|
4.17.1 |
SUPPORT |
USS Powhatan (Lt D. D. Porter) covers the landing of 600 soldiers to
garrison Ft Pickens in Pensacola harbor. This quick
action denied the Confederates the use of the best harbor in the Gulf of
Mexico for the entire war. |
|
4.20.1 |
OTHER |
Federal forces abandon
Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA,
burning the facility to deny its use to the Confederates. USS Pennsylvania, Germantown, Raritan, Columbia, and Dolphin are burned to the waterline and USS Delaware, Columbus, Plymouth, and Merrimack burned and sunk. USS Cumberland, Pawnee, and
tug Yankee escape. The Yard
provided the Confederates with a drydock and a large number of
guns—which soon appeared in the batteries and fortifications along the
coast and rivers. |
|
4.20.1a |
OTHER |
USS Constitution
(Lt George Rodgers) is towed from the Naval Academy at
Annapolis, MD into Chesapeake Bay to prevent her capture by the rebels.
Four days later, carrying midshipmen from the Academy, she heads for Newport, RI. This will be the
home of the Academy throughout the war. She arrives on May 9. |
|
4.21.1 |
OTHER |
Steamers Baltimore, Mount Vernon
Philadelphia. and Powhatan
are seized off Washington, D.C. and armed for the defence of the
capital. Confederate Navy officers erect batteries across the river at Aquia Creek--terminal point of
railroad connection with Richmond. |
|
5.10.1 |
OTHER |
USS Niagara
(Capt. William W. McKean) blockades Charleston, SC. |
|
5.18.1 |
OTHER |
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis commissions schooner Savannah (Capt. Thomas H. Baker)
as the first privateer ("a private armed vessel in the service of
the Confederate States on the high seas against the United States of
America, their ships, vessels, goods, and effects, and those of their
citizens during the pendency of the war now existing”) |
|
5.19.1 |
BOMBARD |
Rebel batteries at Sewall’s Point, VA are engaged by USS Monticello (Capt. Henry Eagle) and USS Thomas Freeborn (Cdr Ward). |
|
5.24.1 |
EXPED |
Cdr Rowan (USS Pawnee)
leads an amphibious expedition from the Washington Navy Yard
and occupies Alexandria, VA
under cover of USS Thomas Freeborn,
Anacostia, and Resolute
. Navy Lt R. B. Lowry, in charge of the landing party, raised the U.S.
flag over the Customs House. This is the first landing of Federal troops
in Virginia. |
|
5.26.1 |
OTHER |
USS Brooklyn
(Cdr Charles H. Poor)
blockades New Orleans and
mouth of Mississippi River. |
|
5.26.1a |
OTHER |
USS Powhatan (Lt D. D. Porter) blockades Mobile, AL. |
|
5.27.1 |
OTHER |
USS Union
(Cdr John R. Goldsborough) blockades Savannah, GA. |
|
5.29.1 (29-1) |
BOMBARD |
The Confederate batteries at Aquia Creek engage the ships of
the new Potomac Flotilla: USS Thomas Freeborn (Cdr Ward), USS Anacostia
(Lt Napoleon Collins), and USS Resolute (Act’g Master William
Budd); They are joined on the evening of May 31 by USS Pawnee
(Cdr Rowan). |
|
6.8.1 |
OTHER |
USS Mississippi (Flag Officer Mervine) blockades Key West, FL |
|
7.7.1 |
OTHER |
USS Resolute (Act’g Master William Budd) picks up two floating
torpedoes (mines) in the Potomac
River. This is the earliest known use of torpedoes by the
Confederates—which will account for 53 Union vessels by the end of the
war. (Map approximate) |
|
7.21.1 |
SHIP2SHIP |
First ship-to-ship combat of
the war takes place in Oregon
Inlet, NC as USS Albatross (Cdr Prentiss) engages CSS Beaufort
(Lt R. C. Duvall). Albatross’s heavier guns force Beaufort
to withdraw. |
|
7.21.1a |
OTHER |
U.S. Marines commanded by
Major Reynolds take part in the First Battle of Bull Run: The
Confederates also had a naval battery at Manassas. |
|
7.24.1 |
OTHER |
The Navy supplies 400 sailors and thirty Marines, with naval cannon and howitzers, to garrison Ft Ellsworth, west of Alexandria, one of the ring of forts guarding Washington City. The seamen remain on station until November, when the need for sailors on the Western Waters becomes acute, and they are replaced by Army troops and transferred to Cairo. |
|
8.3.1 |
OTHER |
John LaMountain makes the
first ascent in a balloon from Union
ship Fanny at Hampton Roads to observe
Confederate batteries on Sewell’s Point, VA. |
|
8.18.1 |
SINKING |
Confederate privateer Jefferson
Davis (Capt. Coxetter) founders on the bar trying to enter St. Augustine, FL, ending a most
successful cruise. |
|
8.28.1 |
EXPED |
Cdr Dahlgren, Commandant of Washington Navy Yard, sends 400 seamen to Alexandria,
VA to help defend Ft Ellsworth. |
|
8.29.1 |
JOINT |
Hatteras Inlet was secured as
Forts Hatteras and Clark
surrendered unconditionally to Flag Officer Silas Stringham’s warships
and Gen’l Ben Butler’s troops. This combined amphibious
operation—the first of the war—was conducted at the behest of the
Navy to close Pamlico Sound to blockade runners and commerce raiders,
and involved USS Minnesota, Monticello, Pawnee, Susquehanna, Cumberland, Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane, US tug Fanny, and two transports carrying the 900 troops. Thus
the first Union victory of the war was a naval one—much needed after
the battlefield reverses of the previous four months. |
|
9.6.1 |
JOINT |
Gunboats USS Tyler
(Cdr J. Rodgers) and USS Lexington. (Cdr Stembel)
spearhead Gen’l Grants seizure of strategic Paducah and Smithland, KY,
at the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. This operation prevented Confederate movement into
the state and saved Kentucky for the Union. |
|
9.10.1 |
SUPPORT |
USS Conestoga
(Lt S. L. Phelps) and USS Lexington (Cdr Stembel)
cover the advance of Federal troops at Lucas Bend, MO, silencing a
Confederate battery and damaging the rebel gunboat CSS Yankee. |
|
9.14.1 |
EXPED |
Sailors and Marines from USS Colorado row into Pensacola harbor under cover of darkness, board and burn
Confederate privateering schooner Judah, and spike guns at
Pensacola Navy Yard. |
|
9.16.1 (16-17) |
EXPED |
Fortifications and guns in a
fortification on Beacon Island
are destroyed by a landing party from USS Pawnee (Cdr Rowan),
closing Ocracoke Inlet, NC. |
|
9.17.1 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Massachusetts occupies Ship Island, MS after its evacuation by Confederate forces. Ship Island becomes the staging area for Union troops operating below New Orleans. |
|
10.1.1 |
CAPTURE |
Confederate naval forces
under flag Officer William F. Lynch, CSN, capture steamer Fanny
in Pamlico Sound with Union
troops on board. This was the first Southern naval victory
in the sounds, and garnered two large rifled guns as well as a large
quantity of army stores. (Map approximate) |
|
10.9.1 |
SHIP2SHIP |
First documented attempt to
sink an enemy ship with a submarine in the Civil War. The target was the
USS Minnesota in Hampton Roads.
The submarine became fouled in grappling hanging from the jib boom
(which its occupants thought was the anchor cable). The vessel escaped.
A 12 October newspaper report based upon testimony from a Confederate
deserter claims the submarine employed an India rubber suction plate to
attach to its target and plant a timed bomb. |
|
10.12.1 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Confederate metal-sheathed
ram CSS Manassas (Commodore Hollins) in company with armed
steamer Ivy and James L. Day, attacks USS Richmond,
Vincennes, Water Witch, Nightingale, and Preble near Head of Passes, Mississippi River. In this offensive and spirited action by the small
Confederate force, Manassas rammed Richmond, forced her
and Vincennes aground under heavy fire before withdrawing. |
|
10.14.1 |
OTHER |
Lt A. Murray of USS Louisiana
accepts the oath of allegiance to the United States from the citizens of
Chincoteague Island, VA, who
present a petition claiming their "abhorrence of the secession
heresy." |
|
Fall 1861 |
||
|
Fall 61 |
SINKING |
William Cheney’s
submarine—either the model reported on by Mrs. Baker or a larger
version—is sunk in the James
River while attempting to attack Union vessels. Navy pickets patrolling the river spotted the
camouflaged float and sliced the rubber hose to the craft. |
|
11.4.1 |
OTHER |
Fearing further attacks by
Confederate “infernal machines,” Capt. William Smith of the USS Congress
in Hampton Roads, devises the
first anti-submarine nets of chains suspended from spars lashed in a
frame around his vessel. (Map approximate) |
|
11.7.1 |
JOINT |
After leaving Ft Monroe on 29
October, Flag Officer Du Pont’s 77-ship expedition (the largest US
fleet ever assembled to this date) captures Port Royal Sound, SC. Navy
gunners poured an accurate and withering fire into defending Fts Walker
and Beauregard, forcing the defenders to withdraw. A small Confederate
naval squadron under Commodore Tatnall could not resist the mighty
fleet, but ferried rebel troops to the mainland. Marines and sailors
landed to occupy the forts until 16,000 soldiers under Brigadier Gen’l
Thomas Sherman land. Port Royal was halfway between Charleston and
Savannah, and became a valuable supply point for Federal vessels. |
|
11.7.1 |
SUPPORT |
USS Tyler (Cdr Walke) and USS Lexington
(Cdr Stembel) hold back Confederate troops and allow the
evacuation of Union forces under Gen’l U.S. Grant following the Battle of Belmont, MO. The gunboats engaged rebel batteries and
supported the Federal army during the engagement, and covered their
retreat when rebel reinforcements arrived. |
|
11.8.1 |
OTHER |
A serious international
incident is sparked when Capt. Wilkes (USS San Jacinto) stops
British mail steamer Trent and removes Confederate Commissioners
Mason and Slidell. |
|
11.9.1 |
EXPED |
Flag Officer Du Pont's
gunboats take possession of Beaufort, SC, cutting communications along the Broad River between Charleston and
Savannah. |
|
11.12.1 |
OTHER |
Blockade runner Fingal--the first ship to run
the blockade solely on Confederate government account --enters Savannah laden with military
supplies. Fingal brought in
the supplies that allow the Confederacy to fight the Second Battle of
Shiloh in April 1862. |
|
11.24.1 |
EXPED |
Landing party sent from USS Flag
(Cdr J. Rodgers) USS Augusta, Pocahontas, Seneca, and Savannah take possession of Tybee Island in Savannah Harbor.
|
|
11.10.1 |
EXPED |
Lt James W. A. Nicholson (USS
Isaac Smith) lands and occupies abandoned Confederate Ft Drayton
on Otter Island in the
Ashpeoo River, SC. Nicholson later turned the fort over to the Army. |
|
11.12.1 |
EXPED |
USS Isaac Smith, Lt J.
W. A. Nicholson, on a reconnaissance in the Ashepoo River, SC, disperses Confederate troops with gunfire and
lands Marines to destroy their quarters. (Map approximate) |
|
11.17.1 |
OTHER |
In an attempt to bottle up Savannah
and Charleston, Federal forces collect a fleet of old whaling
ships, load them with stone, and sink them in the channels to the
harbors. Seven such vessels of the “stone fleet” are sunk off
Savannah on this date and two batches off Charleston on 20 and 26
January. The effort is not effective. |
|
11.31.1 |
EXPED |
Biloxi, MS surrendered to a
landing party of seamen and Marines covered by USS Water Witch, New London, and Henry Lewis |
|
11.31.1a (31-2) |
JOINT |
Gunboats USS Ottawa, Pembina,
and Seneca and four armed boats carrying howitzers support Union
troops in an amphibious assault on rebel positions at Port Royal Ferry and the Coosaw
River. Navy guns covered the advance inland and sailors with boat
howitzers were landed for close support. This attack disrupted
Confederate plans to isolate Federal troops on Port Royal Island. (Map
approximate) |
|
1.11.2 |
SHIP2 SHIP |
Confederate gunboats engage
in a running fight near Lucas
Bend, MO with USS Essex (Cdr W. D. Porter) and USS St.
Louis (Lt Leonard Paulding) before withdrawing under cover of the
rebel batteries at Columbus. |
|
1.16.2 |
EXPED |
A raid by USS Hatteras
(Cdr Emmons) on Cedar Keys, FL
destroys a Confederate battery, seven small vessels loaded with cotton
and turpentine ready to run the blockade, a railroad depot and wharf,
and the telegraph office, as well as capturing a small detachment of
Confederate troops. |
|
1.16.2a |
OTHER |
The seven gunboats built by
Eads—Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville,
Mound City, Pittsburg, and St. Louis—are
commissioned. (Plotted on the map
at St Louis, actually built in several cities.) |
|
2.6.2 |
EXPED |
Flag Officer Foote leads the
partially ironclad gunboats USS Essex,
Carondelet, Cincinnati, St. Louis and wooden gunboats USS Tyler, Conestoga, and Lexington
in an attack on Ft Henry on
the Tennessee River. Planned as a joint expedition, Grant’s army is
delayed by two days of heavy rains and the gunboats make the assault
alone. Confederate Gen’l Tilghman surrendered to Foote after losing
all but four of his guns to the Navy guns. |
|
2.10.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
In the wake of the capture of
Roanoke Island, a squadron under Cdr Rowan pursued Flag Officer
Lynch’s retiring Confederate naval force up the Pasquotank River,
engaging the gunboats and batteries at Elizabeth City, NC. CSS Ellis was captured and CSS Seabird
sunk; CSS Black Warrior, Fanny, and Forrest were
set on fire to avoid capture; the fort and batteries at Cobb's Point
were destroyed. |
|
2.14.2 |
JOINT BOMB |
Flag Officer Foote leads his
flotilla of gunboats (USS St.
Louis, Carondelet, Louisville, Pittsburg, Tyler, and Conestoga) in a joint Navy-Army attack against Ft Donelson on the Cumberland
River. After a renewed attack the following day, rebel defenders
surrendered to Gen’l Grant on the 16th. In the South, loss
of the fort fell heavily upon Navy Secretary Mallory, who was blamed in
the press because “we are so wretchedly helpless on the water.”
The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson made Confederate positions in
Kentucky untenable and neither that state nor Nashville could be held by
the Confederates, who fell back to Island No. 10. |
|
2.19.2 |
EXPED |
Federal forces under Flag
Officer Foote occupy Ft Defiance and take possession of Clarksville, TN as Confederates withdraw from the town. Foote
urged an immediate move on Nashville while water in the river was high. |
|
2.19.2a |
SUPPORT |
USS Delaware (Cdr Rowan) and USS Commodore
Perry (Lt Flusser) engage Confederate troops at Winton, NC on the Chowan River. On the 20th Rowan's force covers
the landing of Federal troops who destroy military stores and
Confederate troop quarters. |
|
2.25.2 |
JOINT |
Nashville, TN is occupied by
Federal troops convoyed up the Cumberland River by USS Cairo (Lt Nathaniel Bryant). A
Nashville paper, referring to Confederate reverse at Forts Henry and
Donelson, told its readers,We had nothing to fear from a land attack, but the gunboats are the
devil." |
|
3.1.2 |
JOINT |
Col. Alfred Mouton’s 18th
Louisiana and the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry engage timberclad
gunboats USS Tyler
(Lt Gwin) and Lexington (Lt Shirk) in the First
Battle of Pittsburg Landing. Sent to fortify the bluffs overlooking
the landing—and potentially able from there to cut the
river—Mouton’s men had but a single day to dig into the frozen
ground. Suspicious of activity on the hilltop, the Navy officers land a
force of fifty sailors and fifty Illinois infantry. Under fire from
almost a thousand Louisianans, this force manages to destroy what
appeared to a blockhouse atop the hill and beats a retreat under
covering fire from the ships. More importantly, this small action
alerted both sides to the importance of Pittsburg Landing and drew
forces from both sides to the site over the next month. Tyler and
Lexington patrolled the river almost daily to ensure Mouton could not
resume his fortifications. |
|
3.3.2 |
JOINT |
Flag Officer Du Pont reports
the successful occupation of Fernandina,
and St Marys, FL, as well as Cumberland Island and Sound. The
landings were unopposed as the Confederates had decided to withdraw the
heavy guns from Ft Clinch—the first fortification retaken by the
Union. Steam launches armed with boat howitzers exchange musket and
cannon fire with the last train out of Fernandina. |
|
3.8.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Ironclad CSS Virginia (Capt Franklin Buchanan) attacks Federal blockading fleet in Hampton Roads, VA. She rams USS Cumberland, which sank rapidly, and set USS Congress ablaze with hot shot and incendiary shells. USS Minnesota ran herself aground in
the shallows to prevent the approach of the deep-draft rebel warship.
