In 1861, he organized a volunteer Confederate militia company known as the Warwick Beauregards to provide local defense in the early months of the Civil War. Humphrey Harwood Curtis, a physician and a great-grandson of William Harwood, acquired the property in 1858. The Georgian-style house was located in close proximity to the route taken by the Continental Army and Virginia militia on their advance to the 1781 battle that ended the Revolutionary War.
Between May 1861 and March 1862, the Confederates constructed a series of redoubts to impede the Union advance.Constructed in 1769 for the Harwood family, Historic Endview is one of the last remaining colonial buildings in Newport News. Across the property, tourists can see the Civil War-era earthworks constructed by Confederate troops and local slaves. Some unmarked graves go all the way back to the 17th century. Backtracking a bit, the trail also passes by the Harwood family's graveyard. In actuality, General Thomas Nelson's French-American brigade of 3,000 camped on the property briefly. According to family legend, George Washington's troops stopped by Endview on their way to Yorktown to refill their canteens at the spring. The spring has an interesting story behind it. The other trail leads to the natural spring.
The first trail exhibits some of the plants Native Americans used in the years before colonization.
While exploring the grounds, I found a couple of nature trails in the wooded areas of the property. The Digges Family, who owned Denbigh, built this structure in the 1740s. This particular dairy house was moved to the property in 1999 from the Denbigh Plantation (originally on the banks of Deep Creek). I first took a walk around the property and came across an original, pre-Revolutionary War dairy house. You can see Endview's white structure clearly when pulling into the drive, surrounded by hundred year-old magnolia trees. Endview remained in the Curtis family's possession until 1985. Curtis had to sign an oath of allegiance to the United States in order to legally possess his home again. After the war was over, the Curtis's returned to their estate, which was under control of the Freedman's Bureau. Curtis's wife, Maria, tended to the wounded soldiers before abandoning the estate when the Confederate army retreated that May. During McClellan's Peninsular Campaign of 1862, Endview served as a Confederate field hospital and campground during the Siege of Yorktown. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Curtis formed the Warwick Beauregards who later mustered in to the 32nd Virginia Infantry Regiment. Curtis was one of two surgeons in the peninsular region and he was a highly respected member of southern society. Humphrey Harwood Curtis purchased the estate. Throughout the Antebellum Era, this plantation stayed in the Harwood family name and produced tobacco, wheat, and supported livestock. This plantation house was built in 1769 by William Harwood, whose ancestors had owned the land for nearly 130 years prior. Located just outside the city limits of Newport News stands Endview Plantation.