Slowly and carefully, much to the frustration of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, McClellan assembled huge naval forces and a massive siege train of land-based troops, arms and supplies around a staging area based at the union stronghold of Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, where the harbor of Hampton Roads had been under federal control via siege for about a year already.

Forces under McClellan for what has become known as the Peninsula Campaign dwarfed all previous American expeditions at the time, transporting 121,500 men, 44 artillery batteries, 1,150 wagons, over 15,000 horses, and tons of equipment and supplies.

However, even as several months were spent through the winter of 1862 training new troops and bringing these many Union assets into position, the portion of the scheme which depended upon control of the James River ran into trouble.

Although the conflict between the two ships was inconclusive, the new technologies were to change naval warfare dramatically, and control of the harbor of Hampton Roads was brought into serious question.

The first, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Fort Monroe, contained infantry outposts and artillery redoubts, but was insufficiently manned to prevent any Union advance.

[6] Although greatly outnumbered, defenders along the first and second lines under former thespian "Prince" John Magruder took advantage of the poor visibility due to the seasonally heavy undergrowth of the naturally-wooded and swampy terrain.

They used elaborate ruse tactics and guerrilla raids to intimidate McClellan and his leaders into thinking they were facing far larger forces, which increased their caution and greatly slowed their progress westward.

Stephen Sears, the author of the To The Gates of Richmond, described Magruder's having his troops march back and forth behind the lines with great fanfare to appear to be a larger force, as "performances of the Prince John Players."

While there were several armed conflicts with loss of life, after finally overtaking the first line and meeting minimal resistance, McClellan chose to carefully amass his troops and plan a major offensive, taking the better part of 30 days to do so.

The night before McClellan was finally positioned to launch his major offensive against Warwick Line, the Confederate troops quietly withdrew and retreated toward Richmond via Williamsburg.

He also loaded a division of infantry aboard ships to sail up the York River to the west in an attempt to outflank the Confederates' apparent retreat toward Richmond.

Only two roads led from the abandoned Warwick Line to be used by the massive equipment and numerous troops of the Union siege train in pursuing the fleeing Confederates, who had a head start.

Under the leadership of local planter Benjamin S. Ewell, president of the College of William and Mary, a series of 14 redoubts were built along the line.

The remaining battles of McClellan's campaign were fought either outside the gates of Richmond or during his later retreat to the protection of the Union Navy at Harrison's Landing (better known in modern times as Berkley Plantation).

Located along a ridge of higher ground along the Virginia Peninsula midway between the York and James rivers, Williamsburg had been established in the early 17th century as a fortified settlement known as Middle Plantation.

An early plan to establish a relatively short canal to enable shipping to Williamsburg from either or both of the navigable waterways a dozen or less miles nearby was initiated.

For at least 140 years after 1781, Williamsburg was best known as the home of the often struggling College of William and Mary (established by Royal Charter by England's only joint monarchy in 1693).

On June 26, 1912, the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper ran an editorial which dubbed the town 'Lotusburg' for "Tuesday was election day in Williamsburg but nobody remembered it.

"[10] In the early 1880s, through the vision and efforts of railroad builder and industrialist Collis P. Huntington and his associates, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) had been extended from Richmond through Williamsburg to reach Newport News Point, at the confluence of the James and the Elizabeth rivers in Warwick County, where coal shipping facilities were established.

In the first half of the 20th century, much of the property in the area of the old Kingsmill Plantation was acquired by Standard Oil heir John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his associates and by Colonial Williamsburg.

Notable structures include the Capitol and the Governor's Palace, each recreated and landscaped as to what is known of their late 18th-century condition, as well as Bruton Parish Church and the Raleigh Tavern.

However, it was not long before the couple came to regard Williamsburg as their favorite and the town as one in which they felt "at home" according to statements to that effect made by their children and grandchildren.

In the late 1920s Rockefeller had attempted to acquire Shirley, long the seat of the Carter family, halfway between Richmond and Williamsburg, that he felt was the ideal plantation with which to supplement the historical messages of the colonial capital he was restoring.

The Carters did, however, agree, in 1928, to sell a Charles Willson Peale portrait of General Washington that they owned to Rockefeller for the sum of $75,000 (equal to approximately $1 million in 2015).

Additionally, while serving as both Governor of Arkansas and chairman of Colonial Williamsburg, Winthrop learned that Anheuser-Busch head August Busch, II was considering establishing a brewery and possibly other developmental investments in eastern Virginia.

While the details are unknown publicly, he and Busch apparently collaborated on a deal which resulted in the brewing conglomerate's development of diversified activities in the Williamsburg area, which grew to include not only the brewery, but the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park, and Kingsmill Resort, the Kingsmill on the James residential planned community, and several large commercial parks.

Along with the later acquisition of smaller nearby water park, the A-B developments this fostered in the Williamsburg community generated thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of new tax revenues.

Due to operational logistics, Carter's Grove Plantation was eventually sold (with restrictive covenants regarding use and future development) by Colonial Williamsburg.