Confederate Ram CSS Webb

From Wikipedia.

Also referred to as the CSS William H. Webb.

A 655-ton sidewheel steamship originally built in New York City in 1856 as he William H. Webb.

At the onset of the Civil War, she was seized by the Confederates and received a privateer's commission in May 1861 but instead was used as a military transport until January 1862.  Then she was converted into a cotton clad ram by the Confederate Army after which she served on the Red and Mississippi rivers.

On February 24, 1863, under the command of Captain Charles Pierce, she participated in the sinking of the Union ironclad USS Indianola.

--Old B-R'er

Charles Rivers Ellet & the Queen of the West-- Part 4: Going After the Indianola

Ellet and his men escaped to the DeSoto and Era No. 5 by floating downriver on cotton bales.  The Confederates took over the Queen of the West and immediately began repairing it.  Four days later, the Queen was underway with a new crew.  

Of interest, this crew was mostly composed of soldiers who learned their nautical ropes on the way down the Red River.

In the meantime, Admiral Porter ordered the ironclad USS Indianola to steam downriver past Vicksburg and aide Ellet.  Two barges of coal were strapped to the ship on the far side from the Confederate batteries.

Once past Vicksburg, the Indianola blocked the mouth of the Red River until she found out that the Confederates intended to attack her.  This began The Great Chase.  The Indianola started heading up the Mississppi River toward Vicksburg with the Queen of the West, ram CSS William H. Webb and two other vessels full of Confederate troops in hot pursuit.  All of the ships were under the command of Joseph Lancaster Brent, Confederate Army.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Set for February 24: Battle of the Ironclads at Hampton Roads

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table will be having its monthly discussion group on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Panera Bread Co. store in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  This month the topic will be "The Battle of the Ironclads at Hampton Roads.

It will be in person and on Zoom if we can get it up.

This battle between the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor changed naval warfare for ever. 

Everyone invited (even non-members).  All you need is an interest in history and especially the Civil War.  And we even stay on topic at times.

Panera Bread is located on US-14 (Northwest Highway) by Main Street.

We meet from 10 am to 11:30.

Come on Down.  --Old B-Runner

USS Passaic-- Part 4: Heavily Fortified Charleston

At this stage of the Civil War, Charleston had become  a comparatively  unimportant  point in the overall strategy of the war.  However, the Federal  government felt  that the reduction of Fort Sumter, where the war started, and the capture of Charleston would be a great moral victory in a struggle that wasn't going so well for the North at this juncture.

Du Pont was ordered to attack the Charleston defenses with a fleet of nine ironclads and five wooden ships.  After the Confederate guns were silenced, an army of 4,000 troops commanded by General Truman Seymour would proceed to attack the city itself.

However, during the two years after the attack on Fort Sumter, the Confederates had turned Charleston into one of the most protected Southern ports.  Forts Moultrie and Sumter had been rebuilt, a strong position named Fort Wagner had been constructed on Morris Island, directly opposite of Sumter.

Battery Bee had been erected on Sullivan's Island and numerous other fortifications had been built along the banks of Charleston's two rivers.

--Old B-Runner

USS Merrimack

Today, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will be hearing a presentation from Dave Noe on the USS Merrimack, the ship that became the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.

Here are some facts about the USS Merrimack:

From Wikipedia.

The USS Merrimack is also sometimes called the USS Merramac and was a steam frigate (powered by a screw propreller).  One of six ordered in 1854.  The others were the  Wabash, Roanoke,  Niagara,  Minnesota and Colorado. (The Minnesota, Colorado and Wabash were at Fort Fisher.)   The Roanoke became an ironclad herself featuring three turrets.  The Niagara spent most of the Civil War in Europe.

The Merrimack was named after a river that starts in New Hampshire and flows to Merrimac, Massachusetts, on the Atlantic Ocean which causes the confusion in spelling.

It was launched by the Boston Navy Yard 15 June 1855. Commander was Captain  Garrett J. Pendergrast.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Monitor the Result of Two Inventors: Theodore Timby and John Ericsson

From the January 30, 2022  Retronewser site "First U.S. ironclad warship, the USS Monitor, launched during the American Civil War 160 years ago #On This Day (Jan 30, 1862)."

