 In 1831, David Bullock purchased Jamestown from the Travis and Ambler families.During the American Civil War, in 1861, Confederate William Allen, who owned the Jamestown Island, occupied Jamestown with troops he raised at his own expense with the intention of blockading the James River and Richmond from the Union Navy.He was soon joined by Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, who directed the building of batteries and conducted ordnance and armor tests for the first Confederate ironclad warship, CSS "Virginia", which was under construction at the Gosport Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth in late 1861 and early 1862.