The short exchange of cannon fire at Gloucester Point is significant for being the first hostile engagement between Virginia and the U.S. government in the Civil War.
Tyndall’s Point Park sits tucked away behind the George Washington Memorial Highway (U.S. Route 17), its serpentine mounded earthworks winding along a trail through the woods. At one time in the distant past, artillery batteries commanded the entrance to the York River from this bluff. Today, it is almost unrecognizable, with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences across the highway and the modern Coleman Memorial Bridge reaching across the river to Yorktown.
More than 163 years ago, however, this small peninsula, which was renamed from Tyndall’s to Gloucester Point following the Revolutionary War, played a crucial role in the opening days of the American Civil War.
April, 1861. Shortly after the secession vote at the convention in Richmond, Virginia, pro-secession militia captured the U.S. Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk along with approximately 1,085 cannon and 250,000 pounds of powder. In response, on April 27, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln extended the blockade of the seven original Confederate States to include the ports of Virginia and North Carolina.
It was an uncertain time because the convention set up a referendum on May 23rd to ratify secession. Technically, according to its own rules, Virginia remained in the Union until that occurred, but the authorities in Richmond acted like the state had already seceded and began preparing for war.
On May 3, 1861, Robert E. Lee appointed Col. William B. Taliaferro commander of defenses at Gloucester Point on the York River and instructed him to cooperate with Virginia Navy Capt. William C. Whittle to construct a shore battery there. On May 6, Taliaferro ordered a company of fifty men of the Richmond Howitzers with two six-pounder cannons to report to Gloucester Point to assist in the defense. They arrived the next morning.
At the same time, U.S. Commodore Garrett J. Pendergrast ordered Lt. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., commander of the converted steam tugboat USS Yankee, to sail up the York River and examine the fortifications at Gloucester Point. As the Yankee approached within 2,000 yards of Taliaferro’s battery, it fired several shots across the Yankee’s bow. The Richmond Howitzers reportedly fired 12-13 shots during the engagement. The Yankee fired six rounds from its two cannon in return, but could not elevate its guns high enough to score a hit.
There is some controversy whether any of the Virginians’ shots hit the Yankee, but regardless, Lt. Selfridge saw the futility of continuing the engagement and sailed away after a few minutes. Neither side reported casualties. This brief exchange of fire was the first hostile engagement between Virginia and the U.S. government in the Civil War, occurring a little less than two weeks before Virginia formally seceded from the United States.
Today, you can visit the former Confederate earthworks at Tyndall’s Point Park off Vernon Street, behind the Gloucester Inn. I visited earlier this year and, unless you were looking for it, you might never know it was there. There is a small parking lot, and several interpretive markers and signs along the winding trail tell the story of its use during the Revolutionary War and Civil War.
Spirit of '61 