The Battle of Aquia Creek was an exchange of cannon fire between Union Navy gunboats and Confederate shore batteries on the Potomac River at its confluence with Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The battle took place from May 29, 1861 to June 1, 1861 during the early days of the American Civil War. The Confederates set up several shore batteries to block Union military and commercial vessels from moving in the Chesapeake Bay and along the lower Potomac River as well as for defensive purposes. The battery at Aquia also was intended to protect the railroad terminal at that location. The Union forces sought to destroy or remove these batteries as part of the effort to blockade Confederate States coastal and Chesapeake Bay ports. The battle was tactically inconclusive. Each side inflicted little damage and no serious casualties on the other. The Union vessels were unable to dislodge the Confederates from their positions or to inflict serious casualties on their garrisons or serious damage to their batteries. The Confederates manning the batteries were unable to inflict serious casualties on the Union sailors or cause serious damage to the Union vessels. Soon after the battle, on Sunday, July 7, 1861, the Confederates first used naval mines, unsuccessfully, off the Aquia Landing batteries. The Confederates ultimately abandoned the batteries on March 9, 1862 as they moved forces to meet the threat created by the Union Army’s Peninsula Campaign. The U. S. National Park Service includes this engagement in its list of 384 principal battles of the American Civil War. (Read more at Wikipedia)
Library of Congress Information:
Title: Action between the U.S. vessels Pawnee and Freeborn and the rebel batteries at Acquia [sic] Creek
Creator(s): Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist
Date Created/Published: [1861 June 27?]
Medium: 1 drawing on brown paper : pencil, Chinese white, and black ink wash ; 19.2 x 26.0 cm. (sheet).
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-21146 (digital file from original item) LC-USZ62-166 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: DRWG/US – Waud, no. 277 recto (A size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
…..Title inscribed below image.
…..Inscribed above image with indicators: Gunboat Freeborn; rebel batteries; RR depot and long dock on fire; rebel batteries; U.S. Sloop Pawnee.
…..Gift, J.P. Morgan, 1919 (DLC/PP-1919:R1.2.277)
…..Reference print available in the Civil War Drawings file 1861.
…..Forms part of: Morgan collection of Civil War drawings.
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Mike’s notes:
Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject