This photo is taken on May 1, 1862 during General McClellan’s failed Peninsula Campaign. It shows a 100 lb. cannon situated on Gloucester Point at the Farnhold family slave plantation and pointed across the one mile strait toward the Confederate position in Yorktown. A warship appears on the water, and the location is near the site of Professor Lowe’s launch of a hot air observation balloon. This siege of Yorktown ends on May 5 after lasting for a month as CSA General Magruder constantly bluffs McClellan into believing that his very anemic defense force is a major threat.
Federal battery at Yorktown