The design of the ship was  distinguished by its revolving turret, which was  designed by American inventor Theodore Timby.  It was quickly duplicated and established the monitor class and type of armored warship built by the American Navy over the next several decades.

The remainder of the ship was designed by  Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson, and built in only 101 days beginning in late 1861.  (And a good thing it was built that quickly because as it was, the Monitor arrived just in time to save the Union fleet from the CSS Virginia in March 1862.)

The Monitor presented a new concept in ship design and employed a variety of new inventions and innovations in ship building that caught the attention of the world.

--Old B-Runner

See the Remains of the Monitor-- Part 2: Just the Facts

THE USS MONITOR:  

DESIGNED:  By Theodore  Timby and John Ericcson

BUILT:   Early 1862

FIRST:     The Union's first ironclad warship

The USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship built for the Union Navy.  She fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads.   The CSS Virginia engaged the Monitor after she had already destroyed the sail frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress the day before.  She had also run aground the steam frigate USS Minnesota.

FOUGHT:  The CSS Virginia

CSS VIRGINIA FATE:    Scuttled and blown up by her crew to prevent capture.

USS MONITOR FATE:  Foundered in rough seas.

BATTLE:  Battle of Hampton Roads'

--Old B-Runner

160 Years After Sinking, NOAA Scientists Plan to Survey USS Monitor-- Part 2: Just in the Nick of Time

The USS Monitor was the United States' first ironclad warship.  She made history at the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 before meeting her demise in a winter storm at the end of that year.

The story of the Monitor  can be traced back to 1861, when Virginia seceded from  the United States during the Civil War.  As Union forces retreated from Gosport Navy Yard in Virginia, they burned one of the most powerful wooden warships in the Navy, the USS Merrimack to prevent her falling into Confederate hands.

The Confederates, desperate to build a Navy that could challenge the superiority of they enemy raised the Merrimack and converted her into an ironclad-- the CSS Virginia.

This threat prompted the U.S. to produce the Monitor in less than 100 days.  The ship launched  on January  30, 1862, and less than two months later, the Monitor met the Virginia on March 9, 1862, during the Battle of Hampton Roads.

And it was a good thing the Monitor took so little time to launch because it arrived just in the nick of time to prevent the Virginia from destroying the Union fleet on the second day of battle.  The battle between the two ironclads ended in a draw, neither ship could hurt the other.

--Old B-Runner

Shipwreck of the CSS Louisiana-- Part 1

From Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks.

CSS LOUISIANA

Confederate

Two-paddlewheel ironclad, 1,400 tons.  Length 264 feet, beam 62 feet, 4 engines (from steamer Ingomar).

Complement of 200 to 300 men with two rifled 7-inch guns, three 9-inch guns and four 8-inch shell guns, and seven rifled 32-pounders.

Construction began at New Orleans in mid-October 1861 but was not completed because of lack of raw materials.  Used as a floating battery.

Supposed to have cost about $1 million to build.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Louisiana-- Part 5: The Battle

Because she was the Louisiana was tied to the Mississippi River bank, she couldn't fire  her stern or port guns.  Her exact role in the ensuing firefight between the forts and fleet is not known.  Confederate General Duncan stated that she may have fired as few as twelve shots.

Testimony form the Union side says she exchanged shots with at least one of the attacking ships, the USS Brooklyn (misidentified as the USS Hartford in Confederate reports).  Three shots from the Louisiana went all the way through the Union ship.  The Brooklyn's return broadside bounced harmlessly off the Louisiana's iron sides.

Only three aboard the Louisiana were killed, all in exposed positions, including her commander Charles F McIntosh.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Louisiana-- Part 3: Problems While Under Construction

Construction on the ship was delayed by several things.  First was the lack of materials, particularly iron.  Always scarce in the Confederacy, its procurement was made even more difficult by the blockade and by army demands on the overstrained Confederate railway system.

The blockade also caused problems in transporting the needed white oak from Florida.

Labor troubles led to a strike that lasted for a week.  Even more labor shortages were caused by demands from the local militias which called workers away for drills and even parades.

