Aquia Creek

At Aquia Creek's meeting point with the Potomac River in Stafford County, Virginia, gunboats belonging to the Union Navy traded artillery fire with batteries the Confederates had positioned along the shore. This clash unfolded over several days, beginning May 29, 1861 and concluding June 1, 1861, placing it among the conflict's opening episodes. Confederate forces had installed multiple shore batteries in the area for two intertwined purposes: preventing Union naval and commercial traffic from passing through the Chesapeake Bay and the lower reaches of the Potomac, and providing a defensive screen for their own positions. One battery in particular guarded the railroad terminal situated at Aquia. On the opposing side, Union forces aimed to eliminate or force out these batteries as part of a broader campaign to seal off Confederate ports along the coast and throughout the Chesapeake Bay.

Neither side gained a decisive advantage from the fighting. Damage on both sides remained minor, and casualties were negligible. Despite their efforts, Union ships could not drive the Confederate defenders from their emplacements, nor did they manage to seriously harm the men stationed there or significantly damage the batteries themselves. Likewise, the Confederate gunners failed to inflict meaningful casualties among Union sailors or to seriously damage any of their vessels.

Not long afterward, on Sunday, July 7, 1861, Confederate forces attempted something new near the Aquia Landing batteries: naval mines, deployed for the first time, though the effort did not succeed. The batteries themselves remained in Confederate hands until March 9, 1862, when they were finally given up as troops shifted to counter the danger posed by the Union Army's advance in the Peninsula Campaign. Today, the U.S. National Park Service recognizes this engagement as one of 384 principal battles fought during the American Civil War.

Background

The road to conflict at Aquia began with Virginia's break from the Union. Though the state convention scheduled a public referendum for May 23, 1861, its vote on April 17 already set secession in motion, coming just three days after Fort Sumter fell to Confederate hands and a mere two days after Lincoln's appeal for troops to put down the rebellion. Virginia's governor, John Letcher, moved quickly to organize the state's defenses, placing Robert E. Lee at the head of Virginia's forces as major general on April 22.

Lee wasted no time addressing the vulnerability of the Potomac. He sent Captain William F. Lynch of the Virginia navy to survey the river's defensible points and begin plans for batteries that would keep Union ships from passing through. Two days later, on April 24, engineer Major Thomas H. Williamson and naval officer Lieut. H. H. Lewis surveyed Aquia Creek itself, settling on Split Rock Bluff as the ideal location since guns positioned there, if of adequate caliber, could dominate the channel below.

Meanwhile, Lincoln responded to Virginia's and North Carolina's moves toward joining the Confederacy by ordering, on April 27, that the naval blockade extend to cover both states' coastlines. With this development, each side grew determined to keep the Potomac out of the other's control.

Construction at Aquia Creek landing commenced under Williamson's direction on May 8, driven largely by the need to shield the northern terminus of the Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Union capture. Roughly a week later, around May 14, Lynch and Lewis, joined by Commander Robert D. Thorburn and Lieutenant John Wilkinson, completed a thirteen-gun battery at the site to guard the rail terminal. This installation carried a dual purpose, since it also served the earlier goal of threatening any Union vessel attempting to use the river. Command arrangements shifted around this time as well: Confederate officials elevated Lee to lead all Confederate troops in Virginia on May 10, while Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles took overall charge of the river batteries, leaving Lynch in direct command at Aquia itself.

The Union warship Mount Vernon caught sight of this new Confederate position on May 14 but chose not to engage it. Recognizing that the original battery, built at water level, offered protection mainly for the rail terminal rather than full command of the waterway, Confederate forces moved to reinforce the position. Sometime before May 29, they added a second battery atop the bluffs south of where Aquia Creek meets the Potomac, fulfilling the location the scouting party had identified from the very beginning.

Battle

The clash opened on May 29, 1861, when the USS Thomas Freeborn, a 250-ton paddle-wheel steamer refitted to carry three guns and commanded by James H. Ward as part of the Federal Potomac Flotilla, opened fire on the Confederate batteries at Aquia. Little came of the effort. Confederate Captain Lynch later noted that the vessel loosed fourteen rounds, wounding just one man in the hand.

The following day brought a second attempt. The Thomas Freeborn came back accompanied by the USS Anacostia, a two-gun ship of 200 tons, and the smaller USS Resolute, only half the Anacostia's size. Together they traded fire with the shore batteries for hours, though the outcome changed little. None of the squadron's weapons exceeded 32-pounders in size.

A third and heavier assault followed on June 1. This time the Thomas Freeborn, Anacostia, and Resolute were joined by the sloop-of-war USS Pawnee, and the four vessels kept up a bombardment lasting nearly five hours, unleashing more than 500 rounds on the position. According to Lynch, these final two days of shelling produced no human casualties on his side, killing only a chicken and a horse. He acknowledged that his defenses suffered some harm, that nearby houses were knocked about, and that the rail line behind his position was torn up in three or four spots. Lynch explained that he had held back his own fire deliberately, both to conserve ammunition and because his heaviest guns, fixed in place and unable to be turned, could only be aimed when enemy ships passed within view through his embrasures. Even so, the Thomas Freeborn and the Pawnee each picked up minor damage from the Confederate guns and needed subsequent repairs. On the Federal side, no sailor suffered serious wounds or death.

Aftermath

James Harmon Ward, a commander in the United States Navy, died on June 27, 1861, becoming the first naval officer of that service to lose his life in the conflict. His ship, the Thomas Freeborn, had been providing covering fire for a landing party that hoped to silence a Confederate gun position and establish a Union battery near Mathias Point along the Potomac in King George County, Virginia, when he was struck down.

In the wake of the fighting at Aquia Creek, Confederate forces strengthened their hold on the surrounding terrain, adding a third gun emplacement atop the bluff and a fourth positioned across the creek's mouth at Brent Point. Then, on July 7, they introduced something new to the war: floating mines set adrift in the Potomac near Aquia Creek. Each device consisted of an eighty gallon cask rigged with a boiler iron torpedo and a charge of gunpowder large enough to destroy a vessel the size of the Pawnee. Sailors aboard that ship spotted the mines drifting toward them in time to avoid disaster. Crewmen from the Resolute later pulled the devices from the water, though one slipped beneath the surface and sank.

The Confederate guns proved effective enough that by late October 1861 they had shut down river traffic on the Potomac for a time. Eventually, however, Union naval officers realized that the batteries were missing the ships passing below them, a failure likely tied to substandard gunpowder. Even so, fearing an unlucky shot might still find its mark, the Navy kept civilian vessels off the river for as long as the guns remained active.

Command of the Union Army passed to Major General George B. McClellan on November 1, 1861, and from that point Lincoln pressed him again and again to drive the Confederates from their river positions. McClellan delayed. Not until March 8, 1862, when Lincoln issued General War Order No. 3 demanding action against the batteries, did McClellan finally advance, only to find the enemy already gone. General Joseph E. Johnston had pulled the garrisons out in early March, redirecting them toward the defense of Richmond as the Peninsula Campaign got underway. Sailors stationed on the Anacostia and the USS Yankee noticed strange fires and explosions coming from the Confederate positions at Cockpit Point and Shipping Point on March 9, and Union troops soon confirmed that the batteries at Aquia and elsewhere along the river stood empty.

Union forces went on to make use of the wharves and storage buildings at Aquia Landing, holding them until June 7, 1863, when the army marched north toward what would become the Battle of Gettysburg. These same facilities saw further service in 1864 during the Overland Campaign.