AUGUST 1ST
USS Penobscot captured sloop Lizzie off New Inlet, NC, with cargo including salt.
AUGUST 2ND
William H. Aspinwall, a Union merchant, and big booster of ironclads, wroteAsst. sec. of the Navy Fox suggesting a weaponry innovation that would be the forerunner of the modern torpedo, "...a properly shaped cylindrical shot fired 6 or 8 feet under the water.... At short range great effect could be attained below the iron plating.... I have the plan for firing a gun projecting 6 or 6 or 10 feet below the waterline of a vessel, which I think would worl well, if it is found that a shot can be relied on to do the intended injury-- under water."
Of course, during the war, the term torpedo referred to what today would be classified as mines. The closest either side came to a torpedo moving through the water were Cushing's launch ramming a torpedo into the CSS Albemarle and the Confederate submarine Hunley's ramming a torpedo into the USS Housatonic.
In 1864, when Admiral Farragut said, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" he was referring to the mines near Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay.
AUGUST 4TH
USS Unadilla captured British steamer Lodona attempting to run the blockade at Hell Gate, Georgia. Normally, I only list blockade-runners being captured off Wilmington, but the Name Hell Gate intrigued me.
AUGUST 5TH
Asst. Sec. Navy Fox reports that the Richmond Inquirer had a story about the first meeting of an army and navy officer after McClellan's withdrawal after the Seven Day Battles had the Army officer throwing his arms around the Navy man's neck and saying, "Oh, my dear Sir, we ought to have a gunboat in every family." The Navy helped cover McClellan's withdrawal.
Old B-Runner
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