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Fort Pocahontas was an earthen Fortification on the north bank of the James River at Wilson's Wharf, in Charles City County, Virginia which served as a Union supply depot during the American Civil War. The fort was constructed by African-American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Edward Augustus Wild.
The remote site had been largely forgotten and untouched by development for 130 years when, following Besch's research, it was purchased in 1996 by Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Tyler, born in 1928, and who lived nearby at Sherwood Forest Plantation, was the grandson of President John Tyler, and a descendant of John Rolfe, Pocahontas, President William Henry Harrison and Edmund Ruffin. The site has since been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research of the College of William and Mary in nearby Williamsburg has done extensive work at the site and about the events which took place there. More recently, annual Civil War reenactment events have been held at Fort Pocahontas. In 2005, many scenes of the motion picture The New World were filmed on-location at Fort Pocahontas, as well at other places nearby along the James River and Chickahominy Rivers.
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