JANUARY 22ND
USS Commodore Morris seizes oyster sloop John C. Calhoun, schooner Harriet, and sloop Music near Chuckatuck Creek, Virginia. Lots of contraband moving on the Potomac River.
The chronic shortage of iron in the Confederacy a constant problem for ironclads. This date, the Sec. of War appointed a committee to determine what railroad tracks could be "dispensed with" in order to provide iron for warships. Railroad tracks were a major source of iron.
CSS Florida, under the aforementioned Maffitt captured and burned the brigs Windward and Corris Ann near Cuba.
JANUARY 23RD
USS Cambridge captured schooner Time off Cape Fear, NC, with cargo of salt, matches and shoes.
JANUARY 24TH
Rear Admiral Porter writes of his arrival at the mouth of the Yazoo River and the advance on Vicksburg. The Army is there as well "The front of Vicksburg is heavily fortified, and unless we can get troops in the rear of the city I see no chance of taking it at present." Twelve Confederate steamers that had been providing supplies and munitions to Port Hudson were trapped in the Yazoo and that would make it easier to capture that place.
Rear Admiral Du Pont writes that he will need more ironclads to take Charleston, SC.
Confederate Sec. of Navy Mallory wrote President Davis rejecting the suggestion of putting an Army officer in command of the recently captured Harriet Lane saying it wouldn't be legal to promote such an officer over nine-tenths of his naval officers.
Almost Getting Caught Up. --Old B-Runner
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