On April 22, 1861 Commander James H. Ward, who was the commanding officer of the receiving ship USS North Carolina at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn New York, wrote to United States Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells to put forth a plan for the protection of the Chesapeake Bay area.

Ward suggested a "Flying Flotilla" of light-draft vessels to operate in the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River, and their tributaries.

While he was sighting the bow gun of Thomas Freeborn, Ward was shot through the abdomen and died within an hour due to internal hemorrhaging.

He was the first United States Navy officer to be killed during the American Civil War.

The designation of "Flying Flotilla" was dropped when Ward's force arrived in the theater of operations.