September 26, 1864: Don't Send the CSS Tallahassee and Chickamauga Out to Sea

SEPTEMBER 26TH, 1864:  Major General Whiting, C.S.A., Army commander in Wilmington, wrote Governor Vance of North Carolina requesting that the CSS Tallahassee and Chickamauga be retained at Wilmington for the defense of that port.

"The Confederate steamers Tallahassee and Chickamauga are now nearly ready for sea, and will leave this port for the purpose of operating against the enemy's commerce.  Should they leave on this service the few vessels they might destroy would be of little advantage to our cause, while it would excite the enemy to increase the number of the blockading squadron to such an extent as to render it almost impossible for vessels running the blockade to escape them."

Notwithstanding these objections and those of General Lee two days earlier, the raiders were sent to sea.

--Old B-R'er

USS Fulton (1837)-- Part 4: Destroyed At Pensacola, Fla. in 1862

From October 1858 to May 1859, the Fulton joined operations commanded by Commodore W.B. Shubrick during negotiations to improve relations with Paraguay, and sailed the La Plata, Parana and Paraguay rivers.

It was out of commission at Norfolk, Virginia, from 7 May 1859 to 30 July 1859,  the Fulton cruised off Cuba to suppress the slave trade, then laid up in Pensacola, Florida, in mid-October 1859.

The Fulton was captured by Confederates when they took the Pensacola Navy Yard on 12 January 1861, and was considered for use in the Confederate Navy, but was never fitted out.  She was destroyed by the Confederates when they evacuated Pensacola on 10 May 1862.

I have written about the first USS Fulton in my Not So Forgotten: War of 1812 blog and the third and fourth ones in my Cooter's History Thing blog.  This USS Fulton  was the second one.  I will write about the fifth USS Fulton in my World War II blog eventually.

--Olf B-Runner

USS Fulton (1837)-- Part 3: Busy Ship

During the next six years, other than periods of repair, the Fulton ranged from the Caribbean to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, transporting government officials, protecting merchant ships against search on the high seas.  From January to May 1855, the Fulton joined the search for the USS Albany which disappeared off the coast of Venezuela in 1854.  They didn't find the unfortunate ship or any survivors.

In 1857, it was in the expedition to Nicaragua to stop William Walker attempt to take over the country and the next year, the Fulton's commander arranged the release of five American merchant ships held in Tampico, Mexico, by revolutionary forces.

--Old B-Runner

USS Fulton (1837)-- Part 2: Lots of Rebuilds

After commissioning, the Fulton steamed up and down the Atlantic coast aiding ships in distress, testing ordnance and training officers in gunnery.  A big thrill for the ship was besting the British steamer SS Great Western in a speed contest off New York.

The Fulton was decommissioned  at New York 23 November 1842 and was in ordinary until 1851 when she was rebuilt and her machinery completely replaced.

The essentially new Fulton was launched 30 August 1851 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  However, to enable her to cruise in open waters that involved a rebuild.  Recommissioned in 1852 for duty in the Home Squadron and then went on a cruise to the West Indies.  After this rebuild she was commonly referred to as the Fulton III.

--Old B-Runner

N.C. Civil War Timeline for September 1864-- Part 2: Recons of Wilmington and Capture of Two Blockade Runners

SEPTEMBER 19--  Reconnaissance near Wilmington for the examination of its defenses.

SEPTEMBER 25--  Destruction of the blockade runner Lynx.

SEPTEMBER 27--  Reconnaissance near Wilmington for the examination of its defenses.

SEPTEMBER 29--  Destruction of English steamer Night Hawk.

SEPTEMBER 29--  Action  in Scuppernong River , engagement of USS Valley City with Confederate forces.

--Old B-Runner

September 19, 1864-- Part 2: The Plot Discovered

John Yates Beall and his 19 men came aboard the Philo Parsons as passengers, but soon seized the steamers and took it to Middle Bass Island, on the way from Detroit to Sandusky.  (I've been to Middle Bass Island many times in the past, but for drinking wine at Lonz's Winery on it and enjoying the rock bands.  I never knew this to be a Civil War spot.)

While there, Beall was approached by an unsuspecting steamer, the Island Queen,  which was quickly captured and burned.  He then landed the passengers and cargoes of the two ships and proceeded with his improvised warship to Sandusky.

Meanwhile, Commander J.C. Carter of the USS Michigan had discovered the plot and had Captain Charles Cole, one of the organizers  of Beall's escapade, arrested along with an assistant.    As Beall and his men approached Sandusky, the prearranged signals were not made.

Confronted with uncertain circumstances and overwhelming odds, Beall and his men reluctantly, but wisely abandoned their part of the plan and took the Philo Parsons to Sandwich, Canada, where she was stripped and burned.

The Confederates then dispersed.

