- Navy:
- Commonwealth of Virginia Navy, 1861
- Name:
- Commonwealth of Virginia Navy
- Career:
Created on the secession of the state on 17 April 1861. Virginia troops occupied the Norfolk Navy Yard and captured more than 1,000 guns and a large quantity of stores on the 20th. Arrangements were first made for the establishment of batteries to defend the rivers from naval attacks. These batteries fought against Union gunboats at Gloucester Point (5 May), Sewell’s Point (19 May), Aquia Creek (29 May to 1 June) and Pig Point (5 June). The Virginia Navy, under the command of General Robert E. Lee and Captain Samuel Barron as de facto commanding officer, also commissioned one training ship (the old frigate United States) and purchased, leased or seized seven steamers (Teaser, George Page, Yorktown, Jamestown, Northampton, Virginia, Logan –only the first three of which were armed before their transfer to the Confederacy), and recovered the sunken frigate Merrimac, later converted into the ironclad Virginia. The personnel came from the USN, US Marine Corps, Revenue Service and the merchant marine. In June 1861 ships and sailors were transferred to the Confederate States Navy.