Four days after Virginia seceded from the Union, April 21, 1861, the Gosport Navy Yard on the Elizabeth River near Norfolk was burned and U.S. Navy ships destroyed by:
- Rebel troops on the march toward Washington, D.C.
- Mutinous sailors who decided to join forces with the rebels.
- A lightning strike during a horrendous storm which started a fire.
- An accidental fire in the ammunition dump that quickly spread.
- Federal troops carrying out the orders of Commodore Hiram Paulding.