Hampton Roads Naval Museum

37. The Civil War Final

Norfolk, VA

Book Now

On April 1, 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan launched his Peninsula Campaign from Fort Monroe. In early May, the Confederates were driven from Yorktown and evacuated Norfolk. The CSS Virginia, unable to ascend the James, was destroyed. USS Monitor was then freed to join a squadron of gunboats in a direct assault on Richmond. The union squadron was stopped, just eight miles below Richmond, by a hastily constructed battery on Drewry's Bluff. By June 1862, the James River, from Hampton Roads to Drewry's Bluff, was commanded by Union gunboats. McClellan's Army of the Potomac fought its way across the Virginia Peninsula from the York River to Harrison's Landing on the James, but failed to capture Richmond. In August, the administration abandoned the campaign. McClellan's Army withdrew to Fort Monroe and the gunboat flotilla rejoined the fleet in Hampton Roads. Other than occasional raids by Union gunboats in support of military actions on inland waters, the blockade of Virginia consisted of ships stationed off Newport News Point. The threat of Confederate ironclads in the upper James brought union ironclads, serving as floating batteries, to guard the blockading fleet at Hampton Roads. By Autumn of 1864, Wilmington, North Carolina, was the Confederacy's only remaining Atlantic port. Wilmington was strongly protected by Fort Fisher guarding New Inlet at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Admiral David D. Porter assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in November 1864 and mounted an unsuccessful attack on Fort Fisher on Christmas Eve. After a second intense bombardment and repeated troop assaults, the Fort was captured on January 15, 1865. On the night of January 23, 1865, a Confederate ironclad squadron including Virginia II and Fredericksburg attempted to force Union obstructions on the James River and attack City Point. Unable to navigate the narrow channel, the squadron was repulsed by Union batteries and the monitor USS Onondaga in the final action of the war. By this time, Lee's forces defending Richmond were already in a desperately weakened condition. In April, the end came at Appomattox.