BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Stafford -- Aquia Landing Park

VA -- Stafford -- Aquia Landing Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. AQUIAP_171015_009.JPG: Aquia Landing The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was extended to its terminus here at Aquia Landing in 1846. By steamboat and railroad, travelers from Washington, D.C., to Richmond could complete in 9 hours a journey that took 38 hours by stagecoach. In May-June 1861, Confederate batteries at Aquia Landing exchanged fire with Union gunboats. The first use of nautical mines ("torpedoes") in the war occurred here on 7 July 1861 against the U.S.S. Pawnee. After the Confederates abandoned the site in 1862, the Union army built new wharves and storage buildings for supplies. The army burned them in 1863, when it pursued the Confederate army into Pennsylvania. The railroad was extended across Aquia Creek in 1872.
2. AQUIAP_171015_012.JPG: Patawomeck Tribe Village The Patawomeck Tribe, members of the Powhatan Confederacy and millennial original residents of Indian Point, greeted Captain John Smith as he sailed up the Potomac River in 1608. Smith viewed the Tribe's palisaded villages, built by the Patawomeck who saved Jamestown in the Starving Time. In 1613 Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas, beloved daughter of Powhatan, while she was visiting the people of her mother -- a Patawomeck in this matrilineal society
3. AQUIAP_171015_031.JPG: Steamships, Stages and Slave Trade Trail to Freedom "In the forenoon the steamer reached Aquia Creek. There the passengers took stages -- Burch and his five slaves occupying one exclusively. ...He told me to hold up my head and look smart. That I might, perhaps, get a good master if I behaved myself. I made him no reply." -- Solomon Northrup, 1841 Aquia Landing (pronounced 'uh kwhy' yuh'), here at the junction of Aquia Creek and the Potomac River (to your right) was once a vital hub in Virginia's transportation network. As early as 1815, steamboats from Washington and Alexandria made regular trips here, transferring passengers, mail and even slaves to coaches bound for points south. In 1842, the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad completed its line to Aquia, reducing travel time between Washington and Richmond. The junction here of steamboat and rail marked Aquia as an important place in antebellum Virginia and a major crossroads of the interstate slave trade. By the 1850s, Virginia was exporting more slaves than any other state. Thousands of them, often handcuffed and packed amidst the cargo, passed through Aquia bound for slave markets farther south. From Aquia, most traveled onward by coach or, after 1842, by train. Some larger groups were forced to walk in chained gangs, or coffles, to destinations as far as 300 miles away. "Reaching the steamboat, we were quickly hustled into the hold, among barrels and boxes of freight...After sunrise...we were called up on deck to breakfast. Burch took our hand-cuffs off. ...Breakfast over, the hand-cuffs were restored." -- Solomon Northrup, 1841 Solomon, a Freedman from upstate New York, had been kidnapped and sold into slavery when he passed through Aquia Landing in 1841.
4. AQUIAP_171015_034.JPG: Early Escape Route Trail to Freedom "For a few moments, silence prevailed. My master [Ellen] looked at me, and I at him, but neither of us dared to speak a word, for fear of making some blunder that would tend to our detection. we knew that the officers had the power to throw us in prison..." -- William Craft, Dec. 24, 1848. The opening of the rail line to Aquia in 1842 provided opportunity for slaves seeking freedom. In 1848, slaves William and Ellen Craft of Georgia embarked on their dangerous journey to escape. Ellen, born of a slave mother and a white father, disguised herself as a white man seeking medical treatment in the North. William assumed the role of her body servant. They traveled by train, carriage, and steamship from Georgia to Philadelphia, passing unchallenged through Aquia Landing. They reached Philadelphia -- and freedom -- on Christmas day 1848. Three months later, Henry "Box" Brown became one of the most famous fugitives in American history. A slave in Richmond, Brown packed himself in a wooden box to be mailed to freedom. By wagon, train, and steamboat, Brown traveled north, sometimes upside down. After 27 hours and undetected passage through Aquia Landing, the Express Mail box carrying Henry Box Brown was delivered in Philadelphia, its occupant a slave no more. Brown travelled with a bladder of water and a small hand drill for air holes. After his escape to freedom, Henry Brown forever became known as "Box" Brown. "The joy of the friends was very great; when they heard that I was alive they soon managed to break open the box, and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery. I rose a freeman...." -- Henry Box Brown, Mar. 30, 1849
5. AQUIAP_171015_041.JPG: Brown travelled with a bladder of water and a small hand drill for air holes. After his escape to freedom, Henry Brown forever became known as "Box" Brown.
6. AQUIAP_171015_046.JPG: Gateway to Freedom Trail to Freedom "I bounded across the Gang plank and concealed Myself for a while until the Steamer got off from the Wharf. I then came out and arrived Safe at 6th Street Wharf in Washington D.C. on the Night of September 1st, 1862 in a hard rain." -- John Washington During the Civil War, most white Stafford residents greeted the arrival of the Union army in April 1862 with outrage and fear. But many slaves throughout the region rejoiced at the opportunity for freedom. Thousands left their houses, farms, and plantation, heading north toward the Union army. Some "contrabands" (as the army called them), took jobs with the Union army, often as paid servants to officers. They earned between 25 and 40 cents per day, plus a ration. But for most former slaves, their journey to freedom continued to and culminated a Aquia Landing. Soldiers shepherded them onto steamboats for the short journey up the Potomac to Washington, D.C. When the Union army evacuated the area in September 1862, a final burst of freedom-seekers flooded Aquia Landing. Among them was Fredericksburg slave John Washington, who slipped aboard the Washington-bound steamer Keyport (above). That spring and summer, as many as 10,000 slaves made the journey into Union lines -- to freedom. Aquia Landing as it appeared in late 1862 early in the Civil War. The steamship Keyport, upon which John Washington snuck aboard with evacuating Union troops. "... There was a continuous black line of men, women, and children moving north along the [rail]road, carrying all their worldly goods on their heads. Every train running to Aquia was crowded with them…I think it is safe to estimate that the number of contrabands that have passed by this route since we took possession of the road at 10,000." -- W.W. Wright, Superintendent, U.S. Military Railroad Report, Sept. 17, 1862.
