Combat· American Civil War
Sewell's Point Bombardment and Norfolk surrender
The naval pressure that recovered Norfolk and doomed the ironclad Virginia.
In early May 1862, as McClellan's advance up the Peninsula made the Confederate hold on Norfolk untenable, Union steamers bombarded the batteries at Sewell's Point, with Marine detachments aboard serving the guns. The combined pressure of the bombardment and the army's advance forced the Confederates to give up Norfolk, which surrendered on 12 May. The fall of the city had a momentous consequence: deprived of her base and unable to escape up the shallow James, the famous ironclad CSS Virginia, the former Merrimack, was blown up by her own crew on 11 May to keep her from capture. With Norfolk taken, the Union also recovered the Gosport Navy Yard lost the year before. No Marine casualties attended the operation, which was among the cleaner Union successes of the Peninsula campaign.
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Record no. 399