Competition for skilled workmen with the builders of the CSS Mississippi, an ironclad being built on an adjacent shipyard by  Nelson and Asa Tift, also slowed construction. Finally an agreement was reached whereby the work on the Mississippi would not continue until the Louisiana was completed.

All these things led to the Louisiana  not being ready to be launched until February 6, 1862, nearly four months after the ship's keel was laid.

--Old B-Runner

March 9, 1862: It's the USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia-- Part 2: Neither Ship Survived the Year

Neither ship, however, survived 1862.

The Virginia was destroyed on May 11, 1862,  when her new commander, flag officer Josiah Tattnall, ordered her scuttled  and blown up to prevent her from being captured.

The Monitor remained in Hampton Roads until December 29, 2862, when she began a  journey south to  help with war efforts.  Off the coast of Cape Hatteras, a storm began to rock the ironclad, flooding her engines and causing massive leaks.

The crew signaled for help, but the ship was lost.  When she went down, 16 of her crew of 62 also lost their lives.

In 1974, an expedition confirmed her shipwreck location and she was designated a marine sanctuary on January 30, 1975.

--Old B-Runner

March 9, 1862: It's the USS Monitor vs. the CSS Virginia

We recently had the anniversary of this battle which turned naval architecture in its ear back all thos years ago.

From the March 9, 2022, We Are the Mighty  "Today in military history:   The Battle of the Ironclads."

Formerly known as the United States steam frigate USS Merrimack, the ironclad Virginia was built from the wreck of the U.S. ship.  When the Lincoln government learned what the Confederates were up to, they started their own ironclad building program and the USS Monitor was one of them.

On the day before, March 8, the CSS Virginia had attacked the wooden ships of the Union Navy in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and had an easy go of it, sinking two ships.

The Monitor arrived just in the nick of time during the night of March 8-9 and the next morning they two ships clashed in a battle that changed the world.  Both ships hit each other with shells, but neither could hurt the other one.

In addition to being covered with iron, the Monitor also had the first gun turret where cannons could change direction of fire without turning the ship.  Even today warships have a turret.

The battle changed naval warfare forever.

--Old B-Runner

The CSS Neuse and Me

The CSS Neuse is the only remaining commissioned Confederate ironclad above the water.  It was part of a new Confederate technology to combat the superior manpower and  firepower of the Union Navy.  Learn about the technological advances and warfare in eastern North Carolina at the CSS Neuse Interpretive Center.

The Confederate Navy launched the Neuse in an attempt to gain control of the lower Neuse River and New Bern, North Carolina.  But, ultimately, they had to destroy the ship to prevent it from being captured in the remaining days of the war.

I got to see them recovering the hull of the Neuse from where it was sunk in Kinston, North Carolina, back when I was 12 in 1963.  My grandfather took my brother and me to the site.  I was already a big Civil War buff at the time and this just made me more so.

I visited the hull of the Neuse on several occasions while it was housed under the covered site by the river and also once in its new home in the building which was much-needed as it was breaking apart out in the elements.

Of course, as they were trying to get it off the Neuse River bottom, they had an earthen dam built around it.  All it looked like was a bunch of wood in a hull shape.  It was too bad that the casemate wasn't still there as well.  But, it was a real piece of history to me.

So, the Neuse and I Go Way Back.  --Old B-Runner

The Spanish Ironclad Arapiles-- Part 1: Imagine, the Spanish Ship That Captured New York City

From Wikipedia.

In my last post. I mentioned that at the time of the Virginius Affair in 1873 that the Spanish Navy was actually stronger than the U.S. Navy.   And, that was after all the ships in the Union Navy during the Civil War.  Kind of hard to believe.  This was only eight years after the war ended.

This realization caused the government to start building our Navy up.

What really struck home was that there was a Spanish ironclad frigate in New York Harbor being repaired that the general belief was could have taken any of our naval ships there.

The Spanish  ironclad Arapiles was a wooden-hulled, armored steam frigate bought from England during the 1860s for the Spanish Navy.  Begun as an unarmored steam frigate,  she was converted into an ironclad while under construction.  

Damaged when she ran aground in early 1873,  she was under repair in the United States during the Virginius Affair later that year as tensions arose between the United States and Spain over the incident.

The ship was hulked in 1879 and in such bad condition her reconstruction was cancelled in 1882.  The ship was scrapped a year or two later.

