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TOPIC:  Tensions were rising throughout the South during the first week of April 1861. While the Upper South had yet to join the Confederacy, the Lincoln administration was alert to the threatening war clouds and the possibility of states, like Virginia, leaving the Union. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles recognized that Gosport Navy Yard and the steam screw frigate USS Merrimack were tempting targets for pro-secessionist Virginians. Accordingly, on April 10,1861, Welles advised the Gosport Navy Yard Commandant, Captain Charles Stewart McCauley, that he must show great vigilance in protecting the yard. He stated that it was important that one of the US Navy’s most modern warships, Merrimack, be repaired and moved to another navy yard. Welles added that McCauley was to do nothing to upset the Virginians and to use his best judgment in discharging his duties to protect Gosport. Welles concluded; it is “desirable that there should be no steps taken to give needless alarm.”

SPEAKER: John V. Quarstein conducts Civil War tours and lectures across the country and is the author of more than 18 books. He leads the Civil War and Hampton Roads lecture series for the Mariner's Museum and Park located in Newport News, Virginia.