Four miles north of here, Governor Sir George Yeardley established Flowerdew Hundred settlement by 1619. In 1621 a windmill was built there, the first one recorded in English North America. In response to English expansion into Powhatan lands, such as occurred at Flowerdew and elsewhere, paramount chief Opechancanough planned a coordinated assault on English settlements. The settlement survived the attack on 22 Mar. 1622 and was inhabited through the 18th century. On 14-16 June 1864, U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac landed there and marched toward Petersburg to attack it.