She most closely resembled the USS Ironsides.

--Old B-Runner

Talking About the Union Blockade-- Part 1: Cape Fear Civil War Round Table

From the October 3, 2021, Wilmington (North Carolina) Star-News "Wilmington's Cape Fear Civil War Round Table, discuss the Union blockade: by Cheryl M. Whitaker.

Robert M. Browning, Jr., will be the guest speaker at the Cape Fear Civil War Round Table Thursday, October 14 at the Harbor United  Methodist Church.  His topic will be the Union blockade during the Civil War.

He is the retired historian of the Coast Guard and an acknowledged expert on the blockade.  His topic will be "How Did Naval Power Contribute to the Winning of the War."

Abraham Lincoln  proclaimed a blockade on  the 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline on April 19, 1861, soon after the fall of Fort Sumter.

The role of the U.S. Navy in the war was crucial to Union victory.  When the blockade was declared, there were only three  warships ready for duty to maintain that blockade, but by the end of the war, the Navy had grown in size to671 ships of all sizes and types from the revolutionary new monitor ironclads to small shallow draft wooden gunboats.

--Old B-Runner

Major John Johnson Describes the Charleston Confederate Ironclads

From his book "The Defense of Charleston Harbor."  Pages 33-35

Two ironclad steamers were built in Charleston along the general plan of the the CSS Virginia with slanting casemate sides by the end of 1862.  They were intended for harbor defense.

The first launched was the CSS Palmetto State with iron plating four inches thick.It had an 80-pdr. rifle forward, a 60-pdr rifle aft and one 8-inch shell gun on each broadside.

The next was the Chicora, armed with six guns, two 9-inch  smoothbore and four 60-pdr. rifles.

Both were well built, but their steam power insufficient for the speed required of rams and their engines were constantly needing to be repaired.  Their crews numbered between 120 and 150.

--Old B-Runner

Big Civil War Naval Cannon Destroyed in Michigan-- Part 2: At the First Battle of the Ironclads and Both Battles of Fort Fisher

This cannon was on board the Union steam frigate USS Minnesota and had been used to defend the wooden ship against the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in 1862 and the following day was used at the battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, the world's first battle between ironclads.  This battle spelled the end of wooden sailing navies.

According to a local newspaper, it also fired the last shot at the Virginia prior to the arrival of the USS Monitor.

Later in the war, the USS Minnesota performed blockade duties and was at both battles of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, which up until then and for many years afterwards, was the largest assemblage of warships and largest bombardment ever by the U.S. Navy up to that time.

So, this cannon had some history to it.

--Old B-Runner

CSS/USS Diana-- Part 3: Built in Pennsylvania, Ended Up In Texas

From the 290 Foundation  "CSS Diana"

The Diana was initially built  as a side-wheel steamer at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River in 1858.  Subsequently, along with steamers Bayou City and Neptune No. 2, she was offered for charter or sale at Galveston, Texas, in September 1861 by the Houston Navigation Company.

She remained listed as  a steamer of that company on 19 December 1861 when taking the seized Federal life boat Francis in tow for San Jacinto, Texas.  Under Captain Blakmen, she was tasked to carry the crew of the CSS General Rusk from Houston to Galveston on 20th January 1862.

Both the Diana and Bayou City were eventually fitted out as semi ironclads, increasing their displacements from 239 tons to 245 tons respectively before being used as gunboats by the Texas Marine Department for the defense of Galveston Bay.

One-inch of iron protected the Diana's bow and much of her deck was protected by tightly-packed cotton bales  She was fitted with five Parrott guns, also mounted on the forward deck.

The one picture I saw of the Diana with cannons, showed one aft and one forward.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Sumter vs. U.S. Navy Ironclads in My Saw the Elephant Blog

I have been writing about the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument in Charleston, South Carolina in my Saw the Elephant: Civil war blog.  This monument celebrates the lives of those valiant defenders of Fort Sumter in the epic battles with the Union navy's ironclads during 1863-1864.

This was a fort vs. Navy battle so would nicely tie in with this blog.

Just click on the Saw the Elephant site in the My Blog List to the right of this to get to that information.

--Old B-Runner