Tag: Virginia

Beachgoers enjoying the summer at this Virginia park are seldom aware of the Civil War drama that unfolded there.

The Engagement at Aquia Creek was fought from Wednesday, May 29 to Saturday, June 1, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Commander James H. Ward and Virginian forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles and Capt. William F. Lynch in Stafford County, Virginia during the American Civil War.

Several small fleets of U.S. Navy ships and converted civilian vessels had been enforcing an economic and military blockade on Virginia ports since April 27th, 1861. Their mission was to close the Chesapeake Bay to maritime traffic, and open up the Potomac River to Union ships, which was vital to securing Washington, DC.

By the end of May 1861, there was no longer any doubt as to which side Virginia would take in the American Civil War. On May 23rd, Virginia voters ratified secession by a large majority, and the next day, Union troops crossed the Potomac River and seized Arlington Heights and Alexandria, Virginia. Armed conflict on Virginia soil was inevitable, but no one quite knew where it would ignite.

Visit the scene of an early Medal of Honor winner and where the first U.S. Naval officer was killed in the Civil War.

The Engagement at Mathias Point was fought on Thursday, June 27, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Commander James H. Ward and Confederate forces commanded by Colonel Daniel Ruggles and Colonel John M. Brockenbrough in King George County, Virginia during the American Civil War.

Since Virginia declared its intention to secede in early May 1861, the Union Navy had been enforcing a blockade of its ports. It attempted to close the Chesapeake Bay to maritime traffic, and open up the Potomac River to Union ships, which was vital to securing Washington, DC. Virginia, for its part, erected batteries at strategic points along the shoreline to keep Union ships away.

At the end of May, the Union Potomac Flotilla failed to silence a Confederate shore battery near Aquia Landing on the Potomac River. Nearly a month later, Flotilla Commander James H. Ward sought to clear Mathias Point of Confederate skirmishers, who were using the woods as cover to harass passing ships with small arms fire. He was determined to keep the river open from Washington, DC to the Chesapeake Bay.

Fought between Union and Confederate forces 160 years ago on August 28, 1862, the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap (aka Chapman’s Mill) in Fauquier and Prince William Counties, Virginia played a small but consequential role in ensuring Confederate victory in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Union Maj. Gen. John Pope missed an opportunity to isolate half of Robert E. Lee’s army and crush his legendary corps commander Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. 

The Northern Virginia Campaign is widely considered to be Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s most successful military campaign. It culminated in the Second Battle of Bull Run, in which an entire Union army was nearly destroyed. This paved the way for Lee’s invasion of Maryland and the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. The Northern Virginia Campaign resulted in over 25,000 total casualties.

By late August 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, 50,000 strong, squared off against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia, 51,000 strong, 40 miles from Washington, DC. Lee outmaneuvered Pope, sending Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s wing around Pope’s flank to destroy his supply depot at Manassas Junction. Confederate Maj. Gen. James Longstreet followed with the rest of the army. To reach Jackson, Longstreet had to pass through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains.