Lt. Clarence L. Stanton, CSN: CSS Chickamauga and Wilmington Station

I was looking up information about the Confederacy's CSS New Orleans, a ironclad floating battery in the Mississippi River that both John Julius Guidry and John Julius Guidry served on in 1862.  While doing that, I came across this information  on the CSNavy site.

Of course, when I saw this man had been at the Wilmington Station, that meant Fort Fisher and environs, so my attention and interest was naturally piqued.

LT. CLARENCE L. STANTON

Buried at the huge Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.  This is where Union Generals Joseph Hooker and Godfrey Weitzel are buried.  Weitzel was at The First Battle of Fort Fisher.

Garden Lane,  Section 45, Lot1, Grave 33.

Born 12 June, 1841, Mayesville, Kentucky.  Died  6 January 1917.

Appointed from Kentucky.

 Acting Master:  April 28, 1863

First Lieutenant, Provisional Navy, June 2, 1864, to rank from January 6, 1864.

Served on the CSS Chicora, Charleston, South Carolina, 1863-1864.

CSS Chicamauga, 1864.

Wilmington Station, 1864.

Captured  April 6, 1865, Sailors Creek, Virginia.

Released on Oath, May 15, 1865,  Johnsons Island.

--Old B-Runner

March 10, 1865: "Very Narrow and Torturous With a Strong Current"

One of Lt.Cmdr. Young's gunboats had noted that upriver "the stream is very narrow and torturous, with a strong current.  Finding that I could not make the turns without using hawsers, and then fouling paddle boxes and smokestack in the branches of large trees, I concluded to return.

"The people, black and white, whom I questioned, state that the Chickamauga is sunk across the stream at Indian Wells, with a chain just below.  Her two guns are on a bluff on the western bank of the river."

Operating conditions on these low, shallow rivers, often backed by swamp and forest, had many similarities with those encountered 100 years later in South Vietnam by the U.S. Navy Advisory group.

--Old B-R'er

Feb. 25, 1865: CSS Chickamauga Sunk As An Obstruction in Cape Fear River

FEBRUARY 25TH, 1865:  The CSS Chickamauga was burned and sunk by her own crew in the Cape Fear River just below Indian Wells, North Carolina.  The position selected by the Confederates was above Wilmington on the Northwest Fork of the river leading to Fayetteville.

The scuttling was intended to obstruct the river and prevent the Union from establishing water communication between Wilmington and General Sherman's army operating in the interior of the state.

The effort proved abortive as the current swept the hulk  around parallel to the bank and by 12 March the water link between Wilmington and Fayetteville had been opened.  Every river that could float a ship was an artery of strength from the sea for Sherman in his rapid march north.

--Old B-Runner

January 14, 1865-- Part 2: The CSS Chickamauga and a Two-Pronged Attack

JANUARY 14TH, 1865:  During the day, the CSS Chickamauga fired on recently landed Union troops from her position in the Cape Fear River, but on the 15th the USS Monticello, Lieutenant Commander William B. Cushing, drove the former Confederate raider out of range.

On the evening of the 14th, General Terry visited Porter on his flagship, the USS Malvern, and the two planned the timing of the next day's operations.  The fleet would maintain its bombardment until the moment of attack in mid-afternoon.

Then, half of the 8,000 soldiers would assault the land face at the western end of the fort (by the Cape Fear River) and the 2,000 sailors and Marines from the ships would attack the "northeast bastion" where the fort's land face joined the sea face by the ocean.

The remaining troops would hold the defensive line to the north in case of a possible attack from Bragg in Wilmington.

--Old B-R'er

William Henry Ward Grave

From CS Navy.org. 

His grave is located in Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia, South Carolina.

Sadly, in an unmarked grave  Lot 31,  Square 36.

Service:

CSS Louisiana
Ponchartrain
Richmond
CSS Palmetto State
CSS Tallahassee
CSS Chickamauga

Died 17 April 1920

--Old B-Runner

William Henry Ward, CSN-- Part 3: A Prisoner Three Times

Ward's vessel, the CSS Chickamauga was destroyed after the capture of Fort Fisher as an obstruction in the Cape Fear River.

