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The Battle of Gloucester Point, Virginia was an inconclusive exchange of cannon fire between a shore battery on the York River which was manned by Virginia (soon to be Confederate) forces and the Union gunboat USS ''Yankee''. The action occurred on May 7, 1861, three weeks after the start of the American Civil War (Civil War) at Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina on April 14, 1861. The Gloucester Point engagement is notable as the earliest exchange of gunfire between the Union Navy and organized Rebel (Confederate) forces after the U.S. Army surrendered Fort Sumter to the Confederates and as the earliest reported Civil War military engagement in Virginia. Like other early engagements between Union gunboats and Confederate shore batteries, the battle at Gloucester Point was part of the Union Navy effort to blockade the Southern States in general and the Chesapeake Bay in particular. The engagement also was part of the effort by Confederate forces to deny the use of rivers in Virginia to Union military and commercial traffic. ==Background== On April 15, 1861, the day after the U.S. Army garrison surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to reclaim federal property which had been seized by the Confederates and to suppress the incipient rebellion of the seven Deep South Slave states which had formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Four Upper South States which also permitted slavery, including Virginia, refused to furnish troops for this purpose.〔Hansen, Harry. ''The Civil War: A History''. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961. . p. 48〕 These States immediately began the process of secession from the Union in order to join the Confederacy.〔 On April 17, 1861, the delegates previously elected to the Virginia Secession Convention in Richmond, Virginia passed an ordinance of secession from the Union.〔Scharf, John Thomas. (''History of the Confederate States Navy From Its Organization to the Surrender of Its Last Vessel'' ). New York: Rogers & Sherwood, 1887, p. 39. . Retrieved February 1, 2011〕 The ordinance was subject to a ratification vote of the people of the state to be held on May 23, 1861.〔 Nonetheless, the actions of the convention and Virginia's Governor John Letcher effectively took Virginia out of the Union before the vote could be taken.〔〔Hansen, 1961, p. 34〕 In particular, the convention authorized the governor to call for volunteers to join the military forces of Virginia to defend the state against Federal military action.〔 On April 22, 1861, Governor Letcher appointed Robert E. Lee commander in chief of Virginia’s army and navy forces.〔 On April 24, 1861, Virginia and the Confederate States agreed that the Virginia forces would be under the overall direction of the Confederate President pending completion of the process of Virginia joining the Confederate States.〔 These developments showed Virginia would complete the process of secession. Therefore, President Lincoln did not wait for the vote of the people of Virginia on the issue of secession before he took action that treated Virginia as part of the Confederacy. On April 27, 1861, Lincoln extended the blockade of the seven original Confederate States which he had declared on April 19, 1861 to include the ports of Virginia and North Carolina.〔Long, E. B. and Barbara Long. ''The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861–1865''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. . p. 66〕 On May 3, 1861, Major General Robert E. Lee of the Virginia forces appointed Colonel William B. Taliaferro commander of defenses at Gloucester Point, Virginia on the York River opposite Yorktown, Virginia. General Lee instructed the colonel to cooperate with Virginia Navy Captain William C. Whittle in the construction and defense of a shore battery to cover the York River at that location.〔Scharf, 1887, p. 107〕 On May 6, 1861, Taliaferro ordered a company of fifty men of the Richmond Howitzers, a Virginia volunteer artillery regiment, with two six-pounder cannons, to report to Gloucester Point to assist in the defense and operation of the shore battery. The artillerymen arrived at Gloucester Point early on May 7, 1861.〔Gordon, E. Clifford. (''The Battle of Big Bethel'' ). Richmond, VA: Carlton McCarthy and Co., 1883. Contributions to a History of the Richmond Howitzer Battalion, Pamphlet No. 3, Richmond, VA: Carlton McCarthy and Co., 1884. Diary of T. Roberts Baker, of the Second Howitzer Company of Richmond, VA. . p. 6〕 This force had not yet been formally transferred to the Confederate States Army or Confederate States Navy, but the Virginians were acting in concert with the Confederacy and in its defense. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Gloucester Point (1861)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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