Battle of Pig Point
Coordinates: 37°56′34″N 75°40′42″W / 37.94278°N 75.67833°W
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The Battle of Pig Point, Virginia was an engagement between the Union gunboat USS Harriet Lane and a shore battery and rifle company of the Confederate States Army defenders at Pig Point in Portsmouth, Virginia at the mouth of the Nansemond River near Hampton Roads, Virginia. This location is about 5 miles (8 km) from Newport News, Virginia. The engagement occurred on June 5, 1861 in the third month of the American Civil War before any significant battles, other than the opening Battle of Fort Sumter, had taken place. Although the action was essentially inconclusive, the Confederates repulsed the Union gunboat's attack and their gunfire wounded five of its crew. The battle at Pig Point was an early Civil War military action in connection with the blockade by the Union Navy of the Southern States in general and the Chesapeake Bay in particular and the corresponding effort by Confederate forces to deny the use of rivers in Virginia to Union military and commercial traffic. BackgroundOn April 15, 1861, the day after the small U.S. Army garrison surrendered Fort Sumter in the harbor Charleston, South Carolina to Confederate forces, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to reclaim federal property and to suppress the rebellion begun by the seven Deep South Slave states which had formed the Confederate States of America. Four Upper South States which also permitted slavery, including Virginia, refused to furnish troops for this purpose and began the process of secession from the Union. On April 17, 1861, a convention in Richmond, Virginia immediately passed an ordinance providing for Virginia's secession from the Union and authorized the governor to call for volunteers to join the military forces of Virginia to defend the state against Federal military action. The Virginia convention made the act of secession subject to a vote of the people of the state on May 23, 1861, but the actions of the convention and Virginia political leaders, especially Governor John Letcher, had effectively taken Virginia out of the union. In view of developments in Virginia, President Lincoln also did not wait for the vote of the people of Virginia on secession to take action as if Virginia already had joined the Confederacy. On April 27, 1861, he extended the blockade of the original Confederate States that he had declared on April 19, 1861, to include the ports of Virginia and North Carolina. On May 27, 1861, Major General Benjamin Butler commanding Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula between the James River and the York River sent forces eight miles north to occupy Newport News, Virginia. By May 29, the Union Army completed their mission and established a battery at Newport News that could cover the entrance to the James River ship canal and the mouth of the Nansemond River. Meanwhile, with guns captured from the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk County, Virginia, now part of Portsmouth, Virginia, the Confederates established a battery at Pig Point across the Nansemond River from Newport News. After establishing the position at Newport News, Butler wished to move up the Nansemond River to capture Suffolk, Virginia, but he had to dispose of the battery at Pig Point to accomplish this objective. BattleGeneral Butler ordered Captain to take the Harriet Lane, one of the boats which had tried to reinforce and resupply Fort Sumter before it was surrendered, and attack the Confederate battery at Pig Point on June 5, 1861 in order to ascertain its strength. Faunce attacked the battery but due to shallow water, he had to fire his 30 shots from too great a distance and most fell short. The Confederate defenders, including the Portsmouth Rifle Company. returned fire and wounded five of the Union steamer's crew. Faunce determined that the battery was strong and considered his mission complete. He withdrew in the face of the superior Confederate firepower. Captain Robert Pegram commanding the Confederate battery reported that the Harriet Lane fired 33 shots and inflicted no casualties or damage. The Confederates returned fire with 23 shots. A later account stated that the Harriet Lane had disabled a 48-pound cannon at the battery. Five of the Harriet Lane's crew were wounded by the Confederate gunfire. On the same date, June 5, 1861, the USS Quaker City captured the Confederate ship General Greene off the nearby Virginia Capes. AftermathThe Confederates maintained control of Pig Point and operation of the battery until they abandoned Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia at the start of the Peninsula Campaign on March 9, 1862. Union forces occupied Norfolk and Portsmouth on May 10 and 11. NotesReferences
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pig_Point 
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