traffic on the Potomac River while the batteries were in operation in the event the Confederates might score a lucky hit. After Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army on November 1, 1861, President Lincoln repeatedly requested that McClellan oust the Confederates from these positions but McClellan did not move. By the time Lincoln ordered McClellan to take action against the batteries in General War Order No. 3 on March 8, 1862 and McClellan moved against them, the Confederates had abandoned the positions. The Confederates abandoned the batteries in early March 1862 when General Joseph E. Johnston recalled their garrisons in preparation to defend Richmond at the start of the Peninsula Campaign. On March 9, 1862, sailors on the Anacostia and noted unusual fires and explosions at the Confederate batteries at Cockpit Point and Shipping Point and Union forces discovered that the Confederate batteries at Aquia and along the Potomac River had been abandoned. The Union Army used the wharves and storage building at Aquia Landing until June 7, 1863 when the army headed north for the Battle of Gettysburg. The Union Army used the facilities again in 1864 during the Overland Campaign. Notes Citations References National Park Service battle description CWSAC Report Update Barnes, James. In Miller, Francis Trevelyan, Robert S. Lanier, and James Verner Scaife, eds. The Photographic History of the Civil War. 10 vols. New York: Review of Reviews Co., 1911. . Retrieved January 22, 2011. Hansen, Harry. The Civil War: A History. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961. Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. . Long, E. B. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861–1865. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. . Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. . Scharf, John Thomas. History of the Confederate States Navy From Its Organization to the Surrender of Its Last Vessel. New York: Rogers & Sherwood, 1887. . Retrieved February 1, 2011. 1861 in Virginia Battles of the Chesapeake Bay Blockade of the American Civil War Battles of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War Inconclusive battles of the American Civil War Battles and conflicts without fatalities Naval battles of the American Civil War Stafford County in the American Civil War 1861 in the American Civil War Riverine warfare Battles of the American Civil War