Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [486] at Washington.” he designated no less than twenty places in the State as points of rendezvous for the militia. One-fourth of these places were westward of the mountains. At the same time the insurgents strengthened the garrison at Harper's Ferry, and erected batteries on the Virginia bank of the Potomac, below Washington, for the purpose of obstructing the navigation of that stream, and preventing supplies for the army near the Capital being borne upon its waters. This speedily led to hostilities at the mouth of Acquia Creek, fifty-five miles below Washington City, and the terminus of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railway, where the insurgents had erected batteries to command the River: one at the landing, and two others, with a line of intrenchments, on the hights in the rear. The guns of these batteries had been opened upon several vessels during the few days that the National troops had occupied the Virginia shore, when they were responded to by Captain J. H. Ward, a veteran officer of the Navy, who had been in the service almost forty years.

at the middle of May,

May 16, 1861.

Ward had been placed in command of the Potomac flotilla, which he had organized, composed of four armed propellers, of which the Thomas Freeborn was his flag-ship, and carried 32-pounders. He was sent to Hampton Roads to report to Commodore Stringham. Before reaching that Commander he had an opportunity for trying his guns. The insurgents who held possession of Norfolk and the Navy Yard had been constructing batteries on Craney Island and the main, for the protection of those posts, by completely commanding the Elizabeth River. They had also erected strong works on Sewell's Point, at the mouth of the Elizabeth;¹ and at the middle of May they had three heavy rifled cannon in position there, for the purpose of sweeping Hampton Roads. This battery was masked by a sand-hill, but did not escape the eye of Captain Henry eagle, of the National armed steamer Star, who sent several shot among the workmen on the Point, on the 19th. The engineers in charge, supported by a company of Georgians and some Norfolk volunteers, sent several shot in response, five of which struck the Star, and she was compelled to withdraw.² that night almost two thousand of the insurgent troops were sent from Norfolk to Sewell's Point, and these were there on the morning of the 20th, when Commander Ward.opened the guns of the Freeborn upon the redoubt. The battery was soon silenced, and the insurgents were driven away.

Ward reported to Stringham, and proceeded immediately toward Washington with his flotilla. On his way up the Potomac, and when within twenty-five miles of the Capital, he captured

May 29, 1861.

two schooners filled with fifty insurgent soldiers. He then proceeded to patrol the River, reconnoitering its banks in search of batteries; and on the 31st of the month he attacked those at Acquia Creek, in which service the Freeborn was assisted by the gunboats Anacosta and resolute of his flotilla. For two hours an incessant discharge upon the batteries was kept up, when all the ammunition of the flotilla suitable for long range was exhausted. The three