Cheatham Annex

The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Major General George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat. McClellan landed his army at Fort Monroe and moved northwest, up the Virginia Peninsula. Confederate Brigadier General John B. Magruder's defensive position on the Warwick Line caught McClellan by surprise. His hopes for a quick advance foiled, McClellan ordered his army to prepare for a siege of Yorktown. Just before the siege preparations had been completed, the Confederates, now under the direct command of Johnston, began a withdrawal toward Richmond. The first heavy fighting of the campaign occurred during the Battle of Williamsburg in which the Union troops managed some tactical victories, but the Confederates continued their withdrawal. An amphibious flanking movement to Eltham's Landing was ineffective in cutting off the Confederate retreat. During the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, an attempt by the US Navy to reach Richmond by way of the James River was repulsed. As McClellan's army reached the outskirts of Richmond, a minor battle occurred at Hanover Court House, but it was followed by a surprise attack by Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks. The battle was inconclusive, with heavy casualties, but it had lasting effects on the campaign. Johnston was wounded by a Union artillery shell fragment on May 31 and replaced the next day by the more aggressive Robert E. Lee, who reorganized his army and prepared for offensive action in the final battles of June 25 to July 1, which are popularly known as the Seven Days Battles. The result was that the Union army was unable to enter Richmond, and both armies remained intact.

Penniman was an unincorporated town in northwestern York County, Virginia, on the south bank of the York River six miles (9.7 km) northeast of Williamsburg. This was on the Virginia Peninsula and near the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. A plant and company town were developed by E.I. DuPont Nemours company originally to manufacture TNT. It was named for Russell Sylvanus Penniman, an American chemist who in 1885 invented ammonia dynamite. As part of the World War I war efforts, Penniman was converted to other use in support of the U.S. Navy, which acquired property for Mine Depot, Yorktown. The Penniman plant was built to employ 10,000 persons. Housing for 15,000 was built in the new development. The Navy installation was largely abandoned after 1919, and the few residents in the area farmed after World War I. With tensions rising during World War II, the property was returned to military use less than 25 years later. The area including Penniman was taken over by the military and developed as a Navy facility known as Cheatham Annex. It later became part of the adjacent Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, access to which is restricted.

The Pages Rock Light was a lighthouse located in the York River in the Chesapeake Bay.

Water Country USA is a water park in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It is the Mid-Atlantic's largest water park, and it offers live entertainment, shops and restaurants, water rides, and other family attractions, all of which have a 1950s or 1960s surf theme. It is owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The park is just a few miles away from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, with which it shares clientele. Multi-park passes are available, and a parking pass at Water Country USA is valid for same-day entry to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Porto Bello was the hunting lodge of the last Royal Governor of the British Colony of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore. The name commemorates the battle of Porto Bello, a 1739 British naval victory in Panama. Lord Dunmore fled to Porto Bello to escape the early stages of the American Revolution in Williamsburg, Virginia. He later boarded a British ship lying at anchor near Porto Bello in the York River. Porto Bello is located in York County, Virginia on the grounds of Camp Peary. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but is closed to visitors because of restricted access to Camp Peary.

Whitaker's Mill Archeological Complex, also known as Burwell's Mill, is the site of an early colonial mill complex in York County near Williamsburg. Located on the historic King's Creek Plantation near Route 199 and Water Country Parkway, the site has industrial remains of millworks from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as military encampment sites associated with the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War.The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Presidents Park was a ten-acre sculpture park and associated indoor museum formerly located in Williamsburg, Virginia in the United States. It contained 18-to-20-foot (5.5 to 6.1 m) high busts of the presidents of the United States from George Washington to George W. Bush.The statues were sculpted by Houston artist David Adickes, who was inspired as he drove past Mount Rushmore when returning from a trip to Canada. The park was opened in March 2004 by local visitor attraction entrepreneur Everette H. "Haley" Newman III, who had been slowly taking delivery of the busts since 2000. The park had financial troubles and was closed on September 30, 2010. Creditors put the park up for auction (not including the busts) on September 28, 2012, after a foreclosure auction originally scheduled for April 26, 2012 was cancelled without explanation. By January 10, 2013, the busts had been moved to private storage at a nearby local farm in Croaker, Virginia by Howard Hankins. In 2017, National Geographic showcased a video in which Mr Hankins expresses a hope to rehabilitate the statues for a park in the future. However, many of the presidential heads sustained damage in the move and are currently in a state of disrepair due to being out in the open elements. The 400-acre Croaker farm where the 20-foot busts are located are only accessible to the public during pop-up tours the owner holds throughout the year.

Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, was for more than 100 years the home of a branch of the Page family, one of the First Families of Virginia. Begun in 1725, the Flemish bond brick Rosewell mansion overlooking the York River was one of the most elaborate homes in the American colonies. In Mansions of Virginia, the architectural historian Thomas Tileston Waterman described the plantation house as "the largest and finest of American houses of the colonial period." Through much of the 18th century and 19th centuries, and during the American Civil War, Rosewell plantation hosted the area's most elaborate formal balls and celebrations. The home burned in 1916. In 1793, the Page family sold part of the Rosewell plantation to the Catlett family, who erected a house called "Timberneck", which still stands inside Virginia's 40th state park, Machicomico State Park. The Timberneck house, like Rosewell, has been the subject of archeological excavations, but unlike Rosewell, is being renovated by the Fairfield Foundation and volunteers, pursuant to an agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia which envisions future lodging opportunities within the historic structure.

Hermitage is an unincorporated community in Gloucester County, in the U. S. state of Virginia.

Grove is an unincorporated community in the southeastern portion of James City County in the Virginia Peninsula subregion of Virginia in the United States. It is located in the center of the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, communities linked by the Colonial Parkway. This area is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world. Grove is located about 7 miles (11 km) east of Williamsburg along U.S. Route 60. Grove is bordered by the James River and separated from the Newport News city limits near Lee Hall by Skiffe's Creek. Historic places in Grove related to Virginia colonial past include the archaeological site of Wolstenholme Towne, the administrative center of Martin's Hundred. It was rediscovered in 1976 on the grounds of Carter's Grove Plantation, built in 1755. The plantation was occupied by private owners through the 1960s. It was owned and operated by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and open to the public from the 1970s until 2003. In 2007 the property was sold back into private ownership. Grove's contemporary development began with African-American settlement by freedmen from Carter's Grove and other plantations following the American Civil War. Its population was fewer than 100 people until after the turn of the twentieth century. During the two World Wars, Grove increased markedly in population. In part this was due to attracting hundreds of displaced people, mostly African American, who were uprooted by federal land acquisition for major waterfront military installations in nearby James City and York counties. Navy bases established were the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, the Cheatham Annex supply complex, and Camp Peary. As of early 2008, many new homes were under construction in Grove. Along the southeastern edge, available sites and frontage on the James River and Skiffe's Creek are zoned for industrial purposes. These have been attractive to developers of new and expanded businesses.

York View is an unincorporated community in Gloucester County, Virginia, United States.

Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River.