Aquia Landing

Within weeks after Virginia seceded from the Union in the spring of 1861, state troops began fortifying Aquia Landing with an artillery battery on the waterfront and additional batteries on nearby hills. Because these guns threatened Union shipping on the Potomac River, Commander James H. Ward of the United States Navy moved to eliminate them. Between May 29 and June 1, 1861, Union gunboats on the Potomac fired more than 700 rounds at the landing, damaging several waterfront houses and tearing up sections of railroad track but causing little other damage. Confederate return fire struck the U.S.S. Pawnee nine times and caused the U.S.S. Thomas Freeborn to take on water, yet no one on either side was killed. Though the exchange had no lasting impact on the war and produced few casualties, it was one of the Civil War’s first military engagements, more than seven weeks before the first major battle at Manassas.

Virginia · United States