate ruse tactics to appear to have a much larger force than he actually had.

Stephen Sears, the author of the To The Gates of Richmond, described the demonstrations of his limited troops, which included marching back and forth behind the lines with great fanfare to appear to be a larger force, as "performances of the Prince John Players."

To defend against attacks of the Native Americans, in 1632, the people of the Virginia Colony had constructed a line of palisades across the six miles (9.7 km) of land between the same two creeks, although it was slightly to the west, and also long gone by 1862.

Colonel Benjamin S. Ewell, leader of the 32nd Virginia Infantry had been trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy at West Point and most recently serving as the President of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

[2] In May 1861, he was charged by General Robert E. Lee, who was the commander of Virginia's military forces at the time, with the development and construction of the Williamsburg Line.

[3] As the Peninsula Campaign developed, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston moved his army east to reinforce Magruder and meet the challenge presented by McClellan's forces.

The point at which the fort was built had the strategic topographical advantage of being a very narrow piece of land, bounded on the west by Tutters Neck Pond and on the east by Cubb's creek, restricting access to the town of Williamsburg beyond.

The former site of Fort Magruder is located about one mile (1.6 km) east of the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg off Penniman Road, which is the James City County-York County boundary line in the immediate vicinity.

Only a few such objects have been found in the United States, and this particular bottle, bearing the name of a manufacturer in eastern Pennsylvania, probably came with Union troops occupying the redoubt after the Battle of Williamsburg.