Worth A Shot.  --Old B-Runner

September 19, 1864-- Part 1: John Yates Beall, CSN, Captures Two Steamers on Lake Erie

SEPTEMBER 19, 1864:  Confederates under Acting Master John Yates Beall captured and burned steamers Philo Parsons and Island Queen on Lake Erie.  Captain Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate secret agent in the Lake Erie region, conceived the plan and received assistance from Jacob Thompson, Southern agent in Canada and the daring Beall.

The plan was for Cole to aid in the capture of the iron side wheeler USS Michigan, which was then guarding the Confederate prisoners (officers) on Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, by befriending her officers and attempting to bribe them.

Beall was to approach on a captured steamer from the mouth of Sandusky Bay and board the Michigan, after which the prisoners would be released  and the whole force would then embark on a guerrilla expedition along the lake.

--Old B-R'er

USS Fulton (1837)-- Part 1: The Second USS Fulton

From Wikipedia.

I have been writing about the first USS Fulton (1815), formerly named Demologos, in my Not So Forgotten: War of 1812 blog, and saw that there was also a USS Fulton that had a role in the Civil War.  I had never heard of it, so thought I'd write about it here.

Evidently, I had written about another USS Fulton, but in regards to a USS Dick Fulton that served on the Mississippi River.  This USS Fulton is an entirely different ship.

The USS Fulton (1837) was a sidewheel steamer that was captured by Confederates in 1861 and destroyed by them  when they evacuated Pensacola, Florida, in 1862.  It was the second ship in the U.S. Navy to bear the name.  Laid down in 1835, launched in 1837, commissioned  13 December 1837, with Captain Matthew C. Perry in command (the brother of Oliver Hazard Perry and the man responsible to opening Japan).

She was often called the USS Fulton II as it was the second ship of that name.

Captured by Confederates  12 January 1861.  Destroyed by them 10 May 1862 on the evacuation of Pensacola.

--Old B-Runner

Capture of the Mail Boat Fawn By Confederates in N.C.

From the Navy and Marine Living History Association  Compendium of U.S. Marine actions  in the Civil War.

"SEPTEMBER 9, 1864:   Marines of the USS Shamrock and USS Chicopee under the command of Lieutenant Commander  Earl English, landed at Elizabeth City, North Carolina to search for those who had attacked the mail boat Fawn and killed seven persons on board.

"Failing to find those involved, they took seven prisoners back to the ships."

This was the ship from which U.S. Congressman George Washington Julian was captured, but quickly released.  I would have thought capturing a Congressman would have been a good bargaining chip in prisoner exchanges.

Oh Well.  --Old B-Runner

Some More on Rep. G.W. Julian

From the HMdb.org site.  This marker is part of the Civil War Trails effort to mark lesser known Civil War sites.  "The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal."

"U.S. Congressman George Washington Julian of Indiana, a Republican member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, took the mail boat Fawn to Roanoke Island to find out whether sutlers there were price-gouging the soldiers to whom they sold goods.

"On February 9, 1864, on the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, Confederates attacked the ship, killed or wounded 7 people, captured 29 passengers, including Julian and burned the Fawn.  Julian was soon released at Elizabeth City and continued to Roanoke Island."

The marker is located at Coinjack, N.C., in Currituck County.

--Old B-Runner

September 13, 1864: Clearing Out Those Pesky Mobile Bay Torpedoes

SEPTEMBER 13TH, 1864:  Rear Admiral Farragut's sailors continued to clear the main ship channel in Mobile Bay of torpedoes such as the one that sank the USS Tecumseh on 5 August.  He reported to Secretary Welles that 22 torpedoes had been raised.

He added:  "This part of the channel is now believed to be clear, for, though beyond doubt many more were originally anchored here, reports says they have sunk over one hundred to the bottom."

Despite the admiral's efforts, Union ships would be destroyed in the vicinity of Mobile Bay by torpedoes for months to come.

Damn the Torpedoes!!  --Old B-Runner

9-11 Disease Deaths Grow

Continued from my Saw the Elephant: Civil War blog.

The average age of 9/11 First Responders is now about 55.  While many people face increased chances of cancer as they age, the rate among First Responders  is up to 30% higher than in the general population.

These numbers show the continued loss:

**  In 2017, 23 current or former members of the N.Y. City Police Department died of 9/11-related diseases.  That's the same number of NYPD members who died on September 11, 2001.

**  The NYFD lost a stunning 343 members on that day.  Since then line-of-duty deaths linked to 9/11 are approaching 180, now well over half of those lost that day

So many have died since the attacks that a new tablet had to be added to the Hall of Heroes at 1 Police Plaza to accommodate  all the names of the fallen.

"Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)?"-- Part 6

This was supposed to have been posted yesterday, but we lost internet access, so it will have to be todaye 18th anniversary of 9-11, or do you say 9/11?

