Action, Mathias Point

On June 27, 1861, Union and Confederate forces clashed at Mathias Point, Virginia, in one of the opening naval engagements of the Civil War, tied directly to the blockade the Union sought to enforce and the Confederate drive to keep the Potomac closed to their opponents.

Two Union gunboats attempted to stop Confederate forces from establishing an artillery position along the Potomac at Mathias Point, located in King George County, Virginia. In response, Union sailors landed with plans to set up their own guns, yet they were driven back before they could even move their artillery off the USS Thomas Freeborn. The Freeborn's guns held Confederate troops at a distance for a time, prompting Commander James H. Ward to send a second landing party ashore. That attempt failed as well, and Ward lost his life in the fighting, making him the first officer of the Union Navy to die during the conflict. Confederate troops continued to hold the position until March 1862.

Background

A day after Confederate forces accepted the surrender of the modest U.S. Army garrison holding Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call on April 15, 1861, for 75,000 volunteers. His aim was to recover federal property and put down the uprising launched by the seven slave states of the Deep South that had banded together as the Confederate States of America. Virginia and three other Upper South states, all of which also permitted slavery, declined to supply soldiers for that effort and instead moved toward leaving the Union themselves.

Just two days later, on April 17, 1861, delegates gathered in a convention at Richmond, Virginia, and swiftly adopted an ordinance calling for the state to secede. That same body empowered the governor to summon volunteers into Virginia's own military forces so the state could resist any federal military action against it. Technically, the convention left the final decision to the citizens of Virginia, scheduling a popular vote on the secession question for May 23, 1861. Yet the convention's own actions, combined with the stance taken by Virginia's political leadership, particularly Governor John Letcher, had already pulled the state out of the Union in practice.

Given how matters stood in Virginia, Lincoln chose not to wait for the outcome of that popular vote before treating the state as if it had already joined the Confederacy. On April 27, 1861, he widened the naval blockade of Southern ports, first proclaimed on April 19, 1861, so that it now covered the coastlines of Virginia and North Carolina as well.

Battle

Toward the end of June 1861, James H. Ward, who commanded the Union Potomac Flotilla, discovered that Confederate forces were positioning artillery on a timbered point of land known as Mathias Point, situated in King George County, Virginia. Whoever held that promontory could dominate movement along the Potomac River there, cutting off the flow of troops and provisions bound for Washington, D.C., while simultaneously opening a channel for contact between Confederate units and their sympathizers across the water in southern Maryland, or even clearing the way for an incursion into that state.

Ward responded on June 27, 1861, setting out aboard his flagship, the USS Thomas Freeborn, accompanied by the USS Reliance and a detachment of sailors or marines commanded by Lieutenant James C. Chaplin. Their mission was twofold: strip the point of its tree cover so no Confederate battery could be concealed there, and establish a Union gun position in its place.

Depending on the source consulted, the Thomas Freeborn reached Mathias Point either around ten in the morning or as late as one in the afternoon. Once there, its guns opened up on the timber to shield Chaplin's men as they went ashore. Confederate pickets clashed with the

Aftermath

Confederate troops kept their grip on Mathias Point and finished installing the battery there the day following the engagement. No land assault ever dislodged them, and the position along with its neighboring batteries remained in Confederate hands until March 9, 1862, when forces pulled back from Manassas and other sites across northern Virginia. This withdrawal came as Confederate commanders moved to shield Richmond against Union troops massing for the Peninsula Campaign.

Command of the Potomac Flotilla passed temporarily to Commander Stephen Clegg Rowan, who skippered the USS Pawnee, filling the role left vacant by Ward. Rowan would later rise to Vice Admiral, and before leaving the flotilla he took part in the fall 1861 operations against Confederate fortifications at Hatteras Inlet. Captain Thomas Tingey Craven, who eventually became a Rear Admiral, then took over as flotilla commander. For his conduct during the fighting at Mathias Point, Union sailor John Williams, serving as Captain of the Maintop, received the Medal of Honor.

In Alexandria, Virginia, Fort Ward bears Commander Ward's name in tribute to him. This installation formed part of the ring of fortifications guarding Washington, D.C. throughout the war and was finished in September 1861. Today much of the fort has been brought back through restoration work, and it now functions as both a museum and a historic park.