On April 17th in a secret session the Virginia Convention voted to secede from the Union and a statewide vote was scheduled for May 23rd. In anticipation that Virginia would secede, on April 19th the Union seized the four steamboats of the Potomac Steamboat Company the Powhatan, the Mount Vernon, the Baltimore and the Maryland. Later that month on the 27th the Potomac Flotilla was created by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. It would be headed by Commander James Harmon Ward the first executive officer at the U.S. Naval Academy. He selected the Thomas Freeborn as his flagship, a converted side wheel steam ferry boat, equipped with two 32-pounders. The rest of the fleet consisted of the Reliance and the Resolute both equipped with a 24-pounder and a 12-pound howitzer, the Anacostia a twin screw sloop with two 9-inch Dahlgrens, the Pocahontas a screw sloop with six guns, the Mount Vernon a side wheel steamer with one gun, and the Pawnee under Commander SC Rowan. Their chief point of supply was Nanjemoy Creek in Charles County, with the Navy Yard as their home port. Some of these ships are shown in the sketch below.

On April 24, 1861, the Confederates destroyed buoys that marked the channel of the Potomac River. General Robert E. Lee decided that construction should begin on fortifications downriver on the Virginia side of the Potomac. The first of these batteries would be near Aquia Landing, 40 miles south of Alexandria. Aquia Creek Station was the terminus of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The Aquia Creek Landing/Station area and Mathias Point are shown in the map below from an issue of Blue and Gray Magazine.

Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles, in command of the Department of Fredericksburg which ran from Mount Vernon to the Rappahannock River, was assigned the task. His two engineers Major Thomas Williamson from the army and naval Lieutenant Hunter Lewis recommended Split Rock Bluff near the railroad terminus as the site of the battery. However, on May 10th the battery was completed on the railroad landing. A small contingent of 10-20 men would be kept on the opposite side of the creek on Brent’s Point. Ruggles’ efforts were initially beset by problems. His troops were poorly armed and supplied and he had no carriages, caissons or horses for his guns. The guns would be manned by volunteers. When the Union abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard the Confederates seized the George Page, a transport ship, and began the process of converting it into a warship.

The battery and its four guns were discovered by Lieutenant J. Glendy Sproston from the Mount Vernon on May 14th. The Mount Vernon slowly backed away and no shots were fired. Sproston returned on the 19th and noticed that three news guns were mounted in the fort. After Virginia formally seceded from the Union on the 24th and Federal forces occupied Arlington Heights and Alexandria the flotilla was ordered south to attempt to destroy the battery.

The first battle between the U.S. Navy and a Confederate battery began on May 29th when the USS Thomas Freeborn opened fire on the battery around sunset. The outgoing tide prevented the Federals from doing much damage. They fired a total of about 14 shells and the Confederates 12 when the action ceased about 9:00 PM. On May 30th Commander Ward landed downriver on Mathias Point and found no Confederate battery there. The next day the Thomas Freeborn returned to Aquila Creek with the USS Anacostia and Resolute and began firing about 10:30 AM. This lasted for about three hours. The guns on the U.S. Navy’s ships (two 32-pounders, one 12- and one 24- pounder howitzer, and two 9-inch Dahlgrens) had a much longer range than the Confederate shore batteries. The Confederates fired 59 shells with no hits. The Union fire was much more accurate but no Rebels were killed. Captain John S. Walker’s battery of four rifled cannon of the Tennessee (Walker) Legion commanded by Lieutenant Patton Robertson were placed on the hills behind the shore battery. These guns could reach the Union ships wounding one sailor. Union guns could not elevate enough to reach Robertson’s guns. Out of ammunition Commander Ward withdrew in the early afternoon to resupply.

He would return on June 1st this time with a fourth ship the USS Pawnee under Commander Stephen Rowan. The Pawnee was much larger than the other three ships at 1,500 tons with eight 9-inch guns and two 12-pounders more than double the number of guns on the other three ships combined. Once again, a long-range duel ensued. After a couple of hours the Federals discovered a key flaw in the design of the Confederate earthworks. The cannon were on platforms with embrasures, as a result they could not pivot and could only fire on what was directly in front of them. The Confederates reported that the Federals fired over 600 shots with one horse and one chicken killed. The Confederates expended most of their ammunition for a total of 10 hits on Ward’s vessels. The USS Thomas Freeborn suffered a hit to its driveshaft putting it out of commission. The Pawnee was struck nine times. The Federals broke off the attack at 4:30 PM. The Confederates quickly repaired the damage to their earthworks. A new battery was constructed on a steep hill containing two heavy Columbiads garrisoned by the Carolina Greys in order to reach the Potomac. Captain Walkers guns were moved to the opposite side of Aquia Creek along with two rifle companies of Walker’s Legion. By the 15th the Confederates had 12 guns in position in three batteries, one on the landing (Naval Battery) and two on the hills. One of the batteries on the hills was about a mile from the landing which is the battery shown below. Ward did not think the batteries here were a major impairment to shipping and decided not to return and focused his attention elsewhere.

