![]() There is no reliable count of the total number of men who died while imprisoned at Point Lookout. In May of 1865-one month after the fall of Richmond and the end of the war-324 men died in the camp. The death toll began to rise during the summer of 1864. Mosquitoes carried malaria and typhoid fever into the camps, and chronic diarrhea, scurvy and other diseases ran rampant. There were several instances of violence between guards and prisoners. The cramped conditions made tempers shorter than ever. Three or more men would share a single blanket. There would often be 16 or more men to a single 15-square-foot tent. Supplies at the camp were stretched thin. The camp's prisoner population ballooned from 9,153 in December of 1863 to about 20,000 by June of 1865-more than double the number the camp was designed to hold. When high tide came, the low-lying bull pen would flood, often creating knee-deep mud and swamp-like conditions. The tents offered little protection from the extreme weather on the unprotected peninsula. The prisoners were given only thin tents for shelter. Prisoners at the camp were kept in the “bull pen”: a 1,000-square-foot area surrounded by a 14-foot-high fence with guard posts. In July of 1863, the federal government started housing many of the thousands of rebels captured in the Battle of Gettysburg at Camp Hammond-Point Lookout’s official name. The prison camp at Point Lookout is one of the darkest chapters in Chesapeake Bay history. The campaign for Richmond came to a quiet close. In August, Lincoln ordered the Army of the Potomac back to Washington, D.C. However, during a series of bloody clashes known as the Seven Days Battle, Confederate forces pushed back the Union advance. By late June, the Union Army advanced to within six miles of Richmond. The Union Army landed at Newport News and Fort Monroe, Virginia – both Union outposts – and began its assault up the peninsula. Along with the troops, thousands of horses, cattle, wagons, ambulances and artillery pieces traveled on the voyage. The 112,000-man army-the largest ever assembled in North America-used nearly 400 vessels of every size and stature. In March and April of 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac traveled down the Bay from Washington, D.C., to the York-James peninsula for an attempt on Richmond. The Monitor’s gun turret is now on display at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. The USS Monitor sunk in rough seas off the coast of Cape Hatteras on December 29th, 1862. Winston Churchill wrote in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, “The combat of the Merrimac and Monitor made the greatest change in sea-fighting since cannon fired by gunpowder had been mounted on ships.” The squat, iron-encased ships, which could withstand nearly all attacks, ushered in a new era in naval engineering. ![]() Monitor prevented Virginia from destroying the rest of the Union fleet stationed at Hampton Roads. In March of 1862, the first ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor fought to a bloody standstill in the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia.Īfter four hours of brutal fighting, the battle ended in a draw. The Chesapeake Bay was the setting for one of the most important naval battles in history. By 1864, it helped drive the Confederate Navy almost completely out of the Bay. The Potomac Flotilla provided invaluable security to the U.S. The Flotilla also extracted gunpowder from the mines for Union troops to use in the field. ![]() This allowed the Union army to use Fredericksburg as a secure base for supplies. When General Grant moved through Virginia during his 1864 Overland Campaign, the Flotilla removed Confederate mines from the Rappahannock River. The Potomac Flotilla had its hands full keeping raiders and smugglers in check. Dubbed the Potomac Flotilla, the fleet of six ships, steamers and barges was responsible for the safety of travel and supplies on the Potomac River and the upper Chesapeake Bay. In May of 1861, federal authorities created a "flying flotilla” to patrol the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. Access to the Bay meant the ability to receive shipped goods, quickly transport troops from one point to another and threaten the enemy with strikes deep into their territory. Huge armies prowled around Maryland and Virginia throughout the entire war. The capitals of both the Confederacy and the United States sat next to Bay rivers: Richmond, Virginia, on the James River, and Washington, D.C., on the Potomac River.īecause of its close distance to both capitals, the Bay and its rivers played an important role in many Civil War battles. From the beginning of the Civil War, the Chesapeake Bay was one of the most important water bodies in America. ![]()
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