Potomac River

Place Unit Type
Rivers/Waterways
Containing Unit
United States of America
Date Type
At Point of Rocks, Union troops on the Maryland side skirmish with Confederate units across the Potomac Battles/Soldiers
Fugitive John Wilkes Booth rides into Maryland and reaches the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd at four a.m. Crime/Disasters
In the Potomac Estuary, scores of soldiers drown after a midnight collision between steamships Crime/Disasters
- John Wilkes Booth and David Herold are hiding from their pursuers in a remote Maryland pine thicket Crime/Disasters
On the Potomac, Thaddeus Lowe launches the first balloon observation flight from a naval craft Science/Technology
On the Potomac, Thaddeus Lowe's balloon carrier is towed into position off Mattawoman Creek Science/Technology
- Prince Albert makes a brief visit to Richmond, Virginia US/the World
Robert Brown, a fugitive slave from Virginia, arrives in Philadelphia after crossing Potomac on horseback Slavery/Abolition
The breaking up of the ice dams on the Potomac carries away Washington, D.C.'s Long Bridge. Crime/Disasters
- The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania ends when Lee's troops slip away across the Potomac in the night Battles/Soldiers
- The retreating Army of Virginia reaches the Potomac and finds it flooded and impassable Battles/Soldiers
- The Second Corps of the Army of Virginia crosses the Potomac and marches on Pennsylvania Battles/Soldiers
Union troops push back attacking Virginia units around Harpers Ferry near Pritchard's Mill on the Potomac Battles/Soldiers
United States Navy raiding party crosses the Potomac and destroys a Confederate schooner in Dumfries Creek Battles/Soldiers
Virginia Republican arrested for circulating anti-southern literature Lawmaking/Litigating
Harpers Ferry Raid
Date Title
New York Times, “Great Floods in the Potomac and Shenandoah,” April 20, 1852
Entry by Edmund Ruffin, November 30, 1859
New York Herald, “Won't Submit to Lincoln,” October 8, 1860
Virginia Governor John Letcher’s Proclamation, April 24, 1861
New York Herald, “Protection to Southern Property in New York,” April 28, 1861
New York Times, “The Reward of Treason,” May 16, 1861
New York Times, “The Barbarians at Harper’s Ferry,” June 16, 1861
Charles B. Calvert to Abraham Lincoln, July 10, 1861
San Francisco (CA) Evening Bulletin, “The Critical Time of the Union Cause,” August 9, 1861
Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “An Urgent Appeal,” September 29, 1862
Abraham Lincoln to George Brinton McClellan, October 13, 1862
Abraham Lincoln to George Gordon Meade, July 14, 1863
John Wilkes Booth, Diary entry, April 21, 1865, southern Maryland
How to Cite This Page: "Potomac River," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/9073.