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I'm just a singer of simple songs

I'm not a real political man

I watch CNN

But I'm not sure I can tell you

The difference in Iraq and Iran

But I know Jesus and I talk to God

And I remember this from when I was young

Faith, hope and love are good things He gave us

And the greatest is love.

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Still Hard To Take.

Another Account of Representative Julian's Capture

From Google Books.  "Executing Daniel Bright:  Race, Loyalty, and Guerrilla Violence in Coastal Carolina Community, 1861-1865"  by Barton A. Myers.

Page 128

"Frustration in the Union Army and Navy  reached a peak in early September after Confederate troops from the ram CSS Albemarle, which was a serious threat in the region, burned the mail boat USS Fawn in the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal.

"The Confederates seized twenty-nine prisoners in the raid.    Aboard the ship was U.S. congressman George Washington Julian, the only congressman captured during the war by Confederates.  Julian, however, was quickly released at Elizabeth City by Confederates without explanation.

"Lieutenant Earl English of the U.S, Navy arrived at Elizabeth City to arrest the men responsible, but finding them gone, he took seven local  citizens hostage."

Well, It Would Have Been Confederate sailors or Marines from the CSS Albemarle.  --Old B-Runner

This Date, Capture of U.S. Rep. George Washington Julian-- Part 2

Continuing with what 5fish wrote:

They captured the mail boat Fawn at the Currituck  Bridge  which is in Coinjack.  He then gave a Google Books site to find what was written there, but that spot would not come up for me.

No one knows why the Confederate sailors let Congressman Julian go after learning who he was.

Yea!! My mom's hometown had a Civil War moment!  Yea!!

Yea! Coinjack.

One reader wrote that perhaps the Congressman was released because of bribery or because the sailors did not want to get involved in  in a political mess by capturing a Union politician.

I would want to know why Maffitt sent them on the mission in the first place.  Did he know a Congressman was going to be on the Fawn?

--Old B-Runner

This Date September 8, 1864, A U.S. Congressman Captured By Confederates-- George Washington Julian-- Part 1

Two days ago I posted part of this month's North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial timeline  for 1864 and one of the items was the capture of this man.  I had never heard of him, but a quick look at his story in Wikipedia shows that he was quite a prominent figure in the Civil War.  I'll have to write about him in my Saw the Elephant blog.

However, I also did not know about the capture and have been doing research on it and can't find out much about it.

In Civil War Talk, I found a person had posted a forum entry "Coinjack, NC. had a Civil War Moment, Yea!" by 5fish on Feb. 15, 2010.

He wrote essentially what the timeline had said, which was as follows:

HEY! Hey!  My mom's hometown of Coinjack, NC. had a big moment during the Civil War on September 8, 1864.

September 8 --  The only capture of a United States Congressman  during the Civil War -- at Coinjack in Currituck County.  George Washington Julian was taken prisoner when  Capt. J.N. Maffitt ordered pilot  J.B. Hopkins to take a detail of twenty Confederate sailors yo the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal and capture the mailboat Fawn.  Julian was subsequently released in Elizabeth City.

--Old B-Runner

Blockade Runner Lelia-- Part 2: The Cargo May Be Well Preserved

The Daily Mail article was accompanied by several pictures

**  The first was a multi beam sonar image of the wreck as it is today.

**  A black and white illustration of the time showing the Lelia sinking and Liverpool Lifeboat No. 1.

**  Another picture of the wreck from a different angle.

**  Picture of a paddle wheel on the ship.

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Wreckage still remaining:  one of the paddle wheels,  the engine and boiler rooms,  less well-preserved cargo areas,  and a steam winch.

The deck and all the structures on it hasn't survived and a lot of the hull remains buried in the seabed so there is the potential for a well-preserved cargo of British manufactured munitions and machinery destined for the Confederacy.

--Old B-Runner

Blockade Runner Lelia-- Part 1: Built Specifically to Run the Blockade

From the August 29, 2019, London Daily Mail  "Wreck of the 19th century ship in Liverpool Bay built secretly to help slave -owning Confederate  forces in the US Civil War is granted special protection" by Jack Newman.

I am not sure why the English press made such a big deal about the Confederacy having slaves in their articles about the ship.

**  Was a purposefully-built ship to run the Union blockade.

**  Sank in a ferocious storm on its maiden voyage, January 14, 1865 with loss of 47 on board.  Now at bottom of Liverpool Bay.

**  Another seven lives lost when Liverpool No. 1 Lifeboat  sank while trying to  pick up Lelia survivors.

**  Built at Millers Shipyard in Toxteth, one of a small number of ships built in England in complicity with the Confederacy.  (Again, complicity as if that was a bad thing?)

