Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Naval Happenings 150 Years Ago: March 12th to 13th,1863: Thinking Charleston-- Part 1

MARCH 12TH

Farragut arrives at Baton Rouge to make final preparations for attack on Port Hudson.


MARCH 13TH

Union ships engaged Confederate Port Pemberton in the Yazoo Pass Expedition.  The USS Chillicothe hit 38 times and exhausted its ammunition.  The Union ships withdrew.


Du Pont wrote Professor Alexander D. Bache of the Coast Survey about the planned attack on Charleston:  "We are steadily preparing for the great experiment, to see whether 20 guns, counting one broadside of the Ironsides, can silence or overcome some hundreds [referring to Confederate guns in Charleston Harbor]."  He also wrote that he had tried out four ironclads "against a live target in the shape of Fort McAllister.

"Then Dahlgren writes the life of his fifteen inch [gun] is 300 [firings].

Old B-Runner

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