Thursday, August 16, 2012

Naval Happenings 150 Years Ago: August 16th to 17th, 1862

AUGUST 16TH

A joint Army-Navu expedition up the Mississippi River as far as Helena as far as the Yazoo River.  Landed at various points en route.  Captured a steamer above Vicksburg, dispersed Confederate troop encampments and destroyed a newly erected battery 20 miles up the Yazoo River.

One of the ships on the expedition was the USS General Bragg.  Kind of strange that they would have aship named after a Confederate general.

Confederate Sec. of Navy wrote about the South's desperate need of iron for its ironclads.  He wants the Congress to increase supply.  Scrap iron being collected and "rolling railroad iron into plates."


AUGUST 16TH-18TH

Union naval force bombard Corpus Christi, Texas and attempted to land and seize a Confederate battery, but driven off.  Lack of troops to occupy Corpus Christi, Sabine City and Galveston kept Farragut's ships holding these ports, but they kept them under blockade.


AUGUST 17TH

A joint landing party from the USS Ellis, under command of Master Benjamin H. Porter and Army boats destroyed Confederate salt works, a battery and barracks near Swansboro, NC.

Old B-Runner

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