Buchanan is wounded in the attack. After dark, USS Monitor (Lt Worden) arrived. |
|
3.9.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
First engagement between iron
warships as USS Monitor (Lt
Worden) defends the wooden Union blockading squadron in Hampton Roads, VA against CSS Virginia (now under Lt Catesby ap
Jones). The four-hour battle is indecisive and both ships withdraw—the
blockade intact and the James River still closed. Said Capt. Dahlgren:
“Now comes the reign of iron and cased sloops are to take the place of
wooden ships.” |
|
3.9.2a |
EXPED |
USS Mohican, Pocahontas, and Potomska, under Cdr Godon, take possession of St. Simon's and Jekyl Islands and land
at Brunswick, GA--all
abandoned in the Confederate withdrawal from the seacoast. |
|
3.11.2 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Wabash (Cdr C. R. P. Rodgers) occupies St. Augustine, FL--evacuated by Confederate troops in the face of
the naval threat. |
|
3.12.2 |
EXPED |
Unopposed landing party from
USS Ottawa (Lt Thomas H.
Stevens) occupies Jacksonville,
FL. |
|
3.12.2a |
OTHER |
Baxter Watson and William
McClintock launch Pioneer I in
New Orleans. |
|
3.14.2 |
JOINT |
Having sailed from Hatteras
Inlet on 12 March, a joint Navy-Army force under Cdr Rowan and Gen’l
Burnside attacks rebel batteries on the Neuse River and occupies New Bern, NC. Troops, Marines, and a naval battery under Lt
Roderick S. McCook were landed on 13 March and, under cover of Navy
guns, advanced to take Fts Dixie, Ellis, Thompson, and Lane on 14 March. |
|
3.16.2 |
BOMBRD |
While Grant’s army
converges on Pittsburg Landing, TN, Flag Officer Foote’s main force of
gunboats begins the bombardment of Island No. 10—the next major
Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River. |
|
3.16.2a |
SUPPORT |
Gunboats of Flag Officer
Foote’s squadron convoy a fleet of forty Army transports to Savannah, TN, and continue on to
patrol Pittsburg Landing. Lieutenants Gwin and Shirk of USS Tyler and Lexington had maintained a careful watch over the landing since
their encounter with the 18th Louisiana on 1 March,
preventing the creation of any fortifications. |
|
3.17.2a |
OTHER |
Confederate raider CSS Nashville (Lt Pegram) runs through the
gunfire of USS Cambridge (Cdr
W. A. Parker) and USS Gemsbok
(Lt Cavendy) off Beaufort, NC
and breaks through the blockade. Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Gustavus Fox wrote Flag Officer L. M. Goldsborough: "It is a
terrible blow to our naval prestige . . . It is a Bull Run of the
Navy.'' |
|
3.22.2 |
OTHER |
Sailing as British steamer Oreto, CSS Florida (Act’g Master John Low) departs Liverpool, England,
for Nassau to rendezvous with Bahama
(which carries her four 7-inch rifled guns). Florida is the first ship built in England for the Confederacy. |
|
3.31.2 |
OTHER |
Pioneer’s inventors are granted
the first letter of marque for a submarine by the rebel government. |
|
4.1.2 |
JOINT |
On the night of 1-2 April, a
combined Navy-Army expedition under Master John V. Johnston (USS St. Louis) lands and spikes guns of Fort No. 1 on the Tennessee shore above Island No. 10, Mississippi River. |
|
4.3.2 |
EXPED |
Apalachicola, FL is captured
without resistance by armed boats from USS Mercedita (Cdr Stellwagen) and
USS Sagamore (Lt Andrew J.
Drake). |
|
4.4.2a |
SHIP2 |
USS J. P. Jackson, New London,
and Hatteras along with troops
aboard steamer Lewis engage
Confederate gunboats CSS Carondelet (Lt Washington Gwathmey), CSS Pamlico and CSS Oregon
in a successful landing at Pass
Christian, MS that resulted in the destruction of a rebel camp
there. |
|
4.6.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Tyler (Lt Gwin) and USS Lexington
(Lt Shirk) save Gen’l Grant’s army from annihilation at
the Second Battle of Pittsburg
Landing (Shiloh). After
surprising the Union forces in the morning, Confederates under Albert
Sidney Johnson had steadily forced the Yankees back towards the landing,
hoping to gain the river bank and cut them off from their transports and
supplies. The Navy timberclads arrived at 12m, but were unable to open
direct fire until 6pm. At that time, as the Federal left flank withdrew
towards the river, gunners aboard the warships could sight along Dill
Branch at the advancing rebel infantry. The ensuing barrage stopped the
Confederate advance and allowed Grant to dig in for the night. Until
dawn, the Navy officers kept up a steady and random barrage of the
Southern lines that denied the exhausted rebels much-needed sleep. In
the morning the graybacks faced, not a similarly worn out enemy, but a
fresh army brought over the Tennessee during the night. Grant was able
to easily complete the Southern defeat. Both he and Confederate Gen’l
Beauregard ended their official reports in almost identical language by
crediting the gunboats for the outcome of the battle. When news of the
disaster reached New Orleans, the Daily Delta wrote what may pass for
the epitaph of the entire Southern war effort: “[The battle at Shiloh]
has taught us that we have nothing to fear from a land invasion of the
enemy if he is unsupported by his naval armaments. It has taught us that
the right arm of his power in this war is in his gunboats on our
seacoast; and that our only assurance of saving the Mississippi from his
grasp is to paralyze that arm upon its waters.” |
|
4.7.2 |
EXPED |
Naval forces under Flag
Officer Foote accept the surrender of Island No. 10, described as
“the key to the Mississippi.” This opened the river to Union traffic
south to Fort Pillow. |
|
4.7.2a |
CAPTURE |
Following the surrender of Island No. 10, USS Mound City (Cdr Augustus H. Kiley) captures CSS Red Rover. Taken to
Cairo, Red Rover is converted to the Navy’s first hospital ship. Sisters of
the Holy Cross volunteered as her first nurses. |
|
4.11.2 |
CAPTURE |
Under the protection of CSS Virginia (Flag Officer Tattnall),
CSS Jamestown (Lt Barney) and
CSS Raleigh (Lt Cdr Joseph W.
Alexander) capture three Union transports in the James River. |
|
4.11.2a |
SUPPORT |
Following an intense two-day
bombardment, Ft Pulaski, GA
surrenders to Federal forces. One battery in the Union lines was manned
by sailors from USS Wabash
under Cdr C. R. P. Rodgers.
|
|
4.13.2 |
JOINT |
Joint Navy-Army expedition to
Chickasaw, AL involving USS Tyler, (Lt Gwin) and USS Lexington (Lt Shirk) destroys the
Memphis & Charleston Railroad bridge over Bear Creek—the object of
the 1 March attempt by the same vessels. |
|
4.14.2 |
BOMBRD |
Flag Officer Foote's mortar
boats open bombardment of Ft
Pillow, TN. |
|
4.18.2 |
BOMBRD |
Cdr David D. Porter’s
mortar boats open a six day bombardment of Ft Jackson at Head of Passes on
the Mississippi River. Hidden by intervening woods, the mortars lobbed
shells weighing up to 285 pounds into the fort. |
|
4.19.2 |
SINKING |
The defenders of Ft Jackson did not take
Porter’s bombardment lying down. On this date, Confederate guns sank
mortar schooner USS Maria J.
Canton (Act’g Master Charles E. Jack). |
|
4.24.2 |
SHIP2 |
Steaming through a breach in
the obstructions opened by USS Pinola
and Itasca, Flag Officer
Farragut’s fleet fights its way past Forts Jackson and Phillips at Head of Passes on the Mississippi River. Farragut loses USS Varuna, which was rammed by two
Confederate ships and sunk. The rebels lose CSS Warrior, Stonewall Jackson, General Lovell, and Breckinridge, tender Phoenix, steamers Star and Belle Algerine, and Louisiana gunboat General Quitman as well as the armored ram CSS Manassas; CSS Landis and
W. Burton surrender and Resolute and Governor Moore are destroyed to prevent
capture. The forts hold out until 28 April, at which time the last three
Confederate ships (CSS Louisiana,
Defiance, and McRae) are destroyed and the forts surrender. |
|
4.25.2 |
EXPED |
Captain Theophilus Bailey,
leading Farragut’s gunboats the Mississippi
River in USS Cayuga
(Commodore George H. Perkins), discovers Confederate infantry of the
Chalmette Regiment on the nearby right bank as the sun comes up. Perkins
orders them “to come on board and deliver up their arms, or we would
blow them all to pieces. It seemed rather odd for a regiment on shore to
be surrendering to a ship!” |
|
4.25.2a |
EXPED |
Steaming up the Mississippi
after passing the forts at Head of Passes in the night, Flag Officer
Farragut’s ships train their guns on New Orleans and demand its
surrender. Having been advised by the military that the city is
indefensible, the Common Council “declare[s] that no resistance will
be made to the forces of the United States." With New Orleans went
the Leeds Iron Foundry—one of only two modern foundries in Dixie (the
other being Tredegar in Richmond). |
|
4.25.2a |
SINKING |
Lacking a propeller shaft
still under construction at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, CSS Mississippi--described by
Confederate naval officers as “the strongest . . . most formidable war
vessel that had ever been built”--is destroyed at New Orleans to prevent her
capture. Submarine Pioneer is also scuttled, and its inventors, Watson and
McClintock, flee the city in company with Horace Hunley. |
|
4.25.2b |
SUPPORT |
Gloucester and Yorktown, VA are shelled by USS Maratanza (Cdr George H. Scott)
in support of Gen’l McClellan's Peninsular Campaign. |
|
4.26.2 |
JOINT |
USS Daylight, State of Georgia, Chippewa, and Gemsbok bombard Ft Macon,
NC, which surrenders to the combined Navy-Army force under Cdr
Lockwood and Brigadier Gen’l John Parke. |
|
4.27.2 |
EXPED |
Ft Livingston, Bastian Bay, LA surrenders to a
landing party from USS Kittatinny. |
|
4.29.2 |
EXPED |
Expedition under Lt Alexander
C. Rhind in USS E. B. Hale
lands and destroys a Confederate battery at Grimball's, Dawhoo River, SC. |
|
5.2.2 |
OTHER |
Brutus Villeroi’s submarine
is launched in Philadelphia.
The vessel is 40’ long, 6’ high, and 4’6” wide. |
|
5.5.2 |
OTHER |
For five days, President
Lincoln acts as Commander-in-Chief in the field, personally directing
operations from USS Miami in
an attempt to get the stalled Peninsular
Campaign moving. At his orders, gunboats USS Monitor, Dacotah, Naugatuck, Seminole, and Susquehanna shelled
Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point, VA on 8 May to test the
Southern defenses. Rumors of the evacuation of Norfolk were confirmed
when a tug deserted the city and brought word to the Federals, but the
works at Sewall’s Point, while reduced, remained considerable. On 9
May, after discussion with pilots and studying charts, Lincoln himself
selected an unfortified landing site at Willoughby’s Point, where Army
units landed the following morning. The President ordered USS Monitor to reconnoiter the
battery at Sewall’s point and, after discovering they had been
abandoned, instructed Gen’l Wool to move on Norfolk. On the afternoon
of 10 May. |
|
5.7.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Wachusett (Cdr W. Smith), USS Chocura, and Sebago escort Army transports up
the York River, support the landing at West Point, VA
and counter a Confederate attack with accurate gunfire. |
|
5.8.2a |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Iroquois (Cdr James S. Palmer)
takes possession of Baton Rouge,
LA. |
|
5.10.2 |
JOINT |
Navy and Army elements
reoccupy Pensacola, FL in the
wake of its abandonment by Confederate forces the day before. The
retreating rebels destroyed the Navy Yard, Forts Barrancas and McRee,
CSS Fulton, and an ironclad under construction on the Escambia River.
Confederate commander Col. Thomas M. Jones, stripped of his heavy guns
and ammunition for use against Farragut on the Mississippi, felt he
could no longer adequately defend Pensacola. |
|
5.10.2a |
SHIP2 |
Capt. James E. Montgomery
leads the Confederate River Defense Fleet (CSS General Bragg, General Sumter, General Sterling Price, General Earl Van Dorn, General M. Jeff Thompson, General Lovell, General Beauregard, and Little Rebel) in an attack on Union gunboats and mortar boats at Plum Point Bend, TN just above
Ft Pillow. USS Cincinnati and Mound City were rammed and sank in the
shallows, but the deep draft of the rebel ships prevented them from
closing with the Yankee ships, which were soon raised and repaired. |
|
5.10.2b |
OTHER |
Ironclad steamer USS New Ironsides is launched at Philadelphia. |
|
5.11.2 |
SINKING |
Flag Officer Tattnall orders
CSS Virginia destroyed by her
crew off Craney Island to
avoid capture. The fall of Norfolk denied Virginia her base and the
ironclad drew too much water to escape up the James. Destruction of Virginia opened the river to the
Union fleet up to Drewry’s Bluff and removed a major threat to
McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. |
|
5.12.2 |
OTHER |
Following the destruction of
CSS Virginia the day before,
its officers and crew are ordered to establish a battery below Drewry’s Bluff to prevent the
passage of Union gunboats. Lt Catesby ap R. Jones, CSN, would command the
battery. |
|
5.13.2 |
CAPTURE |
Robert Smalls and an
all-Negro crew run Confederate steamer Planter out of Charleston harbor while its
captain was ashore, and deliver it to the Federal blockading squadron.
