Captain James H. Ward, United States Navy
Civil War Daily Gazette has the story of the failed Union effort to take Mathias Point, Virginia on this date 150 years ago. During the engagement James Harmon Ward was mortally wounded, becoming “the first officer of the United States Navy killed during the American Civil War.”
Ward began his naval career as a midshipman in 1823. Throughout his career he served in a variety of jobs – including as a teacher at the Naval Academy. When southern states seceded, Ward wanted to take it to the rebels. According to Wikipedia:
Ward pressed for front line service, proposing that a “flying squadron” be established in the Chesapeake Bay for use against Confederate naval and land forces threatening that area south of the Union capital. The idea was acceptable, and the squadron took shape. With the steamer Thomas Freeborn serving as Ward’s flagship, the steamers Freelance, Alliance plus three coastal survey ships made up his flotilla.
The USS Thomas Freeborn “was a steam tug acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.” The photo below is said to be
The steam tug USS Thomas Freeborn in 1861. The photo shows some of the ship’s officers and men demonstrating how her late commanding officer, Commander James H. Ward, was sighting her bow gun when he was mortally wounded on 27 June 1861, during an action with Confederate forces at Mathias Point, Virginia.
The gun is a 32 pounder smoothbore, of 60 hundredweight, on a “Novelty Carriage”. This mounting was developed by Commander Ward before the Civil War.
Location appears to be the Washington Navy Yard, D.C.
re-enacting Ward's courage aboard the Thomas Freeborn 1861
