<P> The proposal to move the capital of Virginia to higher ground (about 12 miles (20 km) away) at Middle Plantation was received favorably by the House of Burgesses . In 1699, the capital of the Virginia Colony was officially relocated there . Soon, the town was renamed Williamsburg, in honor of King William III . Thus, the first phase of Jamestown's history ended . </P> <P> By the 1750s the land was owned and heavily cultivated, primarily by the Travis and Ambler families . A military post was located on the island during the Revolutionary War and American and British prisoners were exchanged there . During the U.S. Civil War the island was occupied by Confederate soldiers who built an earth fort near the church as part of the defense system to block the Union advance up the river to Richmond . Little further attention was paid to Virginia until preservation was undertaken in the twenty first century . </P>

What ultimately saved the virginia colony from total destruction