The press hailed Smalls as a national hero for bringing this prize out
of Charleston. |
|
5.13.2a |
EXPED |
USS Iroquois (Cdr Palmer) and USS Oneida (Cdr S. P. Lee) occupy Natchez, MS, as the Union fleet
moves toward Vicksburg. |
|
5.13.2b |
CAPTURE |
Boat crew from USS Calhoun (Lt DeHaven) captures
gunboat CSS Cory in Bayou Bonfouca, LA. |
|
5.13.2c |
OTHER |
William Cheney takes delivery
of a submarine at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, VA. The
craft has a “false bow”—perhaps an airlock for a diver—several
view ports, and may have used an electrically detonated torpedo. |
|
5.15.2 |
BOMBARD |
Cdr John Rodgers leads the
James River Flotilla (USS Monitor,
Galena, Aroostook, Port Royal, and Naugatuck) in an attack on Confederate defenses at Drewry’s Bluff on the James
River, but is stopped by obstructions planted in the river. The
defending batteries are manned in part by Confederate sailors and
marines. Corporal John B. Mackie of Galena is awarded the first Medal
of Honor authorized a member of the Marine Corps for his part in the
action. The Navy had penetrated to within eight miles of Richmond. |
|
5.20.2 |
EXPED |
Union gunboats under Cdr
Marchand (USS Unadilla, Pembina, and Ottawa) steam up the Stono River and destroy Confederate
fortifications across from Legareville,
SC, thus securing the river for future operations against
Charleston. |
|
6.2.2 (2-3) |
SUPPORT |
Union forces land on James Island, SC under cover of gunfire from USS Unadilla (Lt Collins), USS Pembrine, E.B. Hale, Ellen, and Henry Andrew. (Due south and adjacent to Charleston; no separate dot on map) |
|
6.4.2 |
BOMBARD |
After prolonged bombardment
by Navy gunboats and mortars, the Confederate evacuate Ft Pillow, TN, during the night of 4-5 June. The following day, 5
June, Capt. Davis moves his fleet downstream to within two miles of
Memphis. |
|
6.6.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
USS Benton, Louisville, Carondelet, St Louis, and Cairo under Capt. Davis and rams Queen of the West and Monarch under Col. Charles Ellet,
Jr., destroy the Confederate River Defense Fleet (CSS Earl Van Dorn, General Beauregard, General M. Jeff Thompson, General Bragg, General Sumter, General Sterling Price, and Little Rebel) under
Capt. Montgomery in the Battle of
Memphis. Only Van Dorn
escapes, and Memphis surrenders to the Union ships. |
|
6.7.2 (7-10) |
BOMBRD |
Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, MS are attacked by
USS Wissahickon (Cdr John
DeCamp) and USS Itasca (Lt
Caldwell); three days later they are joined by USS Iroquois and Katahdin. |
|
6.9.2 |
JOINT |
Lt Charles Flusser leads USS Commodore Perry, Shawsheen, and Ceres in
a joint expedition up the Roanoke to Hamilton, NC, where they capture
the steamer Wilson. |
|
6.15.2 |
EXPED |
USS Tahoma (Lt John C. Howell) and USS Somerset (Lt English) raid a Confederate fort near the lighthouse at
the mouth of St Marks River, FL.
The rebel artillery company withdraws and the sailors destroyed the fort
and barracks. |
|
6.17.2 |
JOINT |
To open communications on the
White River, Cdr Kilty in USS Mound
City leads USS St Louis, Lexington, and Conestoga against Confederate batteries at St. Charles, AR. Under cover of the gunboats, which engage the
rebel guns at close range, Union troops land and take the earthworks.. |
|
6.21.2 |
JOINT |
USS Crusader and Planter
ascend the Wadmelaw River to Simmons
Bluff, SC in a joint operation led by Navy Lt Rhind, who lands with
the troops and destroys a Confederate camp. |
|
6.24.2 |
OTHER |
The first time in history
that opposing naval forces had functioning submarines operating in the
same theater of war: Cheney’s submarine and Alligator, which is towed up the James River on this date. |
|
6.26.2 |
EXPED |
The majority of the Union’s
James River flotilla under Cdr John Rodgers (USS Galena, Maratanza,
Aroostook, Monitor, Port Royal, Satellite,
Jacob Bell, Island Belle, Southfield,
Mahaska, Delaware, and Stepping Stones)
attempts to make an attack on the railroad bridge over Swift Creek, a
tributary of Appomattox Creek, and a feint attack on Petersburg. Shoal
water stops the expedition and results in the loss of Island Belle,
which the Yankees burned to prevent her capture after grounding. |
|
6.28.2 (28-29) |
SUPPORT |
USS Marblehead (Lt S. Nicholson) and USS Chocura (Lt Thomas H. Patterson) cover the withdrawal of Federal
troops from White House, VA
on the Pamunkey River. Other Navy gunboats escort transports on the James and Chickahominy
Rivers in support of the Army. |
|
7.1.2 |
SUPPORT |
Gunboats of Cdr John
Rodgers’ James River Flotilla provide critical supporting fire that
drives back Robert E. Lee’s Confederates advancing against Union
positions atop Malvern Hill, VA.
Said Lee after the battle, “The great obstacle to operations here is
the presence of the enemy’s gunboats . . .” Equally strong opinions
prevail on the Union side; said one captain, “Without the gunboats,
McClellan’s Army would have been annihilated.” |
|
7.1.2a |
OTHER |
The Western Flotilla of Flag
Officer Davis meets the deepwater fleet of Flag Officer Farragut above Vicksburg. Farragut wrote: Said
Farragut, “We have made the circuit (since we met at Port Royal)
around half the United States and met on the Mississippi.” Although of great psychological value to the North, the river would
not be truly under Federal control as long as the defenses of Vicksburg
remained in rebel hands. |
|
7.4.2 |
CAPTURE |
USS Maratanza (Lt Stevens) engages and captures CSS Teaser (Lt Davidson) at Haxall's
Landing on the James River. A shot from Maratanza exploded Teaser’s
boiler and forced abandonment of the ship. Teaser had been used as a minelayer and carried a balloon with
which the Confederates had planned an aerial reconnaissance of
McClellan’s lines. The capture of Teaser made up for the recent
loss of Island Belle during the failed Union attempt to destroy the railroad
bridge over Swift Creek. |
|
7.9.2 |
JOINT |
USS Commodore Pen (Lt Flusser), USS Shawsheen (Act’g Master Woodward), and USS Ceres (Act’g Master John MacDiarmid) land a field piece and
force of soldiers and sailors at Hamilton,
NC on the Roanoke River and
capture steamer Wilson. |
|
7.15.2 |
SHIP2 |
CSS Arkansas (Lt Isaac N.
Brown) sorties from the Yazoo
River, surprising and setting to flight USS Carondelet (Cdr Walke) USS Tyler (Lt Gwin), and ram Queen
of the West. Arkansas
partially disabled Carondelet
and Tyler and, entering the
Mississippi, ran through fire of the Union fleet to safety under the
batteries at Vicksburg.
Farragut's fleet chased the rebel ironclad, but lost her in the
gathering darkness. |
|
7.17.2 (17-18) |
EXPED |
First Lt George W. Collier
leads USS Potomac, New London and Grey Cloud up the Pascagoula
River, MS, capturing three ships and destroying telegraph lines
between Pascagoula and Mobile. |
|
7.21.2 |
SINKING |
Naval transport USS Sallie Woods is destroyed by
Confederate artillery at Argyle
Landing on the Mississippi. |
|
7.22.2 |
SHIP2 |
USS Essex (Cdr W. D. Porter) and ram Queen of the West (Lt Col. Ellet) attack CSS Arkansas (Cdr I. N. Brown) at anchor with a disabled engine at Vicksburg. Despite a crew
reduced by injury and illness by the action of 15 July, Brown fought off
the two Yankee ships. Both tried to ram Arkansas, but failed, and
retreated through a barrage of projectiles from Confederate batteries on
the bluffs. To show she was still in the fight, Brown defiantly steamed Arkansas up and down the river in
front of the city on the following day. |
|
8.6.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Against the orders of the
wounded Cdr Brown, Lt Henry Stevens advances CSS Arkansas in support of Gen’l Van Dorn’s attack on Union-held Baton Rouge. Recognizing the
need for critical repairs, Brown had instructed Stevens not to move the
ship away from Vicksburg until his return. Van Dorn ordered the
ironclad’s participation to ensure the success of his assault. Arkansas became unmanageable when
her engines failed, and fell prey to USS Essex (Cdr W. D. Porter). Knowing
his ship to be helpless, Lt Stevens ordered her scuttled to prevent her
capture. (Map approximate) |
|
8.6.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Sumter, Cayuga, Kineo, and Katahdin help repel Confederate
attack on Baton Rouge. |
|
8.10.2 |
REPRISAL |
Rebel partisans under
Phillippe Landry continue to use Donaldsonville,
LA as a spot from which to ambush Union vessels on the Mississippi.
On this date, Rear Adm Farragut reported to Secretary Welles
that he had partially destroyed the town in reprisal for the
firing. Farragut had ''sent a message to the inhabitants that if they
did not discontinue this practice, I would destroy their town.” After
warning the citizens to evacuate their women and children, the Adm
burned down hotels, wharf facilities, and private buildings belonging to
Landry. |
|
8.15.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Galena (Cdr J. Rodgers), USS Port
Royal, and USS Satellite cover the withdrawal of the left wing of Gen’l
McClellan's army from Harrison's
Landing on the James River. |
|
8.16.2 |
JOINT |
A combined force of Navy
gunboats (USS Mound City, Benton, and Gen’l)
under Lt Cdr S. L. Phelps, Army rams under Col. Ellet, and troops led by
Col. Charles R. Woods raids Confederate positions from Helena, AR up the Yazoo
River, landing at various points and dispersing rebel encampments,
capturing a steamer above Vicksburg, and destroying a battery twenty
miles up the Yazoo. |
|
8.16.2a (16-18) |
EXPED |
USS Sachem, Reindeer, Belle Italia, and yacht Corypheus
bombard Corpus Christi, TX.
Under cover of the ships’ guns, a landing party from Belle Italia tries to capture a rebel battery on the 18th,
but is repulsed. |
|
8.17.2 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Ellis (Master Benjamin H. Porter)
and Army boats destroy Confederate salt works, battery, and barracks
near Swansboro, NC. |
|
8.29.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Pittsburg (Lt Thompson) escorts steamers White Cloud and Iatan with Army troops embarked
to Eunice, AR. The gunboat
shelled Confederate forces above Carson's Landing and covered the troops
as they landed ashore. |
|
9.3.2 |
BOMBARD |
A landing party from USS Essex (Commodore W. D. Porter) is
fired on at Natchez, MS (evacuated by Federal forces on 25 July) The mayor
surrendered the town after an hour’s bombardment by Essex. |
|
9.6.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Louisiana (Act’g Lt Richard T. Renshaw) helps repel a
Confederate attack on Washington, NC. |
|
9.8.2 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Kingfisher destroys a 200 bushel
per day salt works at St.
Joseph's Bay, FL. |
|
9.11.2a |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Sagamore destroys saltworks at St. Andrew’s Bay, FL. |
|
9.25.2 |
BOMBARD |
USS Kensington (Act’g Master Crocker), USS Rachel Seaman (Act’g Master Hooper), and mortar schooner Henry
James (Act’g Master Lewis Pennington) bombarded Confederate
batteries at Sabine Pass, TX, forcing the surrender of Sabine City the
following day. Landing parties burned the railroad bridge to Taylor’s
Bayou, but the area could not be occupied for lack of troops. |
|
10.1.2 |
CAPTURE |
While patrolling the lower
Mississippi River north to Baton Rouge, a squadron of Union gunboats
under Commander George Marcellus Ransom (USS Kineo) and including USS Katahdin (Lt Cdr Francis Roe), Sciota (Lt Cdr Reigart Lowry),
and Itasca (Charles Caldwell),
comes upon a large drove of 1500 cattle on the eastern bank of the river
several miles above Donaldsonville.
A check of the drovers’ papers convinces Ransom that the herd is
headed for Camp Moore, a, large rebel training facility in northern LA.
Rather than destroy such a valuable source of food, Ransom sends Katahdin to New Orleans to secure
army transports to bring the cattle within Union lines. By 4 October,
all but 200 “very wild” Texas longhorns are loaded. Ransom decides
to drive the reduced herd along the river and bring in all 1500 head. Katahdin and her landing parties
begin driving the herd as the other gunboats and transports steamed
south. A savage ambush at Pt Houma—involving up to 1500 rebels with
masked batteries—results in several deaths and much damage aboard the
ships, but is beaten off with great loss among the Confederates. Fearing
for the slower-moving Katahdin’s safety, Ransom sends Itasca back to accompany her through the guerilla-infested area;
when he himself has safely brought the transports within Army lines, he
returns in Kineo as well.
Amazingly, no attack was ever made upon the herding vessels, and the
remaining herd arrived in New Orleans on 7 October. |
|
10.3.2 |
EXPED |
In response to an Army
request for support in a planned attack on Confederate forces gathering
at Franklin, VA, USS Commodore Perry, Hunchback, and Whitehead
under Lt Cdr Flusser engage rebel troops on the Blackwater River for six
hours. Obstructions planted in the river kept the squadron from reaching
Franklin and Flusser ordered the gunboats to return downstream when
Confederates began felling trees to block the channel behind them. |
|
10.3.2a |
JOINT |
A joint expedition under Cdr
Steedman occupies Jacksonville, FL. |
|
10.3.2b |
EXPED |
Cdr William B. Renshaw leads
USS Westfield, Harriet Lane, Owasco, Clifton, and mortar schooner Henry James in
the bombardment and capture of the defenses of the harbor and city of Galveston, which surrendered on 9 October. |
|
10.4.2 |
EXPED |
A landing party from USS Somerset (Lt Cdr English) and USS Tahoma (Cdr John C. Howell),
destroy Confederate salt works at Depot Key, FL. (Due south of and same dot as Cedar
Key, FL) |
|
10.4.2a |
EXPED |
USS Thomas Freeborn (Lt Cdr Magaw) raids Dumfries, VA, destroying the telegraph office and wires. |
|
10.15.2 |
EXPED |
Boat crews from USS Rachel Seaman, and USS Kensington destroy Confederate
railroad bridge by fire at Taylor's Bayou, TX, preventing the
transportation of heavy artillery to Sabine Pass, and burned schooners Stonewall and Lone Star and barracks. |
|
10.21.2 |
REPRISAL |
Lt Cdr Meade (USS Louisville) escorts steamer Meteor, from which Army troops
land at and burn Bledsoe’s Landing and Hamblin's
Landing, AR in reprisal for attacks by Confederate guerrillas on
mail steamer Gladiator on 19 October. |
|
10.22.2 |
JOINT |
A naval battery consisting of
three 12 pounder boat howitzers from USS Wabash provide artillery support for Union infantry troops at the
battle of Pocotaligo, SC. |
|
10.24.2 |
EXPED |
USS Baron De KaIb (Capt. Winslow) deploys a landing party at Hopefield, AR to engage a small
Confederate scouting party. When the rebels fled, the sailors
“impressed” horses and engaged in a nine-mile running fight that
ended with the capture of the Confederates. (Uses Mound City dot) |
|
10.29.2 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Ellis (Lt Cushing) destroys large
Confederate salt works at New
Topsail Inlet, NC. |
|
10.29.2a |
EXPED |
USS Dan shelled Confederate troops near Sabine Pass, TX. On 30 October a landing party burns a mill and
several buildings. |
|
10.31.2 |
EXPED |
Confederate gun positions on Wormley’s Creek and at West Point, VA are attacked by a
landing party from USS Mahaska
(Cdr Foxhall A. Parker). The sailors returned on 11 November to complete
the destruction. |
|
10.31.2a (31-7) |
JOINT |
Cdr Davenport leads USS Hetzel, Commodore Perry, Hunchback,
Valley City, and Army gunboat Videttee on an expedition up the Roanoke
River. The ships fired on Confederate troops at Plymouth, NC,
forcing them to withdraw and steamed upriver to a point several miles
above Hamilton, which was occupied by Union troops. When the
Federal Army proved unable to reach Tarboro, they reembarked and the
force returned to Williamston. |
|
11.2.2 |
OTHER |
Col Ellet’s ram fleet is
officially transferred to the Navy at the request of Rear Adm David D.
Porter and by order of the President. Porter had insisted that he would
not permit “any naval organization on the river besides the Mississippi Squadron.” |
|
11.3.2 |
SHIP2SHIP |
CSS Cotton (Lt Edward W. Fuller) and shore batteries engage USS Calhoun, Kinsman, Estrella, and Diana in Berwick Bay, LA,
causing considerable damage to the Union squadron until exhaustion of cartridges forced Cotton
to retire. (Map approximate) |
|
11.7.2 |
JOINT |
USS Potomska (Act’g Lt W. Budd) escorts Army transport Darlington up the Sapelo River, GA on a raid that destroys salt works at Fairhope and engages rebel
troops at Spaulding’s. |
|
11.9.2 |
JOINT |
Second Assistant Engineer J.