View of the river from the top of the hilltop battery.

The marker was very dirty and hard to read. I have inserted the text from the link “Within weeks after Virginia seceded from the Union in the spring of 1861, state troops began fortifying Aquia Landing. One artillery battery was established on the waterfront while additional batteries, like this one, covered the landing from nearby hills. These guns posed a threat to Union shipping in the Potomac River, prompting Commander James H. Ward of the United States Navy to take steps to eliminate them. Between May 29 and June 1, 1861, Union gunboats on the Potomac River, ahead of you, fired more than 700 rounds at the landing. Union shells damaged several houses along the waterfront and tore up sections of railroad track but otherwise inflicted little damage. Return fire by the Confederates struck the U.S.S. Pawnee nine times and caused another attacking vessel, the U.S.S. Thomas Freeborn, to take on water. Incredibly, no one on either side was killed. “The only damage to our side,” observed a confederate spectator, “was the death of a chicken, though a stray ball killed a horse on the opposite side of the creek.”

The hilltop battery is shown below.

On June 5th Ruggles was replaced by Theophilus Holmes with headquarters at Brooke Station and the next day command of all military services in Virginia would shift from the state to the Confederacy.

The Battle at Mathias Point (June 27, 1861).

Mathias Point sticks out into the Potomac, as shown in the map below, and the Union was concerned that a battery there could close traffic on the Potomac. The bluff at the point was 20-feet high and commanded the Potomac. The shipping channel here was close to the Virginia shore and about 4,000 yards from the Maryland shore. General Lee did not want to place a battery there because he felt that it was vulnerable to a land-based assault in its rear.

Despite his objections the project was approved. Lee preferred a site much further upstream near Shipping Point at Budd’s Ferry. When Federal Commander Ward learned a large battery was under construction at Mathias Point, he planned an attack. He would take the USS Thomas Freeborn and USS Reliance to bombard the battery. At the same time a force of sailors and marines would land in the battery’s rear and destroy it. The Confederates had begun to place troops there. On June 10th Farmer’s Fork Grays from Richmond arrived along with the 40th VA Volunteers under Colonel JM Brockenbrough. On the 15th the Christian Keen grounded. The Grays boarded and burned it off Hooe’s Ferry. In retaliation Acting Master Budd shelled, landed and burned the house of Confederate sympathizer Dr. A.B. Hooe. The Union carried out a reconnaissance on the 24th at the point and found no battery but a camp of about 500 men. On June 27th Ward set out to establish his own battery on Mathias Point and burn as much brush and trees as possible to make the area more visible from the water. At 10:00 AM he began bombarding the Confederates. Lieutenant James Chaplin accompanied by Commander Ward landed onshore with a party of 34 seamen and moved inland. They were met by a large force of about 400 Confederates and realizing they were outnumbered Ward ordered his men to return to their boats and wait offshore. Commander Ward returned to the Thomas Freeborn sited his guns and bombarded the area where the Confederates were located. Chaplin then returned to try and establish the battery under cover of fire from the ships. They had constructed most of a sandbag breastwork when about 5:00 PM Ward signaled them to return. They covered the structure with brush and as they were in the process of leaving the Confederates attacked again. When the expected naval artillery support did not materialize, Chaplin and his men evacuated back to the Thomas Freeborn. Chaplin was the last to leave swimming to his boat with a wounded sailor on his back. When they arrived on the Freeborn they learned that Ward had been mortally wounded in the abdomen, shot by a sharpshooter from shore, while sighting one of the 32-pounder guns. He died an hour later. Four sailors were wounded, two seriously. Commander Ward would be the first U.S. Naval officer killed in the Civil War. Fort Ward in Alexandria would be named after him. Despite the fact that the battle was unsuccessful it proved Lee’s point that Mathias Point was vulnerable to a land-based attack, and it was abandoned. Commander Thomas Craven would be appointed to command the Potomac Flotilla. He used the USS Yankee as his flagship. Lieutenant Commanding R.B. Lowry was placed in command of the Thomas Freeborn. The two battles showed that batteries located in these two areas could not stop Federal traffic on the Potomac and Lee would look to establish fortifications further upstream that would have the additional advantage of being closer to Confederate lines.

In the photograph below taken on the deck of the USS Thomas Freeborn sailors are reenacting the death of Commander Ward. The man sighting the cannon is wearing Ward’s straw hat and blouse to show how their commander met his demise.

Sources

War on the Potomac. The Potomac Will be Effectively Closed by Rob Orrison and Bill Backus. Blue and Gray Magazine. Volume XXXII, #5, 2016.

The Confederate Blockade of Washington, D.C. 1861-1862 by Mary Alice Wills.

The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. May 31-June 1, 1861. Attack on Aquia Creek batteries, Va. Volume II, Chapter IX, pages 55-57