Editing Port Royal, Virginia (section)

==History==
===17th century origins===
Port Royal is one of the area's oldest colonial settlements. It was first established in 1652 by English colonists as a port at the head of sea-going navigation on the [[Rappahannock River]]. Waterways were the fastest and easiest method of transportation of people and property in the British [[colony of Virginia]]. It was an important point for export of tobacco, Virginia's [[cash crop]].

Local tradition holds that Port Royal was named after the Roy family. Dorothy Roy and her husband John owned a warehouse chartered by the crown, a [[ferry]] service across the Rappahannock River to [[King George County, Virginia|King George County]], and a tavern. In the 21st century, the chimneys of the Roy house are preserved landmarks in the town.<ref>[http://www.historicportroyal.com/ Welcome to Historic Port Royal, Inc<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Port Royal was incorporated as a town in 1744. The "town green", where the Town Hall and the firehouse stand today, was forever reserved "for public and civic use".<ref>[http://www.co.caroline.va.us/portroyal.html Welcome to Historic Port Royal!<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218170735/http://www.co.caroline.va.us/portroyal.html |date=2007-12-18 }}</ref>

[[File:Port Royal house, Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|left|Port Royal house. Photo shows dirt road leading to river; on left, house with stone 1st floor and wooden 2nd floor. By Frances Benjamin Johnston, between 1927 and 1929]]

===19th-20th centuries===
Shipping of property from the port began to decline after completion of competing railroads in Virginia, beginning in the 1830s. But the last scheduled passenger ship service ended in 1932, supplanted by highways. However, Port Royal was served by the new highways which became [[U.S. Route 17 in Virginia|U.S. Route 17]] and [[U.S. Route 301 in Virginia|U.S. Route 301]], with their crossroads at Port Royal.

In April, 1863 before the start of the [[Chancellorsville Campaign]], Port Royal would be captured by the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 1st Division of the [[I Corps (Union Army)]] of the [[Army of the Potomac]], with the 1st brigade being the famed [[Iron Brigade]]. The units who led the assault were the [[24th Michigan Infantry Regiment]] of the Iron Brigade and the [[84th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] (14th Brooklyn Zouves) of the 2nd Brigade.

Port Royal's most notable claim to fame is that [[John Wilkes Booth]] was killed about two miles outside town by Sgt. [[Boston Corbett]], part of a contingent of federal troops, at the now obsolete Garrett farmstead on April 26, 1865. Booth had [[assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln]] on the night of April 14, 1865 at [[Ford's Theatre]] in [[Washington, DC]].

Booth initially escaped through [[southern Maryland]], fleeing to Virginia across the [[Potomac River|Potomac]] and [[Rappahannock River|Rappahannock]] rivers. He was cornered in a tobacco barn on the Garrett farm at sunrise. Shot through the neck and instantly paralyzed, Booth died on the porch of the Garrett house, where he was carried from the barn. [[David Herold]], one of his accomplices, was with him and captured at the Garrett farm. He was tried, convicted, and hanged on July 7, 1865, in Washington, DC, along with other conspirators.

Poet [[Judith Lomax]] lived in Port Royal for some years.<ref name="LindleyStebner2008">{{cite book|author1=Susan Hill Lindley|author2=Eleanor J. Stebner|title=The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4hLAtDBHskC&pg=PA134|year=2008|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22454-7|pages=134–}}</ref>