L. Lay of USS Louisiana leads
a joint Navy-Army landing party that captures Greenville, NC. |
|
11.22.2 (22-24) |
JOINT |
Joint Navy-Army expedition to
vicinity of Mathews Court House, VA, under Lt Farquhar and
Act’g Master's Mate Nathan W. Black of USS Mahaska destroys numerous salt
works together with hundreds of bushels of salt, as well as a number of
boats. |
|
11.23.2 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Ellis (Lt Cushing) captures arms, mail, and two schooners at Jacksonville,
NC. On 24 November, while under attack from Confederate artillery, Ellis
grounds and is fired by her crew to prevent capture. |
|
11.24.2 |
EXPED |
USS Monticello (Lt Cdr Braine) destroys two Confederate salt works
near Little River Inlet, NC. |
|
12.10.2 |
SUPPORT |
USS Southfield (Lt Charles F. W. Behm) is disabled in action while
providing close fire support to troops under attack by Confederate
forces at Plymouth, NC. |
|
12.12.2 |
SINKING |
Confederate torpedoes claims
their first victim of the war when one explodes under USS Cairo (Lt Cdr Thomas O.
Selfridge) on an expedition up the Yazoo River--to destroy
torpedoes. |
|
12.27.2 |
SUPPORT |
Porter's gunboats engage Ft Drumgould on the Yazoo as USS
Benton (Lt Cdr Gwin) continues
Cairo’s work of removing torpedoes in the river. Benton was much cut up in the
heavy exchange of fire, and Gwin fatally wounded. Porter was able to
report that the river was now clear of mines to within a half mile of
the battery. |
|
12.28.2 (28-30) |
SUPPORT |
Rear Adm D. D. Porter's
gunboats provide fire support for Gen’l Sherman's attempt to capture
Confederate-held Chickasaw Bluffs.
Heavy rains and the arrival of Confederate reinforcements force the
Federals to withdraw. |
|
12.31.2 |
SINKING |
USS Monitor (Cdr Bankhead) founders in a storm off Cape Hatteras en route from
Hampton Roads to Beaufort, NC and is lost. |
|
1.1.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Confederate Major Leon Smith,
CSA, launches a fierce surprise attack on the Union troops and ships
defending Galveston, TX. The
improvised cotton-clad gunboats CSS Bayou City and Neptune, with Army sharpshooting
boarding parties, and tenders John F. Carr and Lucy Gwin take USS Harriet Lane by boarding and force the Yankees to destroy USS Westfield after she ran aground.
The remainder of the blockading force stood out to sea. |
|
1.9.3 |
EXPED |
Boat crews from USS Ethan Allen (Act’g Master Isaac
A. Pennell) destroyed a very large salt manufactory south of St. Joseph's, FL. |
|
1.9.3a (9-11) |
JOINT |
USS Baron de Kalb, Louisville,
Cincinnati, Lexington, Rattler, and Black Hawk, under Rear Adm Porter
in tug Ivy, covers the landing
of troops under Major Gen’l W. T. Sherman in the assault on Ft Hindman at Arkansas Post,
forcing the rebels from their trenches and allowing the soldiers to
occupy the woods below the fort. Until the Army was ready to make its
attack on 10 January, Porter’s gunboats closed to within 60 yards of
the fort and blasted away at its walls. Renewed bombardment on 11
January succeeded in dismounting or disabling all of the fort’s guns,
and the bastion was taken by the Army troops. Among the 6500 rebel
prisoners were 36 Confederate naval officers and sailors. Porter
recorded one prisoner as saying, “You can't expect men to stand up
against the fire of those gunboats.” After the loss of Ft Hindman,
Confederates evacuated other positions on the White and St. Charles
Rivers. |
|
1.10.3 |
BOMBRD |
Lacking shallow-draft
gunboats and pilots—and therefore unable to cross the bar and navigate
the crooked, narrow channel, Commodore Henry H. Bell is forced to limit
the reestablishment of the blockade of Galveston to a bombardment. |
|
1.13.3 |
REPRISAL |
Joint Navy-Army expedition
from Memphis on board USS General
Bragg (Lt Joshua Bishop)
destroys buildings at Mound City,
AR, in reprisal for Confederate attacks on river steamers. |
|
1.12.3 |
EXPED |
USS Currituck (Act’g Master Linnekin) destroys the salt works at Dividing Creek, VA which had been "extensively engaged" in supplying
Richmond with salt |
|
1.14.3 |
JOINT |
USS Kinsman, Estrella, Calhoun, and Diana, under Lt Cdr Thomas Buchanan, engage Confederate defenses in Bayou
Teche, below Franklin, LA,
in a combined Navy-Army expedition. Naval gunfire forces the rebels to
withdraw and allows removal of the formidable obstructions sunk in the
river. Gunboat CSS Cotton (Lt
Edward W. Fuller) attacks the Union ships, but is forced to withdraw and
is later burned to prevent capture. Kinsman’s rudder is unshipped
by a torpedo and Lt Cdr Buchanan is killed by shore fire. |
|
1.16.3 |
EXPED |
Lt Cdr J. G. Walker aboard
USS Baron de Kalb lands a
party at Devall's Bluff, AR,
on the White River and takes possession of all government property,
including guns and ammunition. Walker withdrew his men when Federal
troops arrived. |
|
1.17.3 |
EXPED |
USS Baron de Kalb (Lt Cdr Walker) with USS Forest Rose and Romeo
arrive off Des Arc, AR, where
they find a quantity of artillery ammunition and occupied the post
office. Walker withdrew his men when Army troops arrived an hour later. |
|
1.21.3 |
SHIP2 |
Major Oscar M. Watkins, CSA,
leads CSS Josiah Bell and Uncle Ben, in an attack on
blockaders off Sabine Pass,
capturing USS Morning Light
(Act’g Master John Dillingham) and Velocity (Act’g Master Nathan
W. Hammond). They burn Morning
Light two days later because she cannot be got over the bar. |
|
1.27.3 |
BOMBARD |
To test the endurance of
ironclad USS Montauk, Cdr John
L. Worden takes her up the Ogeechee River with USS Seneca, Wissahickon, Dawn, and mortar schooner C. P. Williams and engages
Confederate batteries at Ft McAllister, GA, in preparation for an
attack on Charleston. Montauk was struck fourteen times with no
damage. |
|
1.30.3 |
CAPTURE |
USS Isaac Smith (Act’g Lt Francis S. Conover) is caught in a heavy
cross fire while conducting an expedition up the Stono River above Legareville,
SC, forced aground, and captured. |
|
1.30.3a |
EXPED |
Lt Cdr Charles W. Flusser
lands men from USS Commodore Perry
to accompany soldiers on an expedition to Hertford, NC which
destroys two bridges over the Perquimans River, interdicting the flow of
supplies from the Chowan River region to Richmond. |
|
1.31.3 |
SHIP2 |
Under cover of the morning
fog, Flag Officer Duncan N. Ingraham leads rams CSS Chicora (Cdr John R. Tucker) and CSS Palmetto State (Lt John Rutledge) in an attack on the Union
blockading squadron off Charleston
harbor. Before withdrawing back into the harbor, the rams inflict
significant damage on the Yankee ships: USS Mercedita (Capt Stellwagen) stuck her colors after being rammed by
Palmetto State; USS Keystone State (Cdr William E. LeRoy), attacked by Chicora, lost all motive power after shellfire destroyed her
stacks and had to be towed away by USS Memphis (Capt Pendelton G.
Watmough); USS Quaker City
took a hit that tore up her engine room; and USS Augusta narrowly missed disaster
when a shell passed within feet of her boiler. The Confederate Navy rams
retired relatively unscathed. |
|
2.2.3 |
SHIP2 |
Ram USS Queen of the West (Col. C. R. Ellet) attacks Confederate steamer City of Vicksburg, at anchor
under cover of the batteries at Vicksburg.
Although successful in setting the rebel ship aflame (the fire was
quickly put out), Queen broke
off the action when she herself caught fire. After extinguishing the
blaze, Queen headed won the
Mississippi under orders to destroy all Confederate vessels encountered.
|
|
2.3.3 |
JOINT |
Act’g Master G. W. Brown
(USS Forest Rose) opens the
combined Navy-Army operation against Ft Pemberton in Greenwood, MS by
lighting the fuse to a 50 pound can of black powder placed under the
levee at Yazoo Pass. This
created a channel 70-75 yards wide that allows the gunboats and Army
transports to steam “overland” to enter Moon Lake and, according to
the plan, from there proceed down the Coldwater and Tallahatchie rivers
to the Yazoo, capture Ft Pemberton and Yazoo City, and then assault
Vicksburg on its weaker flanks. In reality, it will be February 25
before the gunboats can actually enter Yazoo Pass due to the need to
clear obstructions in the channel. |
|
2.3.3 |
SUPPORT |
While on convoy duty in the
Cumberland River with USS Lexington, Fairplay, St. Clair, Brilliant, Robb, and Silver Lake, Lt Cdr Fitch
receives word from Col. Abner C. Harding, commanding at Ft Donelson, reporting an assault by Confederate forces and
requesting assistance. Fitch pushed his ships ahead and arrived that
evening to find the Federal forces “out of ammunition and entirely
surrounded by the rebels in overwhelming numbers.” The gunboats opened
fire on the rebels, who were so taken by surprise that they did not
pause to return fire, but immediately withdrew. |
|
2.7.3 |
SINKING |
Pioneer II is lost in Mobile Bay during trials. |
|
2.12.3 |
REPRISAL |
Having run below Vicksburg
under orders to disrupt Confederate trade in the Red River area, USS Queen of the West (Col. C. R.
Ellet) steams up Red and Atchafalaya rivers. The ship is fired upon near
Simmesport, LA. On the
following day, Ellet destroys all of the buildings on three plantations
next to the town in retaliation. |
|
2.14.3 |
CAPTURE |
While patrolling the Red River in search of reported
Confederate vessels at Gordon’s
Landing, USS Queen of the West
(Col. C. R. Ellet) runs aground as she attempts to back down the river
away from the heavy fire of a rebel battery. When her chief engineer
reported that the steam pipe had been shot away, Ellet orders the ship
abandoned. The formidable Queen
becomes a rebel warship. |
|
2.23.3 |
SINKING |
USS Kinsman (Act’g Lt Wiggen) strikes a snag while transporting
troops in Berwick Bay and
sinks. |
|
2.24.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
A Confederate squadron under
Major Joseph L. Brent, CSA, comprised of CSS William H. Webb and Queen of
the West, and CSS Beatty
attacks and captures USS Indianola
(Lt Cdr G. Brown) below Warrenton,
MS. After repeated rammings, Brown managed to delay surrendering
long enough to allow Indianola
to fill with enough water to ensure her sinking, and ran her into the
west bank of the river. Nonetheless, the possibility of the Confederates
raising the sunken ship and using her against the Federals was very
real. |
|
2.25.3 |
EXPED |
After opening the levee at Yazoo Pass on 3 February, the
lightdraft gunboat expedition to Greenwood, MS finally entered the pass.
It had taken three weeks for the soldiers to clear obstructions in the
channel, and these continued to bedevil the ships throughout the
mission. Lt Cdr W. Smith reported to Adm Porter that, although damage so
far was not serious, “every vagrant log” had a “chance to foul our
wheels.” Because many did, delays were frequent. |
|
2.28.3 |
SINKING |
USS Montauk (Cdr Worden) with USS Wissahickon, Seneca, and Dawn, shells and destroys blockade runner Rattlesnake (formerly raider CSS Nashville). The ship had lain under the guns of McAllister in the Ogeechee River for eight months,
poised to escape to sea. Realizing Rattlesnake
was grounded, Worden drew in range of her (as well as of the fort), and
set her aflame with gunfire. Leaving the runner in flames, Montauk dropped back down the river; Rattlesnake’s magazine exploded at 9:30 “with terrific
violence,” destroying what Worden called “a troublesome pest.” |
|
3.5.3 |
EXPED |
USS Lockwood steams
out of returned to New Bern, NC
to destroy a bridge over the Pungo
River. Weapons, stores, and a small schooner are also captured. |
|
3.10.3 |
EXPED |
Confederates burn steamer Thirty-fifth Parallel in the Tallahatchie River as USS Chillicothe (Lt Cdr James P.
Forten) approaches on a mission to destroy a large bridge above Ft Pemberton, MS. |
|
3.11.3 |
BOMBARD |
The Yazoo Pass expedition’s
first attack on Ft Pemberton, near Greenwood, MS, on the Tallahatchie River, commences, but is forced to withdraw when
it becomes apparent that only a single ship’s guns can be brought to
bear on the fort at one time due to obstructions sunk in the river. Lt
Cdr W. Smith orders a 30-pound Parrot rifled gun sent ashore from USS Rattler “to annoy the rebel’s best gun at about 600 yards.” |
|
3.13.3a (13-14) |
SUPPORT |
Gunfire from USS Hunchback,
Hetzel, Ceres, and Shawsheen under Cdr Henry K.
Davenport repels a night surprise attack by Confederate troops against Ft Anderson on the Neuse River, NC. Covering naval
fire also allows the landing of the 85th New York to relieve
the fort’s defenders. |
|
3.14.3 |
BOMBARD |
Rear Adm Farragut attempts to
pass the batteries at Port Hudson
with a squadron of seven gunboats. To counter the strong current at the
bend in the river below the fort—and to provide support should one
vessel be damaged—the ships are lashed together in pairs side-by-side,
with the heavier ships (USS Hartford, Richmond, and Monongahela)
on the fort side and lighter vessels outboard (Albatross, Genesee, and Kineo); USS Mississippi brings up the rear.
In the course of the action, all three pairs of ships must be cut apart
and only two of the gunboats—Hartford
(with Farragut aboard) and Albatross—make
it past the rebel guns. The others return downstream and anchor, save
for USS Mississippi, which
grounds and is destroyed. Port Hudson is one of the war’s fiercest
naval engagements. |
|
3.14.3 |
EXPED |
The Steel’s Bayou, MS expedition--aimed at gaining entrance to the Yazoo River via Deer Creek to take Vicksburg
from the rear—begins. USS Louisville, Cincinnati, Carondelet,
Pittsburg, Mound City, four mortars and four tugs
make their way through dense forest on Black Bayou, gaining Deer Creek
on 15 March. Support troops promised by Gen’l Sherman met the ships at
Rolling Fork on 21 March, but without provisions or artillery, and in
numbers too few to ensure the success of the foray. Rear Adm Porter
therefore decided to abandon the expedition. When more troops did show
up, Porter realized his men were entirely too exhausted to retrace their
steps after almost a week of clearing trees and sleeping at their guns.
The squadron arrived back at their starting point on 24 March, having
destroyed all the bridges leading to Vicksburg and confiscating large
quantities of livestock, corn, and cotton. |
|
3.15.3 |
CAPTURE |
Armed boats from USS Cyane
(Lt Cdr Paul Shirley) seize schooner J.P. Chapman, preparing to
get underway from San Francisco, CA. Chapman was suspected
of being outfitted as a Confederate commerce raider, and was found to
have, in addition to her crew of four, seventeen more men and a cargo of
guns, ammunition, and other military stores hidden below decks. The
prisoners were confined on Alcatraz. |
|
3.25.3 |
SINKING |
Col. Charles R. Ellet
attempts to pass the batteries at Vicksburg
in the pre-dawn darkness with rams USS Switzerland and Lancaster, hoping to link up
downstream with Adm Farragut with USS Hartford and Albatross. The Confederates hear
the chuffing of their stacks and fire flares to illuminate the river,
then bring both boats under a concentrated fire. Despite taking a shot
that stopped her engines, Switzerland
floated past the batteries to safety; Lancaster succumbed to a plunging
shot that tore a gaping hole in her hull, sending her almost immediately
to the bottom. |
|
3.28.3 |
CAPTURE |
Confederate infantry and
artillery attack USS Diana
(Act’g Master Thomas L. Peterson) in the Atchafalaya River, LA. After a
three-hour battle in which the gunboat’s engines were disabled, Diana drifted ashore and was
forced to surrender. (Map approximate) |
|
3.31.3 |
SUPPORT |
In a two-week siege of
Federal positions at Washington,
NC, gunboats under Cdr Davenport provided close fire support and
much-needed supplies to the garrison. Navy gunfire kept the rebels at
bay and Navy small boats ferried food and ammunition to the soldiers.
