June 27, 1861 - Battle of Mathias Point

June 27, 1861

Battle of Mathias Point

King George County, Virginia


Union Navy: James H. Ward (dies here; and BTW he is Andy Devine's great grandfather), James Chaplin, and J.P.L Mygatt

vs.

Confederate Battery: Daniel Ruggles, John M. Brockenbrough, R. M. Mayo


* Not a particularly important momment, but part of my effort to visit every location that saw action in the Eastern Theatre of the Civil War; I'm down to just a few minor sites before I can finally complete 1861. But I also keep adding things! [March 2025]

* Last year I visited Fort Ward in Alexandria - it was named in honor of this early leadership casuality. And the ship the Navy later named after him is responsible for the first American-caused casualities in the Pacific in WWII. 

* Early in the war, Confederates in VA thought they might block the Potomac by building a battery at Mathias Point. Two Union gunboats had other ideas- and there was even a landing party (that got nowhere). Not really a great battle for etiher side, but part of the succesfull Blockade of the Chesapeake

* While sighting a cannon, Commander Ward is killed (by cannon fire from the batteries?), becoming the first Union Navy office to be killed in the war. 

* The ships involved are storied themselves, including the USS Thomas Freeborn, who some will recall from an aborted Fort Sumter relief mission in April 1861. She also saw early action at Sewell's Point, which is technically on my list to vist but practically inaccessible on the Navy's base. I have been to Aquia Creek (May 29- June 1, 1861), where Freeborn fired on and silenced Confederate batteries. The USS Pawnee was also at Mathias Point and several of the same engagements as the Freeborn. 

* One of the Pawnee's crew, Captian of the Maintop John Williams, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Mathias Point. 

Not even really Mathias Point (which is two miles away and completely residential), but you get the idea. 

Sorry, Navy - I'm not here for the Dahlgren Heritage Museum, though the name means something to me: Senior Dahlgren invents the naval gun; Jr. Dahlgren gets in trouble trying to sneak into Richmond.  
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=259710

In May 1861, Confederate forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles and Maj. Robert Mayo began constructing gun emplacements at Mathias Point, which is located 2.5 miles northwest on the Potomac River close to the Virginia shore. This battery, as well as others, interfered with Union forces shipping troops and supplies to Washington, D.C. On 27 June 1861, the gunboat, USS Thomas Freeborn, commanded by Comdr. James H. Ward, shelled the batteries held by the Confederate forces. While sighting the bow gun, Ward was mortally wounded, the first U.S. Navy officer killed in action in the Civil War.

And we aren't doing the John Wilkes Booth escape route trail now either (yet)...but he comes by here. See April 1865. However, there are some cool Mathias Point pictures on his marker, plus a reference to an earlier clash that is definitely not getting its own page! (And I had the honor of adding this marker to the database, which is pretty great considering this is the one spot I set out to find; plus on this trip I recorded my 2,000th marker!)
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=267329


Confirmed! 

The Mathis Point peninsula was thick with Confederate sympathizers. On August 15, 1861, Acting Master William Budd took gunboat USS Resolute, a steam-powered converted tugboat, to Mathias Point and then to Persimmon POint, a mile north of here. There, he spotted a grounded schooner and sent a small crew to take her off. Confederates fired from bushes on shore, killing three and wounding one. Budd drove them off and recovered the schooner. [sidebar] First Naval Casualty In May 1861, Confederate forces began constructing a battery northwest of here at Mathias Point to stop Federal vessels on the Potomac River from transporting supplies and troops to Washington, D.C. On June 27, Union Commander James H. Ward, USS Thomas Freeborn, attacked the battery, which returned fire and killed Ward, the only Union casualty and the first U.S. naval officer killed in the war.




"Engagement between the Gunboat Flotilla, Freeborn and Reliance, under the Command of Captain James H. Ward, and a Secession Force at Mathias Point, Va., on the Potomac River -- Death of Captain Ward.", 27 June 1861 Line engraving, based on a sketch by an "Officer of the Expedition", published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper", 1861. It depicts USS Thomas Freeborn, Ward's flagship, in the left foreground. The U.S. Tug Resolute is at right. Naval History & Heritage Command, Photo #: NH 59242


USS Thomas Freeborn (1861-1865) Some of the ship's officers and men demonstrate how her late Commanding Officer, Commander James H. Ward, was sighting her bow gun when he was mortally wounded on 27 June 1861, during an action with Confederate forces at Mathias Point, Virginia. The gun is a 32 pounder smoothbore, of 60 hundredweight, on a "Novelty Carriage". This mounting was developed by Commander Ward before the Civil War. Location appears to be the Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Naval History & Heritage Command, Photo #: NH 60990



I found this flyover of Mathias Point (while failing to find an YT videos about the actual battle), to show what the other end of the peninsual looks like - where the batteries were actually located. 



Sources (not many for this one):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8B7eZRmfg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mathias_Point

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