Meadowfield

Meadowfield. None know what was is save those in the midst of it.... During the early 1700s, the Wynne family rose to prominence in Warwick and York counties. Humphrey Harwood Wynne, Sr. (1772-1822) and his son, Humphrey Harwood Wynne, Jr. (1814-1892) owned a farm (Meadowfield) and operated a grist mill (Wynne's Mill) located not far from here along the Warwick River. During the War of 18 12, the elder Wynne was a captain in the 115th Virginia Militia. He continued his public service as the clerk of the courts and sheriff of Warwick County. Humphrey Wynne, Jr. followed in his footsteps as the clerk of the courts and continued operating the family farm and grist mill., On April 17, 1861, the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union and the Virginia Peninsula was soon a battleground. Humphrey, Jr.'s son, Thomas Humphrey Wynne (1839-1862), enlisted in the Nelson Guards, 32nd Virginia Infantry Regiment on May 20, 1861, and was later commissioned a captain. The Confederate and later Union occupation of the Peninsula caused disruption to the pastoral life of its citizens. Captain Wynne wrote, "Some two or three Regiments [Confederate] are quartered by the mill and they have a public transportation road running by the yard and soldiers are constantly passing and repassing and stealing everything they can get their hand on... There is scarcely anything like property -- private -- on the Peninsula below Yorktown. None know what war is save those in the midst of it...", During the Peninsula Campaign, Humphrey, Jr. and his family were forced to refugee from their home and land. The houses at Meadowfield were burned or destroyed by the Union Army. On September 16, 1862, Captain Wynne was killed at Antietam and his grandfather's War of 18 12 sword was later returned to the family. At the conclusion of the Civil War, the family returned to Meadowfield only to find their home gone and that the lan had been confiscated by the United States government. After a long fight, they did reclaim title to their farm and went about making a new life for themselves. The Newport News Light and Water Company subsequently purchased Meadowfield, which is now part of Newport News Park and Colonial National Historical Park.