Confederate Gen’l A.P. Hill blamed the US Navy for his failure: “We
were compelled to give up the siege of Washington, as the Yankee supply
boats ran the blockade. Two more days would have starved the garrison
out.” |
|
3.31.3a (31-1) |
JOINT |
A joint expedition heads
under Lt Cdr Gillis (USS Commodore
Morris) up the Ware River
in VA to confiscate a large cache of grain stored at Patterson Smith’s
plantation. The landing party of sailors and soldiers is attacked on 1
April by a force of Confederate cavalry, but force them to retreat with
a charge of their own. The Federals destroyed 22,000 bushels of grain. |
|
4.2.3 |
SINKING |
Alligator is lost at sea in a
storm of Cape Hatteras, NC.
Adm Du Pont’s ironclad attack against Charleston will go on as
planned--and get hung up on the obstructions that it was hoped the
submarine would remove. |
|
4.3.3 |
REPRISAL |
Lt Cdr Fitch, with USS Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, Silver Lake, and Springfield, destroys Palmyra,
TN, in retaliation for Confederate guerrillas firing on a Union
convoy on 2 April. |
|
4.7.3 |
BOMBARD |
Rear Adm Du Pont sends nine
ironclads into Charleston harbor
in hopes of passing the forts and taking the town under fire. The
Confederates, however, had obstructed the channel and planted range
markers in addition to torpedoes, chains, and nets. USS Weehawken, equipped with a raft for clearing mines, delayed the
attack for an hour when the grapnels attached to the raft fouled.
Shortly after 3pm, the ironclads opened fire on Ft Sumter. Weehawken struck a torpedo, which “lifted the vessel a
little,” but seemed otherwise to do no real damage; Capt John Rodgers,
seeing “formidable” obstructions ahead, swung round and led the
column back to sea. The incoming tide made many of the ships
unmanageable, and left them easy targets for the rebel gunners. In the
forty-minute engagement, Weehawken
was hit 53 times; Passaic was
struck 35 times and her turret disabled; Patapsco—which lost headway and
refused to obey her helm when she tried to turn—took 47 hits; Catskill recorded 20 hits and
began taking on water; Nantucket
was badly battered by 51 shots which jammed her turret; Nahant took 36 hits which disabled her turret and tore up her
steering machinery. USS Keokuk,
following Nahant, was forced
to steam past her to avoid a collision; this maneuver brought her to
within 600 yards of Ft Sumter—where she remained for half an hour. The
concentrated fire from the fort riddled her with 90 hits, eighteen of
which pierced at or below the waterline. With the approach of darkness,
Du Pont broke off the action and pulled back the battered ironclads. Keokuk—which had survived only
because of calm seas—took on water the following day and rapidly sank.
|
|
4.7.3 |
SINKING |
USS Barataria (Act’g Ensign James F. Perkins) strikes a snag in Lake
Maurepas, LA, and is destroyed by her crew to prevent capture. |
|
4.10.3 |
EXPED |
An expedition led by Lt Cdr
Selfridge (USS Conestoga) cuts a channel across Beulah Bend, near Napoleon, MS, and
destroys guerrilla stations that had harassed Union shipping on the
river. |
|
4.12.3 (12-14) |
SUPPORT |
In two days of heavy fighting
near Suffolk, VA, Navy gunboats USS Mount Washington, Stepping
Stones, and Commodore Barney prevented Confederate
forces from crossing the Nansemond River to surround Union troops. |
|
4.14.3 |
SHIP2 |
While supporting Union Army
troops ashore, USS Estrella
(Lt Cdr Augustus P. Cooke), USS Arizona
(Act’g Lt Upton); and USS Calhoun
(Act’g Master Meltiah Jordan), engage and destroy ram CSS Queen of the West (Lt E. W.
Fuller) in Grand Lake, LA.
The Confederates destroy CSS Diana
and Hart on 18 April to
prevent their capture. |
|
4.20.3 |
JOINT |
A joint Navy-Army attack
captures a strong Confederate position at Hill's Point on the Nansemond
River, VA, taking five howitzers and 160 prisoners. Despite skirmishing
that continues for two weeks, this action signalled the end of the rebel
offensive against Suffolk, VA. |
|
4.20.3a |
BOMBARD |
USS Estrella (Lt Cdr Cooke) with USS Clifton, Arina, and Calhoun capture Ft Burton,
Butte a la Rose, LA, after a short but sharp engagement. |
|
4.21.3 |
EXPED |
Lt Cushing leads a landing
party of ninety sailors with one boat howitzer in an expedition to
rescue sailors taken prisoner from USS Stepping Stones. Approaching Chuckatuck
Village, VA, the party is attacked by forty Confederate cavalry.
After discharging the howitzer, Cushing leads his own charge and
disperses the rebels. He remains in Chuckatuck for the balance of the
day, learning that the prisoners had earlier been moved further inland.
Aware that 400 cavalry are stationed nearby, Cushing returns to his
boats. One hour later, Confederate Gen’l George Pickett arrives in
town—unescorted, on an unapproved furlough to spend time with his
mistress. Had Cushing stayed in Chuckatuck, the final charge at
Gettysburg in July might have been known by a different name. |
|
4.29.3 |
JOINT |
Formidable rebel batteries at
Grand Gulf, MS are again engaged by Rear Adm Porter’s gunboats. The
5-1/2 hour battle results in the warships silencing the lower batteries,
but not the upper ones. However, this allows transports to take Gen’l
Grant’s troops below the city. Grant lands and moves his force into
the country behind Grand Gulf, which forces a Confederate withdrawal on
3 May. |
|
4.29.3a (29-1) |
JOINT |
USS Tyler, Choctaw, Baron de Kalb, Signal, Romeo, Linden, Petrel, Black Hawk, and three mortar boats under Lt Cdr Breese participate
in a joint Navy-Army expedition feigning attack on Confederate batteries
at Haynes’ Bluff on the
Yazoo River intended to draw rebel troops away from Grand Gulf. Although
only a “demonstration,” Choctaw
was struck 53 times by rebel shellfire. |
|
5.7.3 |
EXPED |
Following the capture of
Grand Gulf on 3 May, Porter rendezvous with Farragut’s squadron off
the mouth of the Red River, resupplies, and steams up the Red to Alexandria, LA with USS Benton,
Lafayette, Pittsburg, Sterling Price, ram Switzerland, and tug Ivy
(USS Estrella and Arina joining on the way). They
pass a deserted Ft De Russy en route and occupy Alexandria on 7 May.
Unable to proceed further upstream due to low water, Porter turns the
town over to the Army and returns to De Russy to partially destroy it. |
|
5.8.3 |
BOMBARD |
Cdr Charles H. B.
Caldwell’s mortar flotilla and USS Richmond (Capt. Alden) open
bombardment of the Confederate defenses at Port Hudson, LA. |
|
5.10.3 |
SUPPORT |
Gunboats under Lt Cdr S. L.
Phelps support an Army assault on Confederate troops at Linden, TN. |
|
5.18.3 |
BOMBARD |
USS Linden (Act’g Lt T. E. Smith) engages a battery of rebel guns
that had ambushed Linden’s convoy of Army transports at Island
No. 82 in the Mississippi. Fire from the gunboat drove the
Confederates away and troops landed from the transports burned buildings
in the area in retaliation. |
|
5.21.3 (21-30) |
EXPED |
Gunboats USS Baron de Kalb, Choctaw, Forest Rose, Linden, and Petrel under Lt Cdr J. G. Walker push up the Yazoo River from
Haynes’ Bluff to Yazoo City, MS. Their approach forces the
destruction of the Confederate Navy Yard in that city, including
steamers Mobile, Republic, and ''a monster, 310 feet long
and 70 feet beam” under construction. The gunboats continued up the
river, but turned back in the face of Confederate sharpshooters fifteen
miles below Greenwood, MS. The squadron steamed up the Sunflower River
for 150 miles before returning to the Mississippi. |
|
5.24.3 |
REPRISAL |
Brigadier Gen’l A. Ellet
orders his men to burn Austin, MS
in reprisal for an attack by Confederates upon the commissary and
quartermaster boat of the Marine Brigade of the previous day. Landing
before dawn, Ellet’s men fought a two battle with rebel cavalry
outside of town. Forcing them to withdraw, Ellet found evidence of
smuggling in Austin and put it to the torch. The charge was true, as
hidden weapons discharged and powder exploded in the flames. |
|
5.27.3 |
SINKING |
While attacking Confederate
entrenchments blocking the Army’s approach to Vicksburg, USS Cincinnati
(Lt Bache) comes under fire from rebel batteries on the overlooking
hills. The plunging shot penetrated to her magazine, and she went down
rapidly. Suffering 25 killed and wounded and 15 probable drownings, Cincinnati sank with her flag
nailed to the mast. |
|
5.27.3a |
SINKING |
CSS Chattahoochee (Lt John J. Guthrie) is destroyed at anchor at Chattahoochee,
FL with “terrible loss of life” by an explosion of her boilers.
(Map approximate) |
|
5.31.63 |
SUPPORT |
USS Carondelet (Lt Murphy) rescues Union troops isolated at Perkins Landing, MS, throwing a curtain of gunfire around the troops until
transport arrived. While boarding, Confederate troops surged forward,
but Carondelet’s guns forced
them to break off their attack. |
|
6.4.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Commodore McDonough (Lt Cdr Bacon) convoys Army troops in a raid
on Bluffton, SC. Naval
gunfire allows the soldiers to overcome strong Confederate resistance
and destroy the town. |
|
6.4.3a (4-5) |
JOINT |
Joint Navy-Amy expedition
including USS Commodore Morris
(Lt Cdr Gillis), Commodore Jones (Lt Cdr John G. Mitchell),
Army gunboat Smith Briggs, and transport Winnissimet
up the Mattapony River to Walkerton,
VA destroys a foundry where Confederate ordnance was being
manufactured. |
|
6.6.3 |
CAPTURE |
The brief but very successful
career of CSS Clarence—a
prize taken by CSS Florida
(Capt Maffit)—demonstrates how much damage a single rebel raider could
do. On this date, Lt Read in Clarence
took the bark Whistling Wind carrying coal east of Cape Romain, SC. On 7 June Read
captured schooner Alfred H.
Partridge bound for Matamoras, securing her captain’s bond of
$5,000 to deliver his cargo of arms and clothing to any port in the
Confederacy. Two days later Clarence
takes brig Mary Alvina loaded with commissary stores. On 12 June Lt Read seizes
brig Tacony and schooner M.A. Shindler off Cape Hatteras; he also took schooner Kate Stewart, to which off-loaded his prisoners and bonded. Seeing that
Tacony was a better sailor
than Clarence, Read
transferred his command to her and burned Clarence and Shindler. He than took brig Arabella, but, as she carried a
neutral cargo, bonded her for $30,000 payable thirty days after the end
of the war. On 15 June, CSS Tacony
captured and burned brig Umpire
and her cargo of sugar and molasses off the Virginia coast. By now,
Read’s exploits were creating great concern in the North, and a large
force of warships were sent in search of him. On 20 June, Tacony stopped Isaac Webb, bound from NY City to
Liverpool carrying 759 passengers; with no room aboard his ship for so
many people, Read bonded the ship for $40,000. He then pounced on and
burned fishing schooner Micawber
at sea off the New England coast. The following day the Confederate
raider burned Byzantium and
her cargo of coal as well as bark Goodspeed
(in ballast), again off New England. In the same area, he took fishing
schooners Florence, Marengo, E. Ann, R. Choate, and Ripple on 22 June, burning all
but Florence, on which he
loaded 75 prisoners, bonded, and released. More fishing schooners, Ada and Wanderer,
followed these to the bottom on 23 June. The next day Read stopped Shatemuc, bound from Liverpool to
Boston carrying a large number of immigrants; he bonder her for
$150,000. Later he took fishing schooner Archer and, because he knew the
Yankees would have a description of Tacony by now, transferred his
men to her. Read burned Tacony
on the morning of 25 June. On 26 June, CSS Archer picked up two fishermen
who, believing the rebels to be simply a “pleasure party,” agreed to
take them into the harbor of Portland, ME, where, they said, were
anchored the revenue cutter Caleb Cushing, passenger
steamer Chesapeake, and
steamer Forest City, as well as two gunboats under construction. Read took Archer
into the harbor at sunset and calmly anchored her for the evening. At
1:30am on 27 June, he led his men aboard Caleb Cushing and captured her
without noise or resistance. By midmorning, Read had his new prize
twenty miles out to sea, but was pursued by two large steamers and three
tugs from Portland. Read fired on Forest City, but was
“mortified” to find after only five shots that there was no more
ammunition for the gun! With the steamers gaining, Read ordered his men
into the lifeboats and, at 11:30, surrendered. His career as a raider
was not quite over, however, as Caleb
Cushing blew up a half hour later. Lt read and his men had taken 22
prizes in three weeks. |
|
6.7.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Choctaw (Lt Cdr Ramsay) and USS Lexington (Lt Cdr Bache) defend Union troops at Milliken's Bend, MS from the attack by a superior number of Confederates. |
|
6.14.3 (14-15) |
REPRISAL |
In retaliation for attacks by
Confederate guerillas on several Union transports and gunboats, Act’g
Lt Getty (USS Marmora)
destroys Eunice, AR. The
following day, landing parties from Marmora and Prairie Bird (Act’g Lt Edward
E. Brennand) mete out the same punishment to Gaines Landing. |
|
6.17.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
USS Weehawken (Capt. J. Rodgers) and USS Nahant (Cdr Downes) capture CSS Atlanta (Cdr Webb) in Wassaw
Sound. Atlanta,
accompanied by wooden steamers Isondiga
and Resolute, was attempting an attack on Weehawken
with a bow-mounted percussion torpedo, but ran repeatedly aground and
refused to obey her helm. With two of his gun crews out of action, two
of three pilots severely injured, and his ship hard aground, Webb
surrendered. |
|
6.18.3 |
SUPPORT |
Fearing that Confederate
cavalry attacks upon two Army transports off Plaquemines, LA portended an assault upon Union-occupied
Donaldsonville, Rear Adm Farragut in USS Monongahela steams down river
from Port Hudson. Gunfire from USS Winona (Lt Cdr Aaron V. Weaver) drives the rebels out of town,
keeping the supply line from New Orleans open to the Federal forces
around Port Hudson. |
|
6.28.3 (28-30) |
OTHER |
Gen’l Robert E. Lee’s
advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania to Gettysburg threatens the
Navy’s supply of anthracite coal, all of which moves down the
Susquehanna Canal. Without this steady flow from the Pennsylvania coal
fields, the fleet would be unable to move within a few days. As Lee
moved north, the Navy Dept ordered ships moved to the defense of
Washington and other major cities. |
|
7.1.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Col. E. H. Angamar claims to
make an attack upon the Union blockaders off Mobile on this date with his
rocket-propelled submarine. There is no record of this from the Union
side. Rocket propulsion is being experimented with
on the Union side as well. The previous December, inventor Pascal Plant
demonstrates a true self-propelled torpedo to interested naval
officers along the banks of the Potomac River, but guidance problems
prevent its acceptance. (Map approximate for Angamar) |
|
7.4.3 |
JOINT |
Vicksburg, the “Sebastopol of
Rebeldom,” surrenders to Federal forces. Adm Porter recorded that
thirteen naval guns had been used ashore (most manned by sailors) and
that the Navy had lobbed 9,000 shells into the city and supplied the
Army with 6000 additional rounds. Grant wrote, “The Navy, under
Porter, was all it could be during the entire campaign. Without its
assistance the campaign could not have been successfully made with twice
the number of men engaged.” |
|
7.4.3a |
SUPPORT |
USS Tyler (Lt Cdr Prichett) repulses a Confederate attack on Helena, AR,. The Southerners had
penetrated the outposts of the outnumbered Union Army when Tyler steamed into action. Her
heavy fire halted the Confederate attack and forced a withdrawal. The
Southern losses were heavy: 380 killed, 100 wounded, and 1100 prisoners.
