A Crisis of Loyalties: The Destruction and Abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard - Hardcoverby Stephen Chapin Kinnaman (Author) In the opening days of the American Civil War, the U. S. Navy suffered the catastrophic loss of its most valuable navy yard at Gosport, Virginia, commonly known as the Norfolk Navy Yard. Its fate was sealed by Virginia's vote for secession and the subsequent resignation of most of the yard's Southern officers, leaving its commandant, Charles Stewart McCauley, virtually defenseless. Early in the morning of Sunday, 21