The Appomattox River Raid, June 26-28, 1862

In June 1862, President Lincoln ordered an attack on the railroad bridge over Swift Creek, three miles upstream from its mouth at the Appomattox River, because destroying it would impede Confederate reinforcements and supplies moving to Richmond from the south. With General McClellan too deeply engaged in the Peninsula Campaign to carry out the assault, the mission went to the Navy, which assigned a squadron of 12 gunboats including the ironclads Monitor and Galena. The flotilla also included the newly built submarine Alligator, but her use was judged impractical and she returned to Fortress Monroe. The raid began on the evening of June 26, when Galena took position off City Point while the rest of the squadron steamed upriver toward Point of Rocks; several smaller ships turned toward Petersburg as a diversion, and the main force moved toward the mouth of Swift Creek, where sailors planned to row small boats to the bridge and burn it. The treacherous Appomattox channel and sand bars, together with heavy small arms fire from Confederates hidden among boulders on the bluffs, defeated the effort. Among the Confederate defenders were men of the Surry Light Artillery. Many Union ships ran aground, and Island Belle was burned when she could not be refloated. The raid was called off on June 27, and it took another day to free all the ships. The squadron's survival owed much to the Seven Days' battles being fought on the other side of the James, as Robert E. Lee chose to leave the Navy alone and concentrate on defeating McClellan. The Swift Creek Bridge remained intact, and the Federals avoided what might have become a naval disaster.

Virginia · United States