CSS Missouri and Other Ships By That Name

From the June 18, 2018, News Tribune  "Perspective:  A history of the Missouri Navy" by Sam Bushman.

This was a list and short summary of all the ships in the U.S. (and Confederate) Navy by the name Missouri.

The first USS Missouri was a paddleboat frigate built in 1841 that soon caught fire and exploded.

The second Missouri was the Confederate CSS Missouri built on the Red River at Shreveport, Louisiana.  It never saw action and surrendered at the end of the war.  It was found to be badly built and was towed to Mound City, Illinois, and scrapped.

It was never officially commissioned into the U.S. Navy, but many historians count her as a Navy ship.

The third ship was the battleship USS Missouri (BB-11) commissioned in 1903

The 4th was the most famous of all, the battleship USS Missouri (BB-13) where Japan surrendered at the end of WW II and now a museum ship in Pearl Harbor.

The 5th is the submarine USS Missouri (SSN-780), a Virginia-class fast attack submarine.

I'll write about these other Missouris in my Cooter's History Thing blog.

--Old B-R'er

155 Years Ago: Recon Missions on the Mississippi and in Virginia

AUGUST 15TH, 1861:  USS Tyler and Conestoga, Lt. S.L. Phelps, scouted the Mississippi for Confederate fortifications and movements as far south as New Madrid, Missouri, while the USS Lexington, Lt. Roger N. Stembel, operating with the Army, made a similar reconnaissance of the river north to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

** USS resolute, Acting Master W. Budd, while on a reconnaissance mission, engaged Confederate troops at Mathias Point, Virginia.

--Old B-Runner

Henry H. Marmaduke, CSN-- Part 2

The name Marmaduke made me think that there was a Confederate general by that name and there was.  And, that general, John Sappington Marmaduke was one of Henry's brothers.  So, he came from quite an important family as far as notables.

I came across mention of John Marmaduke in the book "Crimsom Confederates: Harvard Men Who Fought for the South" by Helen Trimpi.  It said that John Marmaduke entered Yale in 1851, transferred to Harvard in 1852 and then transferred to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1853 and graduated from there in 1857.

Anyway, back to Henry Marmaduke.  Henry entered the U.S. Naval Academy at age 16.  In 1861, he became a midshipman in the Confederate States Navy and initially served at New Orleans.  In 1862, he was assigned to the new Confederate ironclad ram CSS Virginia where he directed a 14-man gun crew during the famous battle with the USS Monitor.  He was seriously wounded in the battle and was recognized by  the Virginia's commander Franklin Buchanan.

He was later assigned to the CSS Shenandoah and was on the CSS Albemarle when it was sunk by William Cushing in 1864.

--Old B-Runner.