Qualla: Battle of Sewell's Point https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Sewell's Point https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point Battle of Sewell's Point: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The Confederate gunners at Sewell's Point did not have a Confederate flag. So when the USS Monticello began firing on their battery at 5:30 p.m. on May 19, 1861, Captain Peyton H. Colquitt of the Columbus Light Guard ran up what he did have: the flag of the state of Georgia. Three 32-pound guns answered the Monticello, and the Union gunboat broke off the exchange. Almost nothing was hit. Almost nobody was hurt. And yet this small, inconclusive duel over a sandy peninsula in Norfolk County was one of the first times the United States Navy fired its guns at Confederate forces in the war that had just begun.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Sewell's Point: A Yard, Burning https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. On the night of April 20, 1861, Commodore Charles S. McCauley made one of the most consequential decisions in early Civil War history without orders. As Virginia tipped toward secession, McCauley convinced himself he could not hold the Gosport Navy Yard against the rebels. He gav...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-a-yard-burning.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Sewell's Point: Building a Battery https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Walter Gwynn had been a U.S. Army engineering officer and a railroad surveyor before the war. In late April and early May 1861, the Virginia Militia made him a brigadier general and put him in charge of building Norfolk's defenses. He chose Sewell's Point for one of his batteries...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-building-a-battery.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Sewell's Point: An Inconclusive Duel https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The exchange that followed was brief, loud, and largely ineffective. The Monticello fired. The battery returned fire under Captain Colquitt and his improvised Georgia flag. The Monticello broke off, having taken little damage and inflicted less. Two days later, on May 21, the shi...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-an-inconclusive-duel.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Sewell's Point: The Battery That Watched the Ironclads https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Sewell's Point was almost a witness more than a participant in the most famous naval battle of the war. On March 8 and 9, 1862, the CSS Virginia steamed out of the Elizabeth River and into Hampton Roads. The first day she destroyed the wooden USS Cumberland and Congress. The seco...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-the-battery-that-watched-the-ironclads.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Sewell's Point: Built Over https://qualla.com/battle-of-sewell-s-point/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. There is nothing left of the Confederate battery at Sewell's Point. Nothing visible, anyway. The peninsula became, in stages, one of the largest concentrations of military power in the world. The 1907 Jamestown Exposition was held here, and after it closed the Navy bought the lan...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-sewell-s-point-wp/dq9d-battle-of-sewells-point-built-over.mp3 0:06 6 full