A Defensible Site

This detail of Captain John Smith's map of Virginia, published in 1624, shows that Jamestown is an admirably defensible site. (Note that north is to the right on this map.)

 

The narrow isthmus connecting Jamestown with the mainland was under water during high tide; the peninsula itself jutted into the James, affording the settlers a view several miles up and down the river from where they built their fort. Two and a half centuries later, Confederate earthworks would be constructed on the 1607 fort site.

 

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