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“We found the houses taken down and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with curtains and flankers very fortlike, and one of the chief trees or posts at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and five feet from the ground in fair capital letters was graven CROATAN, without any cross or sign of distress. We entered the palisade, where we found many bars of iron, two pigs of lead, four fowlers, iron sacker-shot and such like heavy things, thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grass and weeds.” --...

Some Virginians are giving thanks early this Thanksgiving. It's because President Bush is set to bring recognition to a little-known thanksgiving site in Virginia between Williamsburg and Richmond. On Monday, the president plans to stop by Berkeley Plantation, where English settlers held a thanksgiving service almost two years before the Pilgrims' feast in Massachusetts.

President Bush will speak next week about Thanksgiving during a visit to a historic Thanksgiving site — in Virginia, not Massachusetts. On Monday, the president will head to Berkeley Plantation, where English settlers held a Thanksgiving service almost two years before the Pilgrims' feast in Massachusetts that came to be considered the first Thanksgiving. "The president will talk about what we as a nation can be thankful for during the holiday season," White House spokesman Blair Jones said. Berkeley Plantation is on the banks of the James River, between Williamsburg, Virginia's Colonial capital, and Richmond, the state's capital today. When...

Although in his day Charles James Faulkner was hailed nationally as an outstanding lawyer, statesman and diplomat, today he is barely remembered outside his hometown. His one-time fame has been eclipsed by the more flamboyant figures of the Civil War era. mat, today he is barely remembered outside his hometown. His one-time fame has been eclipsed by the more flamboyant figures of the Civil War era. Faulkner's moderate views never allowed him to become totally committed to the secession of his native state; consequently, he barely participated in the great struggle. Faulkner, Scots-Irish in ancestry, was born in Martinsburg, Va.,...

1864 : Battle of the Crater On this day, the Union's ingenious attempt to break the Confederate lines at Petersburg by blowing up a tunnel that had been dug under the Rebel trenches fails. Although the explosion created a gap in the Confederate defenses, a poorly planned Yankee attack wasted the effort and the result was an eight-month continuation of the siege. The bloody campaign between Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate Robert E. Lee ground to a halt in mid-June, when the two armies dug in at Petersburg, south of Richmond. For the previous six weeks, Grant had...

Two old steamer trunks sit in the rare-book room at the Virginia Historical Society, looking worn and forlorn. The smaller one was once red but the paint has faded to a dull rust. The larger one is brown with a piece of tin patching a hole in the top. On one side, a name is stenciled: "M. LEE." That's Mary Custis Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee's adventurous eldest daughter. In 1917, she stored these wooden trunks in the "silver vault" in the basement of Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust in Alexandria. A year later, she died at the age...

<p>ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C. - Researchers believe they may be able to use DNA to uncover the fate of the Lost Colony, which vanished shortly after more than 100 people settled on Roanoke Island in 1587.</p> <p>Using genealogy, deeds and historical narratives, researchers have compiled 168 surnames that could be connected to settlers in what is considered the first attempt by the English to colonize the New World. The team will try to trace the roots of individuals related to the colonists, to the area's 16th century American Indians or to both.</p>

RICHMOND, United States (AFP) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II headed Thursday for a rare state visit to the United States, to mark the 400th anniversary of an English settlement that laid the foundations of history's greatest superpower. After arriving on a chartered British Airways jet, Elizabeth was due to start her six-day trip in the Virginia capital Richmond and address the state's legislature, which is America's oldest representative body. Virginians from Governor Tim Kaine down brushed up on royal protocol as they prepared to greet the British queen during a walkabout and musical concert at the grounds of the newly...

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, stepped off a chartered British Airways airplane just after 3 p.m. Thursday in Richmond, Va., signaling the beginning of a six-day American trip. It is her first visit to the United States in 16 years. The queen stopped at the end of a red carpet while both British and American National Anthems were played. Her motorcade left shortly afterward. On Thursday evening, she was expected to take a horse-drawn carriage through Colonial Williamsburg. And while the queen represents a monarchy the United States went to some trouble to get rid of, her...

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Terry O'Neill was just a wee lad from Liverpool the last time he got within a few feet of Queen Elizabeth II. Years later, the burly owner of the Beatles-influenced Penny Lane Pub in Richmond plans to have a second brush with English royalty on Thursday -- with a little help from his friends. O'Neill and his wife, Rose, were among thousands of people expected to jam Capitol Square for a glimpse of the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, when the royals arrive to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony. "I left England...