**  Wreck discovered and identified in the 1990s when a bell marked "Lelia 1864" found.

**  Partially buried remains are 50 feet deep , 10 miles north west of Hilbre Point on the Wirral.

--Old B-Runner

N.C. Civil War Timeline for September 1864-- Part 1: Captures of Two Steamers and a U.S. Congressman

Taken from the North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial site.

SEPTEMBER 4--  Capture of steamer Elsie.  Hit the Elsie label to find out more about this blockade runner.  I have quite a few  entries about it.)

SEPTEMBER  8--  The only capture  of a United States Congressman during the Civil War at Coinjack in Currituck County.

George Washington Julian was taken prisoner when Captain J.N. Maffitt ordered pilot J.B. Hopkins to take a detail of twenty Confederate sailors to the Albemarle and Chesapeake  Canal and capture the small mail boat Fawn.  Julian was subsequently released in Elizabeth City.

SEPTEMBER  10--  Capture of steamer A.D. Vance.

--Old B-Runner

September 3, 1864: 100-Gun Salutes and Thanksgiving for Union Victories

These are taken from the Civil War Naval Chronology.

SEPTEMBER 3RD, 1864:  President Lincoln ordered a 100-gun salute at the Washington Navy Yard  at noon on Monday, the 5th  of September, and upon receipt of the order, at each arsenal and navy yard in the United States "for the recent brilliant achievements of the fleet and land forces of the United States in the harbor of Mobile and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan...."

The President also proclaimed that on the following Sunday, thanksgiving should be given for Rear Admiral Farragut's victory at Mobile and for the capture of Atlanta by General Sherman.

Theses events, said Lincoln, "call for devout acknowledgement to the Supreme Being in whose hands are the destinies of nations."

Good Times For the Union.  Not So Good for the Confederacy.  --Old B-Runner

Sunken Blockade Runner Lelia Gets Protected Status-- Part 3: Building Confederate Ships in Britain

The Confederacy had no navy to defeat the Union blockade.  They looked to Liverpool to build the blockade runners and cruisers they needed.

James Dunwoody Bullock (uncle of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt) a Confederate naval officer, was sent to Liverpool  in June 1861 with orders to  to obtain six  steam vessels suitable for use a commerce  destroyers and to purchase and transport arms.

Liverpool based  merchants and the foreign bankers of the Confederacy,  Fraser, Trenholm and Co., helped provide funds for the construction of the CSS Florida, the first foreign built  commerce raider.  This ship was built by William C. Miller  and Sons of Toxteth, who also built the Lelia.

Bulloch's second contract was with Laird's in Birkenhead who built the CSS Alabama, launched in 1862.

Another Liverpool shipyard, Jones, Quiggin and Co. built many ships for the Confederacy including five blockade runners, the first one being the Banshee, which became the first steel ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. in 1863.

--Old B-Runner

Movements of Blockade Runners December 1864

From the December 25, 1864, New York Times  "From Havana.; Movements of Blockade-Runners."

The steamer Corsica , from Havana via Nassau, arrived here this morning.

A Gen. LEE is reported by the Nassau Guardian to have left Nassau on the 15th inst., in the steamer Darien for Bermuda.

The blockade-runners Old Dominion, Wild Rover,  Little Hattie, Banshee and Agnes E. Fry had arrived from Wilmington; the Syren had arrived from Charleston; the Gen, Marmion and Kenilworth had returned in distress; and the Virginia, Hansa, Ella, Kate Gregg, Charlotte, Will O' the Wisp, Stormy, Petrel, Little Hattie, Syren and Star  had sailed  to run the blockade.

--Old B-Runner

Sunken Blockade Runner Lelia Gets Protected Status-- Part 2

The ship has been granted protection by the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport  on the advice of Historic England.

Recreational divers can still descend to the site, but they are not allowed to remove anything from the wreck.

The partially buried (there is a sonar photo of the remains accompanying the article) about 50 feet deep. 10 miles  north-west of Hibre Point on the Wirral.

Heritage minister Rebecca Pow said protecting  the site "helps us preserve an important story about Britain's role in the American Civil War."

--Old B-Runner

Sunken Blockade Runner Lelia Gets Protective Status-- Part 1

From August 30, 2019, BBC News  "US Civil War  steamship that sank in Liverpool gets protected status."

The steamship Lelia left Liverpool, England, in January 1865 on her maiden voyage bound for Bermuda and a run through the blockade but foundered in the bay in a huge storm.  Forty-seven crew members died, as did seven rescuers.

The ship now is at the bottom of Liverpool Bay and Historic England now says  the wreck is "significant as historical evidence."

It was built at Millers Shipyard in Toxteth, with the intention of running the American blockade into a Confederate port.  "The Lelia is one of a small group of British ships involved in British complicity in running guns and munitions to the confederates," said Duncan Wilson of Historic England.

Though the United Kingdom was officially neutral in the American conflict this ship is evidence that the country was not so neutral.

--Old B-Runner