as viewed by an eye witness.
An interesting Paper—The improvised Confederate Naval fleet.
pp. 243-9, ‘The Ironclad
The outbreak of the war between the northern and southern sections of the
United States at once invested every foot of the navigable waters of
Virginia with strategic importance.
The Federals retained their hold on
Fortress Monroe, which, under the then existing conditions of ordnance and of naval architecture, practically controlled the entrance to
Chesapeake Bay and
Hampton Roads, while heavy batteries at Newport News, at the mouth of
James river, prohibited communication by water between the Confederate forces at
Richmond and
Norfolk.
The Confederates, on the other hand, mounted guns at Lovell's Point and
Craney Island, to protect
Norfolk,
Portsmouth and the Gosport navy yard from hostile approach, and the passage to
Richmond was obstructed against Federal marine by batteries at Fort Powhatan,
Drewry's Bluff,
Day's Neck, Hardin's Bluff,
Mulberry Island,
Jamestown and other defensible points on
James river.
Such was the situation of affairs in the early spring of 1862.
The Federals had, however, made previous descent upon the coast of
North Carolina with a powerful armada under
General Burnside, and having captured
Roanoke Island, after a gallant though hopeless resistance by the combined land and naval forces of
General Henry A. Wise and
Commodore Lynch, were making heavy demonstrations at the back door of
Norfolk, while
General McClellan, having determined on a campaign against
Richmond via the peninsula, between the
James and
York rivers, was urging naval occupation of those streams as an essential protection to the flanks of an army executing that movement.