Jamestown -- the birth of a nation 400 years ago The replica Jamestown ships, The Susan Constant, center, Godspeed, right, and Discovery ply the waters of Hampton Roads as they make their way to Virginia Beach to participate in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Va., Tuesday, April 24, 2007. The centerpiece of the 18-month commemoration of the 400th anniversary of America's first permanent English settlement is almost here after a decade of planning. About two-thirds of the tickets for the 'America's Anniversary Weekend' extravaganza May 11-13 remain available; 31,587 had been sold as of...

WILLIAMSBURG — Advocates of our version of “The DaVinci Code” were back in town Friday, calling for another excavation to locate the “secret vault” of Sir Francis Bacon, which they still allege is buried beneath the churchyard of Bruton Parish Episcopal Church. It is a replay of a saga from 14 years ago that put the church in an awkward position of dispelling some very weird myths. A media circus resulted. The story propagated by Sir Francis Bacon's Sages of the Seventh Seal has all the elements of Dan Brown's theological thriller. The Bacon story relies on a conspiracy theory...

Washington, D.C.-Nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court's shocking Kelo v. New London decision touched off a firestorm of bipartisan support for stronger property rights protections, some anti-property rights groups are receiving support from a surprising source: Senator George Allen (R-VA).Senator Allen is the chief sponsor of legislation that would create a massive federal "National Heritage Area" that would stretch from Charlottesville, VA, through Frederick County, MD, and end in Gettysburg, PA. Such areas are best described as heavily regulated corridors where property rights may be strictly curtailed.

WILLIAMSBURG—If one becomes a British knight by rendering extraordinary service to the crown, it's hard to imagine anyone more deserving of a knighthood than Capt. John Smith. Yet Smith, a soldier, explorer and diplomat of the first order, a man some consider largely responsible for the success of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, was never knighted. That's because the importance of Smith's accomplishments was not recognized until after his death. But a group of local residents doesn't think little things like death or 400 years should keep Britain from recognizing the man who opened the New...

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered a rare but perfectly preserved early 17th-century Scottish pistol at the historic former British colony known as the birthplace of the United States, making the firearm one of the oldest artefacts of European origin ever discovered in North America. The weapon probably belonged to one of the first settlers to arrive at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and was recovered from a well at the site with several other "hugely significant" artefacts. "It was like Christmas in July," said Bly Straube, the curator of the Jamestown Rediscovery museum where the snaphaunce pistol, probably made by a manufacturer in...

RICHMOND, Va. - Sometime around 1610, archaeologists figure, a thirsty colonist in Jamestown set his brass pistol on the side of a well as he pulled up some water and accidentally knocked the weapon in.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Witch of Pungo is no longer a witch. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday exonerated Grace Sherwood, who 300 years ago became Virginia's only woman convicted as a witch tried by water. "I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," Kaine wrote in a letter Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf read aloud before a re-enactment of Sherwood's being dropped into the river. "With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice," Kaine wrote. "We also can celebrate the fact that a woman's equality...

Obscure graves bury the accomplishments of two Northern Neck brothers who signed the Declaration of Independence __ They were brothers whose signatures on the Declaration of Independence made them American heroes for all time. Now Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee rest in obscure Northern Neck graveyards visited by few, even on the Fourth of July. "We only come out here when somebody dies," said H. Gwynne Tayloe III. Tayloe stood Sunday beside a brick-walled cemetery where Francis Lightfoot Lee is buried beside Tayloe's ancestors at Mount Airy Farm near Warsaw. The graveyard is a 10-minute walk from the...

Volunteers to dig into Croatan Indian village site again By CATHERINE KOZAK, The Virginian-Pilot © May 28, 2006 The last time the long-dormant Croatan site was investigated, a team of archaeologists unearthed a 16th-century gold ring that may be the most significant archaeological find of early American history. In June, the team, with many of the same members who were there in 1998 when the English nobleman's ring was found, will be back to revive exploration of the ancient capital of the Croatan Indians in Buxton. Organized by The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research , the team of...

The George Mason University basketball team's ascendance to the NCAA Final Four this weekend may well be remembered as the most improbable run in the college basketball tournament's history. Only one other eleventh-seeded team has made the Final Four. And you'd be hard-pressed to find a school with so low a profile and from so small a conference to have made it through the tournament's first two weekends. In addition to the great basketball the team has given us (the Connecticut game was in instant classic), it would also be nice to see the school's success inspire some discussion about...