During the latter
part of February we were ordered with the Fourteenth Virginia Infantry
to fall back to the left flank of Mulberry Island, some four or five miles in
rear of our former position.
Mulberry Island is
the nearest water battery on the north side of the James River to Newport News,
and mounts seven or eight heavy guns. It is supported by the Day's Point
battery, on the south side of the James, mounting seventeen guns. Magruder, as
soon as we reached this place, sent us six hundred negroes to throw up heavy
fortifications. Our position here is quite a strong one; on our left flank is
the Warwick River, on our right is a deep marsh and the heavy battery at
Mulberry Island; in our front is a broad, open field, our guns commanding it.
Reinforced by the Fifth Louisiana Infantry.
SOURCE: William S.
White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 111