|
|
7.9.3 |
JOINT |
After prolonged attack by
Union naval and land forces Port
Hudson, Louisiana, surrenders. The long drive to regain control of
the Mississippi River, beginning in the early in 1862 at Ft Henry in the
north and south at New Orleans, was over. |
|
7.10.3 |
SUPPORT |
Ironclads USS Catskill
(Cdr G.W. Rodgers); Montauk
(Cdr Fairfax); Nahant (Cdr
Downes), and Weehawken (Cdr
Colhoun) bombard Confederate defenses on Morris Island, Charleston harbor, in support of an Army. Close in support of the
landing was provided by small boats armed with howitzers under Lt Cdr
Francis M. Bunce. |
|
7.11.3 |
SUPPORT |
Rear Adm Hiram Paulding,
Commandant of the New York Navy Yard, stations gunboats around Manhattan to assist in
maintaining order during the Draft Riots. Contrary to the movie “Gangs
of New York,” the ships do not fire on the city. |
|
7.13.3 |
JOINT |
A combined expedition up the
Yazoo River captures Yazoo City, MS. USS Baron de Kalb struck a torpedo and sank. |
|
7.13.3a |
EXPED |
A landing party from USS Jacob Bell (Act’g Master
Gerhard C. Schulze) destroys contraband goods consisting of blockade
running flatboats and cargo of alcohol, whisky, salt, and soda. near Union
Wharf on the Rappahannock River. (Map approximate) |
|
7.14.3 |
EXPED |
USS Sangamon, Lehigh, Mahaska,
Morse, Commodore Barney, Commodore Jones, Shokokon, and Seymour, capture Ft Powhatan on the James River,
VA. This is the last Confederate defense below Chaffin's and
Drewry's Bluff. |
|
7.15.3 |
EXPED |
Boat crews from USS Stars
and Stripes and Somerset land at Marsh's Island, FL, and destroy 60 bushels of
salt and 50 salt boilers. |
|
7.15.3a |
SUPPORT |
Although compelled to drop
down the Stono River out of range of rebel batteries at Grimball’s
Landing, USS Pawnee (Cdr Balch) and USS Marblehead
(Lt Cdr Scott) nonetheless repel a Confederate attack on Union troops on
James Island. |
|
7.16.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Cdr David McDougal in USS Wyoming
engages three Japanese warships and batteries on the bluffs over the Straits
of Shimonseki, Japan, sinking one vessel, grounding and burning a
second, and sending the third fleeing. McDougal was on station watching
for CSS Alabama when word reached him from the American
ambassador that the Japanese warlord at Shimonseki had fired on an
American merchant steamer. Had the ensuing battle not taken place during
the Civil War, McDougal’s handling of his ship and guns against such
odds would have earned him a place in the history books. |
|
7.19.3 |
JOINT |
Following a ten-day
chase of 500 miles along the Ohio River, gunboats USS Moose, Reindeer, Victory, Springfield, Naumkeag,
and steamer Alleghany Belle under Lt Cdr Leroy Fitch
caught up with Gen’l John H. Morgan’s 6000 Confederate raiders at Buffington Island, OH. As Union
troops pressed in from the rear, the rebels sought repeatedly to cross
the river, but were forced back by naval gunfire each time. Morgan’s
men scattered into the hills, leaving their artillery on the beach and
3000 of their fellows prisoners of the Yankees. |
|
7.22.3 |
SUPPORT |
In a move to bolster Union
Army strength ashore, Rear Adm Dahlgren orders Cdr F. A. Parker to land
and command a four-gun naval battery to be placed on Morris Island “'for the work against Ft Sumter.” Their
deployment is intended to bolster Army strength ashore. |
|
7.24.3 |
BOMBARD |
In ongoing operations in Charleston harbor, Rear Adm
Dahlgren's warships bombard Ft Wagner to allow the Army to consolidate
positions they had advanced into during the night. |
|
7.28.3 |
EXPED |
Lt Cdr English leads USS Beauregard and Oleander and boats from USS Sagamore
and Para in an attack on New Smyrna, FL. The naval force
shells the town, captures or destroys several schooners, burns a large
quantity of cotton ashore, and destroys all of the buildings used by the
Confederates. |
|
8.4.3 |
JOINT |
A naval observation and
signal station under Act’g Master John Haynes, USN, on Vincent’s Creek, Morris Island, is captured after a sharp battle
by four Confederate boat crews under Lts Alexander F. Warley and John
Payne from CSS Chicora and Palmetto State and a Confederate
Army detachment |
|
8.7.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Mound City (Lt Cdr Wilson) disperses Confederate cavalry making a
raid on a Union encampment at Lake
Providence, LA. |
|
8.13.3 (13-14) |
EXPED |
A naval force under Lt Bache
comprised of USS Lexington, Cricket (Act’g Lt Langthorne),
and Marmora (Act’g Lt R.
Getty) reconnoiters the White River above Clarendon, AR, in search of
Confederate forces under Gen’l Sterling Price. Penetrating as far
upstream Augusta on the White
and Searcy on the Little Red
rivers, the gunboats destroyed the telegraph and lines at Des Arc,
captured two rebel steamers, and destroyed an enemy pontoon bridge. |
|
8.17.3 |
SINKING |
USS Crocus (Act’g Ensign J. LeGrand Winton) runs aground and is
wrecked at Bodie's Island, NC. |
|
8.18.3 |
SINKING |
CSS Oconee (Lt Oscar F. Johnston), founders in heavy seas near St. Catherine's Sound, GA, after
running the blockade out of Savannah the night before. Oconee is a government blockade runner and had been loaded with
cotton; all hands were saved. |
|
8.21.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Pilot James Carlin in
Confederate torpedo boat Torch
makes a daring attempt to sink USS New
Ironsides near Morris Island. An engine failure and loss of helm control at the
last moment made Carlin miss the warship. Spotted by the officer of the
deck aboard New Ironsides—and actually conversing with him in an
attempt to bluff his way through—Carlin managed to start his engines
again and quickly returned to Charleston
as shots from the Union vessel bracketed the torpedo boat. |
|
8.22.3 |
EXPED |
Two boat crews from USS Shokokon (Lt Cushing) under
Act’g Ensign Joseph S. Cony land near New Topsail Inlet, NC. The
sailors shoulder a small dingy, carry it across a neck of land into the
inlet, and attack and burn blockade runner Alexander Cooper—behind the Confederate defenses. Cony destroys extensive
saltworks in the area and returned with three prisoners. |
|
8.23.3 (12-23) |
CAPTURE |
Lt Wood, CSN, departed
Richmond on 12 August with 80 Confederates and four boats mounted on
wheels. On the night of 16 August, his men launched the small boats into
the Piankatank River two mile
above its mouth and rowed downstream. For over a week, the rebels hid by
day and searched by night for vulnerable Union ships. Just after one in
the morning on this date, Wood and his men discovered USS Satellite (Act’g Master Robinson) and USS Reliance (Act’g Ensign Henry Walter) anchored so closely in an
exposed position that they decide to take them both—and do. The
Federal vessels are taken up the Rappahannock to Urbana. |
|
8.30.3 |
EXPED |
A detachment of the Marine
Brigade assigned to Rear Adm Porter’s Mississippi Squadron, captures
three Confederate paymasters at Bolivar,
MS, as well as their 35-man escort. The paymasters were carrying
$2,200,000 in Confederate currency to pay Gen’l Price’s soldiers at
Little Rock. |
|
9.6.3 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Argosy (Act’g Ensign John C.
Morong) seizes Confederate ordnance supplies and 1,200 pounds of tobacco
at Bruinsburg, MS. |
|
9.8.3 |
JOINT |
A joint Navy-Army attack on Sabine Pass fails when
Confederates disable and capture the gunboats Sachem and Clifton (Act’g Lt Crocker). The
remaining gunboats, USS Arizona
and Granite City, returned with two Army transports to New Orleans. |
|
9.8.3a |
EXPED |
Cdr Stevens leads an assault
on Ft Sumter with thirty
boats and 400 sailors and marines late in the evening. Being fully aware
of the coming attack after recovering code books from USS Keokuk, the
Confederates held their fire until the boats were nearly ashore, then
opened on the exposed Yankees with everything from hand grenades to the
guns of CSS Chicora. The Federal naval attack was repulsed, and 100 men
were taken prisoner. |
|
9.13.3 |
CAPTURE |
Twenty crewmen from USS Rattler (Act’g Master Walter E. H. Fentress) are captured by
Confederate cavalry while attending church services at Rodney, MS. |
|
9.19.3 (19-23) |
EXPED CSN |
Over the space of five days,
Act’g Masters John Y. Beall, CSN, and Edward McGuire, CSN, lead a
series of small boat raids on Chesapeake
Bay that result in the capture of schooner Alliance (loaded with sutlers’
stores) on 19 September, schooner J.J. Houseman on the 21st, and schooners Samuel Pearsall and Alexandria on the 22nd.
Beall and McGuire cast three of the ships adrift at Wachapreague Inlet,
intending to run the blockade in Alliance.
When she grounded at Milford Haven, the rebels burned her and escaped to
Richmond. Beall and his men continued raiding on the eastern shore of
Maryland, destroying several lighthouses, until finally captured on 15
November. (Map approximate) |
|
9.22.3 |
EXPED |
Having left Mobile several
days earlier, Act’g Master David Nichols leads nineteen Confederate
seamen leave their small cutter, Teaser, in the marshes of South West Pass on the Mississippi River, and walk overland to
board and capture Army tug Leviathan. Finding her fully loaded
with coal and provisions, Nichols and his men make for the open ocean.
Learning of the capture, Commodore Bell orders Navy ships in pursuit,
and the daring Southern sailors are themselves captured several hours
later by USS De Soto. |
|
9.22.3a |
EXPED |
Expedition under Act’g
Master George W. Ewer from USS Seneca
destroys the Hudson Place Salt Works near Darien, GA. |
|
9.29.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Lafayette (Lt Cdr J.P. Foster) and USS Kenwood (Act’g Master John Swaney) arrive at Morganza, LA, on Bayou Fordoche to protect 1500 Union troops from
imminent attack by four brigades of Confederates--who decline to attack. |
|
10.5.3 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Lt Glassell in torpedo boat
CSS David makes a night attack on USS New Ironsides.
The 60-pound spar torpedo did not sink the warship, but, as revealed by
subsequent inspection, forced her withdrawal from the blockade for
repairs. Water thrown up by the explosion nearly swamped the David and
put out her fires; believing the boat lost, Glassell and Seaman James
Sullivan leapt overboard and were captured. Her engineer managed to
rekindle the boiler fire and bring the boat back into Charleston. |
|
10.7.3 |
EXPED |
Act’g Lt Couthouy (USS Osage) orders Act’g Chief
Engineer Thomas Doughty to take a landing party overland from the
Mississippi to the Red River,
where they capture and burn steamers Robert Fulton and Argus and take nine prisoners. (Map approximate) |
|
10.11.3 |
SINKING |
USS Madgie (Act’g Master Polleys) sinks in rough seas off Frying Pan Shoals, NC. |
|
10.14.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Queen City (Act’g Lt G. W. Brown) makes a joint raid on Friar's Point, MS, where a
search of the warehouses turns up 200 bales of contraband cotton, which
are seized. |
|
10.15.3 |
EXPED |
USS Commodore (Act’g Master John R. Hamilton) and USS Corypheus (Act’g Master Francis
H. Grove) destroy a Confederate tannery at Bay St. Louis, MS—including a
stockpile of hides valued at $20,000. |
|
10.16.3 (16-17) |
EXPED |
In a daring overland
expedition, 100 sailors from USS Tahoma
(Lt Cdr A. A. Semmes) and USS Adela
(Act’g Lt Louis N. Stodder) march fourteen miles from Old Tampa Bay to
the Hillsboro River and
destroy blockade runners Scottish
Chief and Kate Dale,
loaded with cotton and preparing to run the blockade. Tahoma and Adela shelled the fort at Tampa
as a diversion, but crewmen from the blockade runners alerted the
garrison. In the running fight that ensued, five sailors were killed,
ten wounded, and five taken prisoner before they regained their ships. |
|
11.3.3 (3-4) |
JOINT |
Naval forces under Cdr Strong
(USS Monongahela, Owasco, and Virginia) convoyed and supported troops Army landings that captured Brazos Santiago, TX. |
|
11.9.3 |
CAPTURE |
USS James Adger (Cdr
Patterson) captures blockade runner Robert E. Lee off Cape Lookout Shoals, NC. Lee had been one of the most
famous and successful runners, breaking through the blockade more than
twenty-one times. |
|
11.14.3 |
CAPTURE |
Master James Duke, CSN, in an
unarmed boat, captures schooner Mary
Campbell and Norman off Pensacola, FL. USS Bermuda (Act’g Lt J.W. Smith)
later recaptures Mary Campbell at the mouth of the
Perdido River, but Duke and his men escape in the Norman, which they beach and
burn. |
|
11.16.3 (16-17) |
JOINT |
USS Monongahela (Cdr Strong) escorts Army transports and covers
landings on Mustang Island,
Aransas Pass, TX. Monongahela’s
also landed two boat howitzers with crews, which accompany the soldiers
on a twenty-mile march to shell Confederate works into surrender. |
|
11.22.3 |
SUPPORT |
USS Jacob Bell (Act’g Master Schulze) supports a troop landing at St. George's Island, MD, where
some 30 Confederates were captured. |
|
11.29.3 |
JOINT |
USS Monongahela lands a crewed howitzer to support an Army attack on Pass Cavallo, TX. |
|
12.2.3 |
EXPED |
Boat expedition from USS Restless, (Act’g Master William
R. Browne) destroys saltworks at Lake
Ocala, FL, capable of producing 130 bushels a day, and takes
seventeen prisoners. |
|
12.6.3 |
SINKING |
After taking on an extra load
of heavy ammunition, USS Weehawken
(Cdr Duncan) sinks inside the bar of Charleston harbor when water
floods down an open hatch. |
|
12.7.3 |
CAPTURE |
Capt. John Parker, former
commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution, orders John
Braine and seventeen Confederate sympathizers from St John, New
Brunswick to NY City, where the party arms themselves and boards steamer
Chesapeake. En route to Portland, ME, the rebels seize Chesapeake off Cape Cod, and head for Nova Scotia, intending to recoal and then
steam for Wilmington. The Navy responded quickly, and ships from
Philadelphia northward were sent in pursuit. On 17 December USS Ella and Annie (Act’g Lt J. Frederick Nickels) recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova
Scotia. Taken to Halifax, she was restored to her owners by the Vice
Admiralty Court. Most of the Confederate raiders escaped. (Map
approximate) |
|
12.8.3 |
BOMBARD |
USS Neosho (Act’g Ensign Edwin P. Brooks) and USS Signal (Act’g Ensign William P.