7. AQUIAP_171015_051.JPG: Aquia Landing as it appeared in late 1862 early in the Civil War. The steamship Keyport, upon which John Washington snuck aboard with evacuating Union troops.
8. AQUIAP_171015_056.JPG: Aquia Landing Aquia Landing was a significant gateway for enslaved people seeking freedom, including William and Ellen Craft, Henry "Box" Brown, and John Washington. Aquia Landing was the RF&P Railroad terminus from 1842-1872, and the only direct rail-to-steamboat transfer point on the Potomac River between Richmond, VA and Washington, DC. From April-September 1862, an estimated 10,000 freedom seekers sought refuge in Stafford behind Union lines. Many passed through this point on their trail to freedom. Designated June 10, 2009 National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
9. AQUIAP_171015_069.JPG: Aquia Landing Supply Base for the Union Army Aquia Landing's location on the Potomac River, coupled with its access to the R.F.&P. Railroad, made it an important supply base for the Union army. Food, clothing and other equipment were shipped down the Potomac River, unloaded here, and sent to the front by train. Recognizing its potential importance to the Union Army, Confederate troops destroyed Aquia Landing in April 1862 and tore up the railroad tracks running between here and Fredericksburg. The Union Army immediately rebuilt these facilities but then foolishly destroyed them upon evacuating the area in September. Gen. Ambrose Burnside rebuilt Aquia Landing again in November 1862 to supply his army during the Fredericksburg Campaign, adding an additional wharf at Youbedam Point, farther out on the Potomac River. The Confederates destroyed these structures in June 1863 after the Federals abandoned Aquia Landing and marched north to Gettysburg. In May 1864 Gen. U.S. Grant used Belle Plains, six miles southeast, as his main supply base while rebuilding Aquia Landing. As Grant pushed toward Richmond, he abandoned Aquia in favor of supply depots farther south. The Confederates once again destroyed it after the Federals left. This time it was not rebuilt. The Union Army used Aquia Landing for moving troops as well as supplies. This photograph shows the Ninth Corps embarking at Aquia Creek in February 1863 en route to Newport News, Virginia. As the Union Army moved south it used tidewater rivers for supply. Aquia Landing, Port Royal, White House and City Point became supply bases for Union campaigns. When the water at Aquia Landing proved too shallow for deep-draft vessels, Ambrose Burnside constructed a new wharf at Youbedam Point, closer to the Potomac River.
10. AQUIAP_171015_103.JPG: Patawomeck Band Memorial Park
11. AQUIAP_171015_106.JPG: Stafford Virginia Mason's Homestead Near here was the home of George Mason (1629-1686), the great grandfather of George Mason of Gunston Hall. Well educated and with some financial means, the elder Mason came from Worcestershire, England and settled in Virginia c. 1652. He acquired the Accokeek Creek property in 1664 where he lived until his death. Mason sat on Stafford's first court of 1664, commanded the county militia, and served as sheriff and burgess of Stafford.
12. AQUIAP_171015_111.JPG: Aquia Landing The Railroad The straight, level road you used to get here was once the bed of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. As its name implies, the railroad ran from Richmond, through Fredericksburg, to the Potomac River, ending here at Aquia landing. Passengers wishing to continue north boarded a waiting steamship here that carried them up the Potomac River to Washington, D.C., 55 miles away. Because of its location on the Potomac River and its proximity to Fredericksburg, Aquia Landing was destined to play an important role in the Civil War. It was the site of one of the war's earliest military engagements and became a major supply base for the Army of the Potomac in three separate campaigns. To learn more about the 1861 military engagement at Aquia Landing, follow the trail to your right up the hill to the redoubt overlooking the landing. For more information about Aquia Landing's role as a supply base, walk down the road on your left, go through the park entrance gate, and continue one-half mile to the sign located at the end of the point. Aquia Landing was the Army of the Potomac's base of supply from November 1862 through June 1863. Supplies unloaded at the landing were sent by rail to Brooke Station, Falmouth Station and other points closer to the front. Confederates tore up the tracks in 1863. The Union army shifted its supply base to Belle Plains the following year. Sidebar under the right picture: Locomotives carried men and supplies from Aquia Landing to the front and brought wounded soldiers to the rear. The Genl. Haupt, pictured here, was named in honor of Herman Haupt, who supervised construction and transportation of the Union's military railroads.
13. AQUIAP_171015_121.JPG: Aquia Landing was the Army of the Potomac's base of supply from November 1862 through June 1863. Supplies unloaded at the landing were sent by rail to Brooke Station, Falmouth Station and other points closer to the front. Confederates tore up the tracks in 1863. The Union army shifted its supply base to Belle Plains the following year.
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