Interest in American colonization led to the creation of the Virginia Company (chartered in 1606) by investors in London and South West England. In 1607, the Company's London branch established England's first permanent colony in North America at Jamestown, west of Chesapeake Bay. The colony survived because of experiments with tobacco as a commercial crop in 1612; local economy grew when exports to England grew to 15 million pounds by the late 1660s.
In October 1775, Virginia's last Royal Governor, The Earl of Dunmore, made his headquarters at Gosport, one mile south of here. After his defeat at Great Bridge and the destruction of Norfolk, he entrenched at Hospital Point, one mile north, but was driven out in May 1776. Portsmouth was again invaded by the British: Sir George Collier in 1779, General Leslie in 1780. The traitor Benedict Arnold and General Phillips in 1881. Here, on this Portsmouth waterfront in August 1781, Lord Cornwallis embarked 7000 troops and sailed to Yorktown where he surrendered to the victorious American and French forces, 19 October 1781.
During the early 1800s, Alexandria was the primier port on the Potomac River. In its harbor, ships unloaded their cargoes of Antigua rum, Puerto Rico coffee and Lisbon wines, as well as manufactured goods from Great Britain. The population was said to be 4971 in 1800, but grew to 6543 by 1808 and to 7143 in 1810.
Although Alexandria's shipping interests had been harmed by the undeclared naval war with France, trade soon rebounded. The Alexandria Advertiser editorialized in 1802, that
"Not more than two years since it was a rare thing to see a square rigged vessel in our harbour; we now have our wharves lined with vessels destined for foreign ports. Our merchants have generally received their fall goods, and we sincerely hope they will reap the reward of their labors..."
From 1801 to 1810, Alexandria shipped to foreign countries 613,895 barrels of flour and 233,139 bushels of wheat. The town's major markets were Portugal and Spain. The West Indies remained the best market for flour, taking nearly one- third of Alexandria's exports in addition to 35% of its corn. A large percentage of Alexandria's commerce also centered around its coastwise trade with New England. Tobacco, preserved meats, grain and forest products account for the majority of commodities exchanged.
Two sugar houses stood at the corner of South Alfred and Cameron street; 800,000 pounds of sugar was produced annually. About seven enslaved men and boys toiled at each refinery at the physically strenuous and dangerous tasks of refining the raw West Indies muscovado to hard, white sugar cones for domestic use and export. By 1810, Alexandria ranked third in the nation (behind New York and Pennsylvania) in the production of refined sugar . . . which was shipped in raw from the West Indies and New Orleans in exchange for cargoes of flour and tobacco.
As in most world seaports, trade brought tragedy in the form of plagues and epidemics including yellow fever in 1803 when more than 200 people died.
Fascinating that shortly after the world rushed to gold fields in California, Alaska and Australia, America's Union and Confederate troops battled throughout the southern states; it's as though the mass migration of people around the world meant nothing to those fighting to maintain ownership of their slaves.
May 1864 was the date of the opening battle in the biggest campaign of the war. General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, had joined George Meade's Army of the Potomac to encounter Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the tangled Wilderness forest near Chancellorsville, Virginia, the site of Lee's brilliant victory the year before.The fighting was intense, and raging fires that consumed the dead and wounded magnified the horror of battle. But little was gained in the confused attacks by either side. On May 6, the second day of battle in the Wilderness, Grant sought to break the stalemate by sending Winfield Hancock's corps against the Confederate right flank at the southern end of the battle line. The Federals were on the verge of breaking through the troops of James Longstreet when they stumbled in the dense undergrowth. Lee entered the fray to rally the Confederate troops, but his devoted solders urged him away from the action.
In two days, the Union lost 17,000 men to the Confederates' 11,000. This was nearly one-fifth of each army. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. Grant pulled his men out of the Wilderness on May 7 and moved further south to yet another fierce battle at Spotsylvania.
