Combat· American Civil War
Potomac Flotilla patrol
Riverine security duty close to the threatened capital.
In the summer of 1861, with the Confederacy active along the Virginia shore of the Potomac, a body of about two hundred Marines was assigned to the Potomac Flotilla, the squadron of small craft charged with controlling the river and its banks. The Marines scoured the Maryland and Virginia shores for Confederate stores, contraband, and arms, paying particular attention to known trouble spots such as Port Tobacco, and helped keep open the river approaches to Washington. The work was patrol and search rather than pitched battle, the steady, unglamorous business of denying the enemy the use of the river and disrupting his smuggling and communications along its shores. No casualties resulted. The flotilla's patrols continued through the eastern campaigns, and the Marines' part in them was a characteristic Civil War duty, the ship's guard turned to policing a contested waterway.
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Record no. 398