After that, he returned to the Richmond Station once more and took command of the guns below Drewry's Bluff.

He was captured during the Confederate retreat at the Battle of Saylor's Creek, Virginia, on April 6, 1865 and sent to Johnson's Island, Ohio, and released after taking the Oath of Allegiance.

But. His Service Wasn't Over.  --Old B-Runner

William Henry Ward, CSN-- Part 2 Ironclad and Cruiser Duty

Captured at New Orleans in April 1862 and sent to Fort Warren as a prisoner for the second time in two years.

Exchanged after two months and proceeded to the Richmond Station for service aboard the CSS Richmond.

Applied for more active service and sent to Charleston Station to report for duty on the CSS Palmetto State in 1863.

Returned to the Richmond Station and shortly afterwards was sent to the Wilmington Station.

Next served as executive officer under Lt. John Taylor Wood on the cruiser CSS Tallahassee in 1864.

Subsequently transferred to the command of the cruiser CSS Chickamauga, December 1864.

--Old B-Runner

October 29, 1864: CSS Olustee (Former CSS Tallahassee) Goes on a Commerce Destroying Cruise From Wilmington

OCTOBER 29TH, 1864:  The CSS Olustee, formerly the CSS Tallahassee, Lieutenant William H.Ward, eluded the blockaders off Wilmington, North Carolina.

He returned to Wilmington on November 7 after a brief, but successful cruise, having destroyed the bark Empress Theresa,schooners  A.J. Bird, E.F. Lewis, and Vapor, ship  Arcole and brig T.D. Wagner, during the first three days of November.

The day before the Olustee slipped out of Wilmington, October 28, the CSS Chickamauga, Lt.  John Wilkinson, also eluded blockaders off Wilmington and set out to sea as  a commerce raider

That same day, the USS Calypso and USS Eolus captured British blockade running steamer Lady Sterling at sea off Wilmington with a cargo of cotton and tobacco.

--Old B-Runner

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

Civil War Quiz in Fayetteville Last Month-- Part 3: What Was the Home Port of the Confederate Raider Chickamauga?

Some other questions the contestants had to answer:

Who was the Devil's Errand Boy?

What was the home port of the Confederate commerce raider Chickamauga?

We all now that the firing on Fort Sumter started the war, but what installation did the first shot come from?

What battle featured  an area known as "The Mule Shoe?"

Answers, in order:  Union Gen. Lafayette Baker, Wilmington, N.C., Fort Johnson, Battle of Spottsylvania.

I missed the first question, but knew the next three.

Fifteen contestants started and within the first three rounds, five had been eliminated.

Division winners got a $50 gift card from Barnes & Noble.

--Old B-R'er

J.J. Ingraham CSN-- Part 2: Service Aboard CSS Chickamauga.

From "British Ships in the Confederate Navy" by Joseph McKenna.

Officers on the CSS Chickamauga 26 September-15 December 1864.  This was when Lt. John Wilkinson took the ship on a raid from Wilmington up the U.S. east coast and captured several prizes.

John Wilkinson, lt. commanding
W,G. Dozier, lst lt and Executive Officer
F.M. Roby, lt.
Clarence L. Stanton, lt.
Clarence Cary, passed midshipman
D.M. Lee, passed midshipman
I.M. Barien, passed midshipman
J.J. Ingraham, boatswain

The cruise left Wilmington on October 28, 1864, and returned to Wilmington on Nov. 19, 1864.

--Old B-R'er

J.J. Ingraham, CSN-- Part 1: Boatswain

From Confederate States Navy Arthur Wyllie.

J.J. Ingraham was appointed to the USNA from Virgibia and entered CSS Navy Jan. 16, 1864 as boatswain.  One source has him as boatswain of the CSS Arctic in 1863.  Served on the steam gunboat CSS Raleigh and ironclad sloop CSS North Carolina. and Wilmington Station in 1864 and later

Boatswain  Confederate States Navy on Jan. 16, 1864.