Lee) silence a rebel battery shelling the disabled steamer Henry Von Phul near Morganza,
LA. |
|
12.17.3 |
EXPED |
Landing parties from USS Moose
(Lt Cdr Fitch) destroy Confederate distilleries at Seven Mile Island and Palmyra,
TN. |
|
12.19.3 |
EXPED |
Raids upon the extensive
Southern salt works in St
Andrew’s Bay, FL continue as USS Restless, Bloomer, and Caroline under Act’g Master W. R. Browne destroy 290 works, 33
wagons, 12 flatboats, 2 sloops, 6 ox carts, 4000 bushels of salt, 268
buildings, 529 iron kettles (150 gallons apiece), and 103 iron boilers.
Browne believed the fleeing Confederates had destroyed as much to
prevent it falling into Union hands. |
|
12.25.3 |
BOMBARD |
USS Marblehead (Lt Cdr Meade), USS Pawnee (Cdr Balch), and mortar schooner C.P. Williams (Act’g Master Simeon N. Freeman) force the
withdrawal of a Confederate battery that had opened fire on the Marblehead near Legareville, SC, in the Stono River. Pawnee was struck twenty
times before the rebels broke off the battle. Lt Cdr Meade landed and
seized two VIII-inch sea coast howitzers. |
|
12.25.3 |
JOINT |
USS Daylight
(Act’g Lt Francis S. Wells) and USS Howquah (Act’g Lt MacDiarmid) transport troops from Beaufort,
NC, to Bear Inlet, where
soldiers and sailors land and destroy four extensive saltworks along the
coast. |
|
12.30.3 |
EXPED |
Act’g Ensign Norman McLeod
(USS Pursuit) destroys two
salt works in St. Joseph's Bay,
FL. |
|
12.31.3 (31-1) |
SUPPORT |
USS Sciota (Lt Cdr Perkins) and USS Granite City (Act’g Master Lamson) transport, land, and support
Union troops on an expedition to the Gulf shore of the Matagorda Peninsula, protecting them from attacks by Confederate
cavalry and the Confederate gunboat CSS John F. Carr through a gale that
threatened to drive the ships ashore (which it did the Carr, which caught fire and was
destroyed). |
|
1.14.4 |
SINKING |
Federal blockaders destroy
USS Iron Age after attempts to pull her off the beach at Lockwood's Folly Inlet fail. |
|
1.21.4 |
SUPPORT |
USS Sciota (Lt Cdr George H. Perkins) and USS Granite City (Act’g Master Charles W. Lamson) accompany an Army
reconnaissance from Smith’s
Landing, TX down the Matagorda Peninsula. |
|
1.31.4 |
JOINT |
Lt Cdr Charles W. Flusser
leads an expedition of 40 sailors and 350 soldiers inland from the
Roanoke River, NC, and occupies the town of Windsor for several hours. |
|
2.2.4 |
CAPTURE |
In boats shipped by rail from
Richmond to Kinston, NC, Cdr John Taylor Wood, CSN, leads a force of
sailors and Marines in an early morning attack on USS Underwriter (Act’g Master Jacob Westervelt), anchored in the Neuse River near New Bern, NC. The Confederate raiders were so close to the gunboat
by the time they were spotted that Underwriter could not lower
them enough to fire upon on the rebels, who take the boat in
hand-to-hand combat. Unable to move Underwriter because she did not
have steam up, Wood destroyed her. |
|
2.2.4a (2-22) |
SUPPORT |
At the request of Major
Gen’l Quincy Gillmore for naval support, Rear Adm John Dahlgren sends
USS Ottawa, Norwich, Dai Ching, Mahaska and Water Witch up the St. John's River. Under cover of their guns,
the troops land at Jacksonville
and capture artillery and seize quantities of cotton in a two week
expedition. When a strong Confederate counterattack forced the soldiers
to fall back on Jacksonville on 20 February, the gunboats were there to
defend them; boat howitzers crewed by sailors were also landed. |
|
2.15.4 |
SUPPORT |
USS Forest Rose (Act’g Lt John V. Johnson) opens a heavy bombardment
upon Confederate troops attacking Union soldiers at Waterproof, LA, forcing them to withdraw. |
|
2.16.4 |
BOMBARD |
The campaign against
Confederate defenses on Mobile Bay begins with the bombardment of
Ft Powell by USS Octorara
(Lt Cdr William W. Low, USS J. P.
Jackson (Act’g Lt Miner B.
Crowell), and six mortar schooners. |
|
2.17.4 |
SINKING |
Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley (Lt George E. Dixon,
CSA) sinks USS Housatonic
(Capt. Charles W. Pickering) off Charleston
with a spar torpedo—the first submarine in history to sink an enemy
ship. Dixon and his daring crew perished with their submarine in the
attack. |
|
2.17.4a (17-19) |
EXPED |
Act’g Ensign J. G. Koehler
(USS Tahoma) leads a boat
expedition ashore near St. Marks,
FL and destroys a large Confederate salt works and a supply of salt. |
|
2.26.4 (26-27) |
EXPED |
Boat expedition under the
command of Act’g Master E. C. Weeks (USS Tahoma) destroys a large saltwork on Goose Creek, near St. Marks, FL. |
|
2.29.4 |
EXPED |
Lt William B. Cushing leads
two boats from USS Monticello in a nighttime raid on
Smithville, NC, in an attempt
to capture Gen’l Louis Hebert of the Confederate Army. Cushing manages
to locate the general’s quarters in the middle of town—and only
fifty yards from the barracks—but is disappointed to find the general
absent at Wilmington. He returned to his ship with Capt Kelly, CSA,
instead. |
|
3.1.4 (1-2) |
SUPPORT |
At the request of Brigadier
Gen’l Henry W. Wessells, Lt Cdr Flusser in double-ender USS Southfield with tinclad USS Whitehead provides covering fire
that allows Army steamer Bombshell
to escape a rebel battery that had cut her off in the Chowan River above
Petty Shore, NC. |
|
3.5.4 |
EXPED |
Cdr John Taylor Wood, CSN,
with fifteen men in open barges, leads an early morning raid on the
Union-held telegraph station at Cherry
Point, VA
after crossing Chesapeake Bay in the night. Unaware that the
station had been taken, Union Army steamers AEolus and Titan, put
into shore and are also captured. Wood destroys the telegraph station,
disables and bonds AEolus, and
steams up the Piankatank River in Titan.
|
|
3.5.4a |
SUPPORT |
Heavy gunfire from USS Petrel (Act’g Master Thomas
McElroy) and Marmora (Act’g
Master Thomas Gibson) drives off a Confederate attack on Yazoo City,
MS. The Navy’s contribution included a landed boat howitzer, whose
crew of sailors fought hand-to-hand to save their gun. |
|
3.6.4 |
SHIP2SHIP |
USS Memphis (Act’g Master Robert O. Patterson) is saved by a faulty
torpedo when First Assistant Engineer Tomb, CSN, attacks her in a
“David” torpedo boat in the North
Edisto River near Charleston. Tomb made two passes at the warship,
striking Memphis both times
with the 95 pound spar torpedo, but it failed to detonate on both
attempts. Damaged by collision with Memphis in his second attempt and
under heavy fire, Tomb came about and returned to Charleston. |
|
3.6.4a |
SINKING |
USS Peterhoff (Act’g Lt Thomas Pickering) sinks off New Inlet, NC
after being accidentally rammed by USS Mount Vernon. |
|
3.12.4 |
JOINT |
Rear Adm Porter’s gunboats
move up the Red River to open a two-month campaign to gain a foothold in
Texas. On this day, the gunboats remove obstructions below Ft DeRussy
and cover Army landings along the Atchafalaya River at Simmesport,
LA. |
|
3.14.4 |
JOINT |
Fort DeRussy on the
Red River, LA falls to combined Union forces. |
|
3.16.4 |
EXPED |
USS Osage (Lt Cdr Selfridge) arrives off Alexandria, LA and
occupies the town prior to the arrival of Major Gen’l Banks' Army,
which is delayed by heavy rains. |
|
3.25.4 |
SUPPORT |
USS Peosta (Act’g Lt Thomas E. Smith) and USS Paw Paw (Act’g Lt A.
Frank O'Neil) halt a heavy Confederate assault on Northern positions at Paducah, KY. After forcing the
rebels to withdraw, the gunboats also drove Southern sharpshooters from
nearby buildings, where they had been sniping at Union troops. |
|
3.28.4 |
SINKING |
USS Kingfisher (Act’g Master John C. Dutch) ran aground and was
wrecked in St. Helena Sound, SC. |
|
3.29.4 (29-30) |
EXPED |
A boat expedition led by
Act’g Master James M. Williams (USS Commodore Barney) with a detachment of
sailors from USS Minnesota, ascends Chuckatuck Creek late at night, quietly surrounds a
Confederate headquarters at Cherry Grove, VA, and captures twenty
prisoners. |
|
4.9.4 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Confederate torpedo boat Squib (Lt Hunter Davidson) makes
a successful attack against USS Minnesota (Lt Cdr John H. Upshur) off Newport News, VA. The “tremendous explosion” of her spar torpedo and the roll of Minnesota
when it detonated made the Yankee sailors think she was going down; in
reality, little damage resulted. |
|
4.12.4 |
BOMBARD |
As Rear Adm Porter's gunboats
retraced their course down the Red River from Springfield Landing, LA,
Confederate guns take them under heavy fire from the high bluffs
overlooking the river. At Blair’s
Landing, dismounted cavalry supported by artillery, attacks the
Union
fleet for over an hour until Navy gunfire drives them off.
This engagement marks the first appearance of a unique device: the
periscope. Officers protected behind the iron walls of the gunboats
found it almost impossible to target their ship’s guns on the towering
bluffs when sighting through the narrow view slits. Chief Engineer
Thomas Doughty of USS Osage
solved this problem by designing the first periscope. |
|
4.12.4a |
SUPPORT |
Gunboat USS New Era (Act’g Master James
Marshall) attempts to stop Confederate Major Gen’l Nathan B.
Forrest’s assault on Ft Pillow,
TN. Although initially successful, by afternoon the rebels mounted
an overwhelming attack and carried the fort. When the fort’s guns were
turned on the small gunboat, Marshall was forced to withdraw. |
|
4.14.4 |
SUPPORT |
A Confederate assault
on the Union garrison at Paducah is repelled by gunboats USS Peosta (Lt Cdr James W. Shirk), Key West (Act’g Lt Edward M. King), Fairplay (Act’g Master George J. Groves), and Victory (Act’g Master Frederick
Read). |
|
4.15.4 |
SINKING |
USS Eastport (Lt Cdr Phelps) strikes a Confederate torpedo in the Red
River some miles below Grand Ecore. Phelps immediately ran Eastport
into shoal water where she grounded. For six days Phelps, assisted by
other gunboats in the river, attempted to bail and pump out the water.
At last, 21 April, he was able to get underway with carpenters working
day and night to close the leak. In the next five days Eastport
moved 60 miles downstream while grounding eight times. Finally, on 26
April, with the ironclad again grounded, Rear Adm Porter ordered Phelps
to transfer his men to USS Ft Hindman and destroy Eastport.
|
|
4.17.4 |
SUPPORT |
Confederate troops launch a
sustained land attack on Plymouth,
NC, which is driven back with the help of Union gunboats Southfield and Miami
under Lt Cdr Flusser. |
|
4.19.4 |
SHIP2 |
CSS Albemarle (Cdr Cooke) attacks Union warships off Plymouth, NC, sinking USS Southfield by ramming her and
sending Miami, Ceres, and Whitehead
steaming downstream under heavy fire. The Union guns had been
ineffective against the heavy iron plating on the sloping sides of the
ram. |
|
4.19.4a |
SHIP2SHIP |
Closing to 150 yards before
being spotted, Engineer Tomb, CSN, makes another attack on the Yankee
blockaders off Charleston in
his “David.” This time he attempts to sink USS Wabash, and manages to get within 40 yards under a hail of musket
fire before heavy swells force him to turn away. |
|
4.22.4 |
CAPTURE |
USS Petrel (Act’g Master McElroy) is fired upon by Confederate
sharpshooters and artillery and disabled in the Yazoo River while
escorting transport Freestone to attack Yazoo City. Petrel is
captured and burned by the rebels after they remove her armament and
stores. (Map approximate) |
|
4.21.4a |
EXPED |
Act’g Lt Joseph B. Breck
leads boat crews from USS Howquah,
Ft Jackson, and Niphon to destroy Confederate
salt works on Masonboro Sound, NC.
Landing after dark, the sailors approached undetected and succeeded in
demolishing the works and taking 160 prisoners. |
|
4.21.4b |
EXPED |
Boat crews from USS Ethan Allan (Act’g Master Isaac
A. Pennell) destroy an extensive saltwork and thirty buildings at Cane Patch, near Murrell's Inlet, SC. |
|
4.21.4c |
EXPED |
Boat expedition commanded by
Act’g Master John K. Crosby from USS Cimarron destroyed a rice mill and 5,000 bushels of rice stored at
Winyah Bay, SC. |
|
4.21.4d |
EXPED |
Boat expedition under Act’g
Ensign Christopher Carven,(USS Sagamore) took over 100 bales of cotton and destroyed 300
additional bales near Clay
Landing, on the Suwannee
River, FL. |
|
4.26.4 (26-27) |
BOMBARD |
Rear Adm Porter’s gunboats
are attacked by Confederate infantry while preparing to blow up the
grounded USS Eastport. Withdrawing downstream on the afternoon of
26 April, Porter—in tinclad USS Cricket (Act’g Master Henry
Gorringe) with Ft Hindman (Act’g Lt John Pearce),
Juliet (Act’g Master J. S.
Watson), and pump steamers, Champion No. 3 and No. 5—is
ambushed at a bend in the river below Deloges Bluff, LA by
Confederate infantry with a battery of nineteen cannon. Struck 38 times,
Cricket drifts past the bend, and Ft Hindman and Juliet win through on
the following day. Both pump boats are lost, however—one burned and
the other captured. Champion No. 3 had the sad distinction of
receiving the single most destructive cannon shot of the entire war when
a 12-pdr round pierced her boiler. The steamer was loaded with 150
fleeing slaves in addition to her crew, and the escaping superheated
team killed 100 of them immediately, with 87 more people succumbing soon
thereafter. |
|
4.29.4 |
BOMBARD |
An expedition up the
Rappahannock River including boats from USS Yankee (Act’g Lt Edward Hooker) and USS Fuchsia, USS Freeborn
and Tulip engage Confederate
cavalry and destroy a camp under construction at Carter's Creek, VA. |
|
5.2.4 (2-9) |
OTHER |
Rear Adm porter’s
light-draft gunboats pass through the gap in a dam over rapids in the
Red River at Alexandria, LA. Falling water in the river trapped
the navy squadron, but Army Colonel Bailey put regiments from Maine and
New York to work to build a wing dam that allowed water to rise above it
and afford a gap where the ships could pass over the rocks. Following
eight days of heavy labor, the Navy tinclads make their escape on this
date. Pressure from the building water above the dam swept part of it
away, but Bailey renewed his efforts, built a second dam, and, with help
from thousands of soldiers pulling on tow ropes, all of Porter’s ships
succeed in reaching deeper water by 13 May. |
|
5.4.4 (4-7) |
JOINT |
USS Sunflower (Act’g Master Edward
Van Sice), Honduras (Act’g Master John H. Platt), and J. L.
