Ralph Chandler, USN-- Part 3: Civil War and Post-War Service

From 1855 to 1859, he was involved in coast survey and the survey of the Parana River and was serving on the sloop Vandalia when the Civil War began.  He was on her at the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861.  The next year he was assigned to the steam-sloop San Jacinto of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

Chandler was present at the engagement of the Sewell's Point batteries and the capture of Norfolk.  On 25 July 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander and commanded the screw steamer USS Huntsville in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.  Later he was transferred to command the USS Maumee in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and fought at Fort Fisher  and the capture of Wilmington.

For two years after the war, he commanded the steamer USS Don and was on ordnance duty at  the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1868.  The next year he commanded the USS Tallapoosa.  Promoted to captain in  1874 and commodore in 1884 and served as commandant of Brooklyn Navy Yard.

On 6 October 1886, he was commissioned as read admiral and ordered to relieve Rear Admiral John L. Davis (also at Fort Fisher) in command of the Asiatic Squadron.  He died of apoplexy in Hong Kong February 9, 1889, and is buried there.

--Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago, January 20, 1862: The Bormann Fuse

JANUARY 20TH, 1862:  Boarding party from the USS R.R. Cuyler, Lt. F. Winslow, assisted by the USS Huntsville and two cutters from the USS Potomac, captured blockade running schooner J.W. Wilder, grounded about 15 miles east of Mobile.

**  Flag Officer Goldsborough, having arrived at Hatteras Inlet on 13 January, ordered Commander Rowan to be certain that all officers in the squadron had been instructed in the use of the Bormann fuse in the 9-inch shrapnel shells, which were to be used in the attack on Roanoke Island.

Careful planning and training were essential elements of victory at Roanoke Island as elsewhere.

--Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago, September 30, 1861: Capturing Blockade-Runners

SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1861:  The USS Dart, Acting Master Wheeler, captured schooner Zavalla off Vermillion Bay, Louisiana.

**  USS Niagara, Captain John Pope, captured pilot boat Frolic at South West Pass of the Mississippi River.

**  Cecilia, prize and tender to the USS Huntsville, Commander Price, captured blockade running schooner Ranchero west of Vermillion Bay.

--Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago, September 24, 1861: Action Off Louisiana

SEPTEMBER 24TH, 1861:  The USS Dart, Acting Master William M. Wheeler, captured Confederate schooner Cecilia off Louisiana, thereafter fitted out as a Union cruiser by the USS Huntsville, Commander Cicero Price.

Could be an interesting story here.

--Old B-Runner