Monday, September 17, 2012

Naval Happenings 150 Years Ago: September 17th to 19th,1862: Roll, Alabama

SEPTEMBER 17TH

Rear Admiral S.P. Lee is concerned about the building of the new Confederate ironclad "Merrimack II" at Richmond and wrote to  Asst. sec. of Navy Fox asking that an ironclad be sent to Norfolk.  Essentially, he wanted the USS New Ironsides.  Fox replied to him that he should have the New Ironsides by Sept. 24th saying, "With the Ironsides you will feel no anxiety. She is fast, and has a terrible battery, and is a match for the whole Southern navy.  If the Merrimac [k] #2 comes down I trust they will follow her up and destroy her."

CSS Alabama captured and burned the whaling ship Virginia near the Azores.


SEPTEMBER 18TH

CSS Alabama captured and burnedwhaling ship Elisha Dunbar near the Azores.  Semmes decides that since the whaling season in the Azores was now over, he was to switch his operations to the Banks of Newfoundland.


SEPTEMBER 19TH

The ram Queen of the West, under Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet, escorting two transports, had a sharp engagement with Confederate infantry and artillery above Bolivar, Mississippi.

A ship under command of a medical cadet?  But, could that name be the one associated with the Ellet gunboats?

Old B-Runner

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