The Cuban Missile Crisis Had a Counterpart in the Civil War-- Part 1

From the Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial Blog "Playing with Fire Off the Cuban Coast in Oct. 1862."

This past Monday, October 22nd was an eventful day in the U.S. history.  And, it scared me more than any Halloween monster.  This was the date in 1962 that President Kennedy went on the TV and said that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from our country.  I thought this signalled the end of the world in a nuclear holocaust.  I wrote about it in my Cooter's History Thing Blog for that date.

But, 100 years before that, events unfolded that almost led to another war.  Of course, the Civil War was underway, but the United States came close to having a war with Spain over something that happened in Cuba.

A lively trade developed during the war consisting of cotton from Matamoras, Mexico, military supplies from Havana, Cuba and Mobile, Alabama.

Union Commander Charles S. Hunter was patrolling off the coast of Cuba and especially on the lookout for the blockade-runner General Rusk, sometimes called the Blanche, that had made the run between the ports six times.  On the seventh attempt into Cuba, carrying 569 bales of cotton, the ship had managed to run aground, but its commander wasn't worried as the ship was in Spanish waters and flying the Spanish flag.  He thought he was safe.

He Wasn't.  --Old B-Runner