Boatswain Provisional Confederate States Navy June 2, 1864.Assigned to the ironclad CSS Raleigh 1863-1864, the CSS Arctic and the CSS Chickamauga and Wilmington Naval Station in 1864.

I was unable to find any mention of him as being in the U.S. Naval Academy.

--Old B-Runner

Clearing the Cape Fear River to Fayetteville

MARCH 10TH, 1865:  Lt.Cmdr. Young reported to Porter progress in clearing the Cape Fear River for the support of Sherman's army now near Fayetteville.  Only small ships or steam launches could provide upriver service.  "The gate obstructions are all clear, so that three or four vessels can pass abreast.

"The obstructions on the line of the two sunken steamers, where the buoy flags were planted, it will be necessary to take great pains to raise carefully.  We have succeeded in destroying some four torpedoes which were found lodged in the logs of the obstructions."

One of Young's gunboats had noted that upriver "the stream is very narrow and tortuous, with a strong current.  Finding that I could not make the turns without using hawsers, and then fouling paddle boxes and smokestack in the branches of large trees, I concluded to return.

"The people, white and black, whom I questioned, state that the Chickamauga is sunk across the stream at Indian Wells, with a chain just below..  Her two guns are on a bluff on the western bank of the river."

Operating conditions in these shallow rivers, often enveloped in forests and swamps, had many similarities with those encountered in South Vietnam by the U.S. Navy.

--Old B-R'er

The End of the CSS Chickamauga

FEBRUARY 25TH, 1865:  The CSS Chickamauga was burned and sunk by her own crew in the Cape Fear River just below Indian Wells, North Carolina.  The position selected by Confederates was above Wilmington on the Northwest Fork of the river leading to Fayetteville.

The scuttling was intended to obstruct  the river and prevent Union forces from establishing water communications between troops occupying Wilmington and General Sherman's army operating in the interior of the state.

The effort proved abortive as the current swept the hulk around parallel to the bank and by 12 March the water link between Wilmington and Fayetteville had been opened.

Every river which would float a ship was an artery of strength from the sea for Sherman in his rapid march north.

Can't Even Sink a Boat Right.  --Old B-Runner

The Beginning of the End for Fort Fisher-- Part 2: Day 2, Jan. 15, 1865

The monitors had maintained a harassing fire during the night of the 13th-morning of the 14th.  Then, at daylight of the second day of the attack, the fleet's big guns reopened the bombardment in full fury.

General W.H.C. Whiting who had come to "counsel" with Colonel Lamb and share his fate inside the fort, remarked: "It was beyond description, no language can describe that terrific bombardment."

The Confederates were hardly able to bury their dead, much less repair the works, as the fleet poured its shells in, according to one estimate,100 shells a minute.  The defenders suffered some 300 casualties from the naval bombardment and had but one gun on the land face of the fort still serviceable.

During the day, the CSS Chickamauga fired on the recently landed Federal troops from her position in the Cape Fear River, but on the 15th, the USS Monticello, Lt. Cmdr. William B. Cushing, drove the former Confederate raider out of range.(firing over the peninsula).

On the evening of the 14th, General Terry visited Porter on the flagship USS Malvern, and the two planned the timing of the next day's operations.  The fleet would maintain its bombardment until the moment of the attack in mid-afternoon.  Then half of the 8,000 soldiers would assault the land face at the western end (by the Cape Fear River).  At the same time, some 2,000 sailors and Marines would attack the "Northeast Bastion."  The remaining troops would hold the defensive line against a possible attack from Wilmington.

It's About All Over Now.  --Old B-Runner

Not a Blockade-Runner, Per Se: The CSS Chickamauga Returns to Wilmington

NOVEMBER 19TH, 1864:  The CSS Chickamauga, Lt. Wilkinson, ran the blockade into Wilmington under cover of a heavy fog.  He had miscalculated his position the day before and successfully run through the blockade to Masonboro Inlet instead of New Inlet.

Wilkinson dropped down the coast and early in the morning of the 19th anchored under the guns of Fort Fisher to await high tide when the Chickamauga could cross the bar and stand up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington.

