Fort Henry was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

frontier fort in 17th century

colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

near the falls of the Appomattox River. Its exact location has been debated, but the most popular one (marked by Virginia Historical Marker QA-6) is on a bluff about four blocks north of the corner of W. Washington and N. South Streets in Petersburg. Fort Henry was built in 1645 by order of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been establishe ...

. It marked the 1646 treaty frontier between the white settlers and the Indians following the

Second Anglo-Powhatan War The AngloPowhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The ...

. It was situated at the fall line of the Piedmont, near the

Appomattoc The Appomattoc (also spelled Appamatuck, Apamatic, and numerous other variants) were a historic tribe of Virginia Indians speaking an Algonquian language, and residing along the lower Appomattox River, in the area of what is now Petersburg, Col ...

Indian tribe. From 1646 until around 1691, it was the only point in Virginia where Indians could be authorized to cross eastward into white territory, or whites westward into Indian territory. In later years it also came to be known as Fort Wood, after its first commander,

Abraham Wood Abraham Wood (1610–1682), sometimes referred to as "General" or "Colonel" Wood, was an English fur trader, militia officer, politician and explorer of 17th century colonial Virginia. Wood helped build and maintained Fort Henry at the falls of ...

(1614–82). He used the fort as a base for several exploratory expeditions of the region. In 1675, command of the fort and adjacent Indian trading post passed to Wood's son-in-law, Peter Jones. The post became known as "Peter's Point". With trade and related settlement, eventually the city of Petersburg developed here. At some unknown point the original fort fell into ruins. The first Fort Henry in the colony was a small facility, with a garrison of 15, that was erected in 1610 by Thomas Gates as part of a series of fortifications now located in

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

. This was defunct by the time the fort on the Appomattox was built.

References

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

1645 establishments in Virginia Petersburg, Virginia {{Virginia-struct-stub