Davis (Act’g Master William Fales) participate in a combined
operation to take Tampa, FL. The Union gunboats transported
soldiers and provided a naval landing party which joined in the assault.
|
|
5.5.4 |
SHIP2SHIP |
A Confederate sortie out of Plymouth in support of a rebel army attack on New Bern, NC is blunted at the Battle of Albemarle Sound. Although the gunfire of the Union squadron--comprised of USS Sassacus (Lt Cdr Roe), Mattabesett (Capt. M. Smith), Wyalusing (Lt Cdr Walter W. Queen)—was ineffective against the armor of CSS Albemarle (Cdr John W. Cooke), Sassacus managed to cause significant damage by ramming the ironclad. The Yankees captured the steamer Bombshell (Lt Albert G. Hudgins) and Albemarle returned to Plymouth, where she remained for several months of repairs. Confederate forces made the planned attack on New Bern, but achieved nothing without naval support. |
|
5.5.4a |
SINKING SINKING |
Confederate forces on the Red
River continue their incessant attacks on Union ships below Alexandria,
taking advantage of the main body of Adm Porter’s squadron being stuck
above the rapids. A large body of rebel infantry with two pieces of
artillery open fire on USS Covington
(Act’g Lt George P. Lord), USS Signal (Act’g Lt Edward
Morgan), and transport Warner near Dunn's Bayou, LA. Warner,
losing control and running aground, was captured. Covington,
after exhausting her ammunition, was burned; and Signal, crippled
and left on her own, surrendered. The rebels sunk her to block the
channel. |
|
5.6.4 |
SINKING |
While dragging for torpedoes
in the James River with USS Mackinaw and Commodore Morris, USS Commodore Jones (Act’g Lt
Thomas Wade) is blown up by a 2000-pound electric torpedo. The ship was
lifted entirely out of the water and 40 sailors killed in the explosion.
(Map approximate) |
|
5.6.4a (6-7) |
SHIP2 SINKING |
CSS Raleigh (Flag Officer Lynch)
steams out of New Inlet, NC
early in the evening and engages USS Britannia and Nansemond, forcing them to
withdraw long enough for a blockade runner to escape. Early on the
morning of 7 May, Raleigh appeared again, trading shots with USS Howquah and Nansemond. When USS Mount
Vernon
and Kansas also
opened on the ram, Lynch broke off the action. Raleigh grounded
while attempting to cross the bar at the Cape Fear River and was
severely damaged; Lynch ordered her destroyed. |
|
5.6.4b |
CAPTURE |
After spending a week picking
up refugees along the Calcasieu
River, LA, USS Granite City
(Act’g Master C.W. Lamson) and USS Wave (Act’g Lt Benjamin A.
Loring) are attacked by 350 rebel sharpshooters with artillery, who
overwhelm the Army pickets assigned to the expedition and open fire on
the boats. Granite City surrendered an hour later
and Wave soon thereafter. (Map
approximate) |
|
5.6.4c |
JOINT |
USS Dawn (Act’g Lt John W. Simmons)
lands soldiers to capture a signal station at Wilson's Wharf, VA. When the
soldiers are halted, a boat crew from Dawn spearheads the successful
assault. |
|
5.7.4 |
SINKING |
USS Shawsheen (Act’g Ensign Charles
Ringot) is disabled, captured and destroyed by Confederates in the James
River. (Map
approximate) |
|
5.12.4 |
EXPED |
While on a boat expedition
with Army troops looking for suspected Confederate forces around Apalachicola, FL, Act’g Lt
William Budd (USS Somerset) discovers a raiding party of Confederate sailors about to embark on
their own boat expedition to capture USS Adela. Having already landed the
soldiers, Budd and his sailors drive the rebel sailors into town and
capture their boats and supplies. |
|
5.13.4a |
JOINT |
USS Ceres (Act’g Master Henry H.
Foster), with Army steamer Rockland and 100 embarked soldiers,
raids along the Alligator River, NC, capturing a Confederate
schooner and disabling a corn mill supplying the Southern armies. (Map
approximate) |
|
5.19.4 |
BOMBARD |
USS General Price (Act’g Lt Richardson), forces the withdrawal of a
Confederate battery on the banks of the Mississippi River at Tunica
Bend, LA, that was trying to destroy the transport Superior.
Richardson landed and burned buildings used as a headquarters by the
rebels. |
|
5.21.4 |
SUPPORT |
USS Atlanta (Act’g Lt Thomas J.
Woodward) and USS Dawn
(Act’g Lt John W. Simmons) disperse Confederate cavalry attacking Ft
Powhatan on the James Rivet, VA. Dawn remained nearby through the
night to prevent another attack. |
|
5.23.4 |
CAPTURE |
USS Columbine (Act’g Ensign
Sanborn), with soldiers aboard, is captured after a heated engagement
with rebel batteries and riflemen at Horse Landing, near Palatka,
FL. The ship had lost steering control and grounded on a mud bank,
where she was an easy target for Confederate fire. The Southerners
destroyed her shortly afterward to avoid recapture. |
|
5.24.4 |
SUPPORT |
Accurate gunfire from wooden
steamer USS Dawn (Act’g Lt
Simmons) forces Confederate troops to break off an attack on the Union
Army position at Wilson's Wharf on the James River. |
|
5.25.4a |
JOINT |
A joint Navy-Army expedition
advances up the Ashepoo and South Edisto Rivers, SC to cut the Charleston
and Savannah Railroad. Union naval forces under Lt Cdr
Edward F. Stone (USS Commodore
McDonough, E.B. Hale, Dai Ching, and Vixen) push
up the South Edisto and lands Marines and howitzers that open fire on Willtown,
SC. Unable to make contact with Army units that had moved up the
Ashepoo River, the landing party withdraws on the following morning. |
|
6.2.4 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Cowslip (Act’g Ensign Canfield)
captures or destroys a number of sloops and boats as well as four
saltworks on a raid up Biloxi Bay, MS. |
|
6.3.4 |
CAPTURE |
Lt Thomas P. Pelot, CSN,
leads a boat expedition of 130 officers and men that surprises and
captures USS Water Witch (Lt
Cdr Austin Pendergrast) in an early morning raid off Ossabaw Island,
GA. Water Witch was taken
into the Vernon River and moored above the obstructions guarding
Savannah. |
|
6.8.4 |
BOMBARD |
Lt Cdr Ramsay (USS Chillicothe) with USS Neosho (Act’g Lt Howard) and
USS Port Hindman (Act’g Lt Pearce) engages a rebel battery
above Simmesport, LA on the Atchafalaya River. A landing party
captured the guns after the Confederates were forced to withdraw. |
|
6.12.4 |
SINKING |
USS Lavender (Act’g Master John H.
Gleason) strikes a shoal off NC in a squall and sinks. (Approx.) |
|
6.19.4 |
SHIP2SHIP |
USS Kearsarge (Capt
Winslow) sinks Confederate raider CSS Alabama (Capt Raphael
Semmes) off Cherbourg, France. Semms and thirteen of his officers
and 27 men are picked up in English yacht Deerhound and make good
their escape to England. |
|
6.20.4 |
SUPPORT |
Union gunboats bombard and
break up Confederate batteries and troop concentrations at White House
and Cumberland, VA, preventing them from harassing Union
transports along the river. |
|
6.20.4a (20-24) |
SUPPORT |
USS Calypso (Act’g Master Frederick
D. Stuart) and USS Nansemond
(Act’g Ensign James H. Porter) land Union troops near New River, NC
on an expedition to cut the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. The rebels
learned of the attempt, however, and the forced the withdrawal of the
Federals under cover of the Navy’s guns. (Map approximate) |
|
6.21.4 |
JOINT |
A joint Confederate Navy-Army
long-range bombardment opens on the Union squadron in the James River
at Trent's and Varina Reaches. Engine problems aboard Virginia II delayed the
deployment of the James River Squadron and kept it from closing to
effective range. Little damage was done to either fleet, as the Federal
vessels concentrated on the rebel shore batteries. The rebel fleet
included Virginia II (Flag
Officer Mitchell), Fredericksburg
(Cdr Rootes), Hampton (Lt John
S. Maury), Nansemond (Lt
Charles W. Hayes), and Drewry
(Lt William H. Hall), Roanoke
(Lt Mortimer M. Beton), and tug Beaufort
(Lt Joseph Gardner). CSS Richmond
(Lt W. H. Parker) was kept out of action due to mechanical failure. |
|
6.23.4 (23-24) |
EXPED |
Lt Cushing
leads seventeen men from USS Monticello
on a reconnaissance up the Cape Fear River to within
three miles of Wilmington, NC, rowing past the batteries defending the
river on the night of 23 June and hiding along the shore after dawn.
Cushing was able to verify that CSS Raleigh had, indeed, been
wrecked as the result of the engagement on 6 May. |
|
6.24.4 |
SINKING |
USS Queen City (Act’g Master
Michael Hickey) is attacked and taken by Confederate cavalry while lying
at anchor off Clarendon, AR. The rebels destroyed her. |
|
7.7.4 (7-12) |
JOINT |
USS Ariel (Act’g
Master Russell), Sea Bird (Act’g Ensign Ezra L. Robbins), Stonewall
(Act’g Master Henry B. Carter), and Rosalie (Act’g Master
Coffin), take part in joint operations against Brookville and Bayport,
FL. |
|
7.11.4 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS James
L. Davis (Act’g Master Griswold) destroys Confederate salt works near Tampa,
FL. (Map approximate) |
|
7.12.4 |
JOINT |
USS Whitehead (Act’g Ensign George
W. Barrett) and USS Ceres
(Act’g Master Foster) with transport steamer Ella May conduct a
joint expedition up the Scuppernong River to Columbia, NC, which destroys a
bridge and a quantity of grain. |
|
7.22.4 |
EXPED |
Lt Charles S. Cotton and
Act’g Ensign John L. Hall lead a landing party from USS Oneida on a night raid to capture
a Confederate cavalry patrol near Ft Morgan, Mobile Bay. After
taking the Confederate prisoner, the sailors marched four miles inland
and destroyed the patrol’s camp as well. |
|
7.25.4 |
SINKING |
USS Undine (Act’g Master John L.
Bryant) strikes a snag and sinks in the Tennessee River near Clifton,
TN. Bryant removes the guns from his ship and places them ashore to
help defend the city from threatened attack. With the help of pump
steamer Little Champion, Bryant is able to raise Undine
on 31 July and return her to service. |
|
7.30.4 |
EXPED |
Landing party from USS Potomska (Act’g Lt Robert P.
Swann) destroys two large Confederate salt works near the Back River,
GA. |
|
8.1.4 (1-4) |
EXPED |
Landing party of 115 officers
and men under Cdr George M. Colvocoresses raids a meeting of civilians
forming a coastal guard at McIntosh Court House, GA.
Colvocoresses marched his men overland after coming ashore during the
night of 2 August, destroyed a bridge to prevent being cut off by
Confederate cavalry, and captured some 26 prisoners and 22 horses before
making his way safely back to USS Saratoga. |
|
8.5.4 |
SHIP2SHIP |
Rear Adm Farragut leads a
squadron of eighteen ships (including four monitors) into heavily
defended Mobile Bay. Forced to pass close by Ft Morgan, Farragut
formed the monitors (USS Tecumseh,
Manhattan, Winnebago, and Chickasaw) in line between the fort and his
wooden vessels. These were lashed two-by-two, with the lighter ships to
port. Adm Franklin Buchanan led a squadron of Confederate ships against
Farragut: the heavy ram Tennessee
and smaller ships Gaines, Selma, and Morgan. Dashing straight for Tennessee, USS
Tecumseh (Cdr T.A.M. Craven) strikes a torpedo and sinks with 90 of its 114
officers and men. Included among these is Cdr Craven, who gallantly
pauses at the foot of the ladder leading to the main deck to allow his
pilot to precede him. Seeing this, Farragut—lashed in the rigging to
better observe the action—encourages his men to “Damn the torpedoes!
Full speed ahead!” His flagship, Hartford, surged into the rows of
mines—none of which detonated. For the next few hours, the smaller
Confederate ships are knocked out of the battle one by one: Selma (Lt Peter U.
Murphey) surrendered, Morgan (Cdr George W. Harrison)
retreated under Ft Morgan’s guns, and Gaines (Lt John W.
Bennett) sunk. Adm Buchanan fought his ship until 10a.m., when it became
apparent that he could not prevail against the combined shelling and
repeated ramming by the Union vessels, and surrendered. Farragut’s
attention then turned to the forts that defended the bay. Ft Powell was
evacuated after a shelling from USS Chickasaw (Lt Cdr George H.
Perkins) and Gaines and Morgan would follow suit soon thereafter. This
action closed the last major Gulf port available to the Confederacy. The Confederates might have
had a submarine active during the Battle of Mobile Bay, the CSS Capt
Pierce. When the few survivors from Tecumseh were picked
up, included among them was a trio of Confederate sailors, who claimed
to have been aboard the Pierce and targeting one of the surviving
ironclads. They believed they had missed--but maybe not. Beneath the
wreck of the Tecumseh is supposedly an unidentified mass of metal that
might be the Pierce. The sailors said that the shock of the
explosion of their torpedo destroyed their submarine, evidently by
exploding the boiler. This is borne out by the fact that one of the men
had scalded his legs. If true, this would be the second instance of a
Confederate submarine sinking an enemy surface ship in combat. It also
means the rebels built a steam-powered submarine. (Source: Submarine
Warfare in the Civil War, M. Ragan) |
|
8.6.4 |
OTHER |
CSS Tallahassee (Cdr Wood) runs out
of Wilmington
harbor, eluding the blockaders, and embarks on one of the
most destructive commerce raiding cruises of the war. In only two weeks,
Wood will capture or destroy thirty ships along the New England coast. |
|
8.8.4 |
BOMBARD |
Col. Charles D. Anderson,
CSA, surrenders Ft Gaines in Mobile Bay, explaining to Adm
Farragut his “inability to maintain my present position longer than
you may see fit to open upon me with your fleet.” |
|
8.8.4a |
SINKING |
USS Violet (Act’g Ensign Thomas
Stothard) runs aground off the western bar at Cape Fear River, NC,
and is destroyed. |
|
8.8.4a |
EXPED CSN |
John Maxwell and R. K.
Dillard, members of the Confederate Torpedo Corps, plant a clockwork
torpedo containing twelve pounds of powder on a Union transport at City
Point, VA. The resulting explosion rocks the entire area and causes a chain
reaction that spread the barges to the buildings onshore. Gen’l Grant
reported “Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled
with splinters and fragments of shell.” Maxwell and Dillard had simply
walked through the Union supply base and convinced the guard that they
had been instructed to deliver a box aboard—which they had! |
|
8.10.4 (10-11) |
BOMBARD |
USS Romeo (Act’g Master Thomas
Baldwin) and USS Prairie Bird
(Act’g Master Thomas Burns) engage a secretly-erected Confederate
battery near Gaines Landing, AR
on the Mississippi. Transport Empress
was subjected to a withering fire that killed her captain and disabled
the ship, at which point Romeo opened fire and towed Empress to safety.
On 11 August, the battery opened fire on Prairie Bird, which was quickly
joined by Romeo; together the ships forced the rebels to withdraw their
guns—but not until all three vessels involved had take severe damage: Empress
alone was struck 63 times. |
|
8.16.4 |
EXPED |
A daring raid in small boats
by Cdr Colvocoresses (USS Saratoga) into McIntosh County, GA captures 100 prisoners, destroys a saltwork,
and burns the strategic bridge across the South Newport River on the
main road to Savannah. |
|
8.17.4 |
SUPPORT |
Ironclads CSS Virginia II (Lt Johnston) and CSS Richmond
(Lt J. S. Maury) bombard Federal position on Signal Hill along the James
River at the request of Gen’l Robert E. Lee. The naval gunfire
drives the Yankees off and allows Lee’s men to occupy the hill. |
|
8.22.4 (22-24) |
EXPED |
A raid on the Satilla and White rivers in GA
by boats from USS Potomska
(Act’g Lt Swann) captures prisoners and destroys over 2,000 barrels of
rosin and turpentine. (Map approximate) |
|
8.23.4 |
BOMBARD |
Having endured two weeks of
naval bombardment, Ft Morgan—the
last Confederate bastion in Mobile
Bay—surrenders. |
|
8.25.4 |
OTHER |
Confederate raider CSS Tallahassee (Cdr Wood) runs the
blockade into Wilmington. In
a cruise cut short by lack of coal, Wood took some 31 prizes. |