The New York Times
New York, New York, July 17, 1882
A NEW SOUTHERN SEAPORT
The City of Newport News, Virginia
A COMMERCIAL CENTRE WITH AN UNRIVALED HARBOR-RAPID GROWTH OF A NEW ENTERPRISE.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., July 13.--Those who have studied the natural features and possible future of Virginia's sea-shore have long regarded with interest that point of land at the eastern extremity of the Virginia peninsula, which projects into the waters of the York and James Rivers and Chesapeake Bay and reaches out like a huge key toward the very gateway of the Old Dominion, where these great bodies of water are discharged through the capes into the open sea beyond. Since about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Capt. Newport landed on the north-eastern shore of the Jaems River brginign wit him from England tidings that had long been expected and were gladly welcomed by thecolonists, this spot, where he first set foot on Virginia soil, has been knokwn as Newport News . . .
By the extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from Richmond, hitherto its eastern terminus, 75 miles down the peninsula to its apex, the new city of Newport News has become now the ocean terminus of the railway system, and promises to play an important part in the future of Virginia. Already the machinery of business has transformed the place into a scene of activity. Where only two years ago an occasional footprint betrayed the rare infractions of the solitude that reigned, the loading of ships, the landing of railway freight and passengers, the coaling of foreign steamers, and the hammer of the carpenter now form the elements of a continuous bustle and stir. . . The wonder that this natural seaport was not long ago utilized grows with reflection. Here, surely, is a harbor in which the navies of a half-dozen great powers might find ample elbow room. There is nowhere in the world a place that seems better fitted by nature to be the centre of an extensive commerce, where the largest ships can float at wharves of ordinary length. Only a dozen yards from the shore, opposite the point, the natural depth is sufficient for vessels of 1,000 tons burden, and it increases rapidly in advancing toward mid-channel, while at the wharves there is a depth of 28 feet of water at low tide, so that vessels may approach them under sail at any hour of the day or night.
Owing to the indentation of the Atlantic coastline at this point, Newport News is at the same time nearer to the open sea on the one hand, and to the interior centres of population and production on the other, than any of the other principal Atlantic ports. It is 150 miles nearer to ocean navigation than Baltimore, 85 miles nearer than Philadelphia or Boston, and 15 miles nearer than New York itself. Its roadstead and harbor are sheltered and safe for all classes of vessels in all conditions of wind and weather. Hampton Roads, in point of fact, has been for years the favorite refuge and rendezvous for incomign vessels seeking harbor or consigned to await orders for loading at the various Atlantic ports, and there is probably no other one spot on the coast in sight of which so large and numerous fleets of ocean tonnage can be found within a given time. Between the open sea and Newport News there has never been any obstruction from ice within the memory of man; no dangerous rocks or shoals, and vessels of all kinds, from the smallest coaster to the largest steamship, coming in from the open sea can disdain services of tow-boat or pilot at all seasons of the year by day or night, a species of independence which, as a vessel Captain has grimly remarked, they cannot afford to indulge in at any other port . . .
The noted City of Rome, which may be taken as a type of this new departure in vessel construction, draws over 25 feet of water and registers over 5,500 tons. She cannot enter New York Harbor except at high tides, while her difficulties in this respect are considerably increased at Liverpool and London. In fact, the delays incident to the navigation of the Thames are so seriously felt that deep and capacious docks to meet the requirements of modern vessels are now in couse of construction at Tilbury Port, near the mouth of the river. Col. Warburton closes his interesting discussion of this subject by saying that "large steamers will find at Newport News advantages which cannot fail to attract them--cheap coal for steam purposes, which can be delivered on the wharf at $3 to $3.25 per ton; a free port, a sheltered and capacious harbor, with deep water at all tides."
Since the organization of the new steamship line to Brazil, in which leading houses in the South American trade are financially interested, the additional life and activity given to the place has greatly increased its apparent importance. Starting from New York, the steamers stop at Newport News, and will probably concentrate at this point exports from Richmond, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, adn Tennessee. They are of 3,500 tons capacity, are built of iron, with water-tight compartments, and contain excellent accommodations for saloon passengers . . .
Newport News itself proposes to bear a hand in supplying less fortunate regions with the necessaries and luxuries of life, for it is surrounded by the great fisheries and oyster beds for which the waters of Virginia are celebrated, and by lands peculiarly adapted for the fruit and market gardens from which the supplies of early fruits and vegetables for the Northern cities are largely drawn, for this, it will be remembered, is the centre of the renowned truck-farming district of tidewater Virginia.