As the fog lifted blockaders USS Kansas, Wilderness, Cherokee and Clematis opened on what they thought at first was a grounded blockade runner.  The Chickamauga broke out its Confederate flag and returned the fire, joined by the heavy guns of Fort Fisher.

Fog and the range of the fort's guns thwarted efforts to destroy the cruiser and by mid-morning, the Chickamauga was safely up the river and nearing Wilmington.

Nearly an Oops.  --Old B-R'er

CSS Chickamauga Still At It

NOVEMBER 1ST, 1864:The Chickamauga, now rid of Mrs. Drinkwater,  captured and scuttled the schooners Godspeed, in ballast, and Otter Rock, cargo of potatoes, off the northeast coast of the United States.

NOVEMBER 2ND, 1864:  The CSS Chickamauga captured bark Speedwell off the New Jersey coast and bonded her for $18,000.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Chickamauga Captures Two Union Ships and Has to Deal With Mrs. Drinkwater

OCTOBER 31ST, 1864:  The CSS Chickamauga, Lt. Wilkinson, captured and burned the ship Emma L. Hall, with cargo of molasses and sugar, and the ship Shooting Star, with cargo of coal, off the northeast coast of the United States.  The Chickamauga had slipped through the Union blockade off Wilmington, N.C., on the 28th.

Wilkinson transferred the passengers of the Shooting Star to a passing vessel, Albion Lincoln, which headed directly for New York to spread the word that the Chickamauga was out again.

Wilkinson later wrote of the transfer of prisoners: "In truth, I was relieved from an awkward dilemma by the opportune capture of the Albion Lincoln for there was absolutely no place for a female aboard the Chickamauga.  I do not doubt, however, that the redoubtable Mrs. Drinkwater [wife of Shooting Star's Master] would have accommodated herself to the circumstances by turning me out of my own cabin.

"Heavens! what a tongue she wielded.  The young officers of the Chickamauga relieved each other in boat duty to and fro and she routed every one of them ignominiously."

A Lady You Don't Want to Mess With.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Chickamauga and CSS Olustee Put Out to Sea from Wilmington

I have more to write about concerning Lt. Cushing and his sinking of the CSS Albemarle, but to catch up on other things going on as far as navies were concerned.

OCTOBER 28TH, 1864:  The CSS Chickamauga, Lt. John Wilkinson, CSN, sortied from Wilmington, N.C., eluded blockaders off the bar, and put to sea as a commerce raider

The USS Calypso and Eolus captured the blockade-running British steamer Lady Sterling off Wilmington with cargo of cotton and tobacco.

OCTOBER 29TH, 1864: The CSS Olustee, formerly the CSS Tallahassee, Lt. William H. Ward, eluded blockaders off Wilmington.  Ward returned to Wilmington November 7th after a brief but successful cruise, having destroyed bark Empress Theresa, schooners A.J. Bird, E.F. Lewis and Vapor, ship Arcole and brig T.D. Wagner during the first three days of November.

The War Goes On.  --Old B-Runner

Mallory Defends Use of Tallahassee and Chickamauga As Commerce Raiders at Wilmington

In answer to the objections of Major General Whiting and Governor Vance of North Carolina in September 1864, Secretary Mallory wrote to President Davis defending the use of the CSS Tallahassee and Chickamauga as commerce raiders rather than holding them for the defense of Wilmington:

"Though the Tallahassee captured thirty-one vessels her service is not limited to the value of these ships and cargoes and the number of prisoners; but it must be estimated in connection with other results-- the consequent insecurity of the United States coastwise commerce, the detention and delay of vessels in port, and the augmentation of the rates of marine insurance, by which millions were added to the expenses of commerce and navigation, the compulsory withdrawal of a portion of the blockading force from Wilmington in pursuit of her.

"A cruise by the Chickamauga and Tallahassee against northern coasts and commerce would at once withdraw a fleet of fast steamers from the blockading force of Wilmington in pursuit of them, and this result alone would render such a cruise expedient."

--Old B-Runner