Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Putting out the navigation beacons on coastal ports was not a new tactic in war. Colonists fighting England during the Revolutionary War doused the beacons as did the United States during the War of 1812. So it would be again in Southern waters. Locals knew the waterways and Union ship captains did not. The Fifth Lighthouse District of the U.S. Lighthouse Service was caught in the chaos. The James River led directly to the capital of the Confederacy and the Chesapeake Bay led to both the Potomac and Washington, D.C. Lightships and the newly completed lighthouses on the James River—as well as the Chesapeake Bay—were in the crossfire of both Union and Confederate Armies and Navies. Lighthouses became pawns in the competition for control of these waterways. Strategies on both sides included extinguishing and relighting these aids to navigation. 31 In the Civil War nearly all the lighthouses on the southern coasts were seized, and as a result, one-third of all the lights previously maintained by the United States were discontinued. Nearly all the light vessels in Chesapeake Bay and to the southward were taken (by Confederates), and a number of them were sunk for the purpose of obstructing channels. Special buoys, lights, and lightships were placed in many instances to facilitate military operations, as, for example, at the entrances to the York River, to the Chesapeake Bay, to Charleston, and on the James River. The U.S. Lighthouse Board cooperated with the Union Army and Navy in many ways. Illuminating apparatus and supplies deemed necessary for temporary purposes were furnished to the Navy. Additional supplies of buoys and apparatus were purchased and kept available for prompt replacements and for special use. A number of light vessels were built for use as needed. Blockade of the James Began at the Outset – April 1861 The first victory for the U.S. Navy during the early phases of the blockade occurred on April 24, 1861, when the sloop Cumberland and a small flotilla of support ships began seizing Confederate ships and privateers near Fort Monroe off the Virginia coastline. Within the next two weeks, Flag Officer Garrett J. Pendergrast had captured 16 Confederate vessels, serving early notice to the Confederate War Department that the blockade would be effective if extended. 32 The Department of Commerce published a report on the Lighthouse Service in 1923. A summary of lighthouse actions during the Civil War were listed:

The blockade of southern rivers and ports created a dilemma for many southern lighthouse keepers. Keepers were part of the U.S. Lighthouse Service when Southern states seceded from the Union and had to make a difficult choice. The governors of the secession states invited U.S. government employees to continue their duties under state control. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, acted quickly to establish a Lighthouse Establishment and “the newly independent states moved to seize forts, arsenals, custom houses and lighthouses.” 33 On March 6, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed an act establishing a Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau; its chief officer was Commander Ebenezer Farrand, who had resigned from the U.S. Navy to join the Confederate Navy in January 1861. 34 Blockade Standoff The U.S. Army and Navy controlled the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads, and the Elizabeth and James Rivers from Fort Monroe. Confederate troops controlled Norfolk and the Elizabeth River from Craney Island to the Navy Yard at Gosport in Portsmouth as well as the southern shoreline of the James River from the Nansemond River to Richmond. Confederate snipers constantly harassed Union patrol boats traveling west on the James River. Blockade Runners Confederate blockade runners and gunboats depended on night operations to subvert the Union stranglehold on the James and Hampton Rivers. The Confederates had the “home court” advantage of local knowledge of river channels and hazards. Without lighted aids to navigation, the Union boats and ships could not run at night. The Coast Falls Dark Some, but not all, of the Confederate states obeyed the instructions given by Commander Farrand to extinguish lights and to remove their apparatus to safety. Some seem to have taken his command as permission to go beyond dismantling lighthouses and proceed with their destruction. Confederates removed the lights, beacons, and buoys between Hampton Roads and the York River, hoping to hamper Union boats struggling with shallow waters and sand bars. Confederates attacked all of the James River lighthouses and the lighthouse lenses and other apparatus were dismantled and destroyed. 35 The Union perceived the Confederates as vandals in the dismantling of navigational lights. It was, however, common sense for the lighthouse keepers to remove and care for the lenses and buoys. They were expensive and would have to be set back up after the war for river traffic and trade to resume. Nonetheless, there were many instances of lighthouse and lightship destruction by secessionists. 36

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