Some More on the 27th USCT-- Part 5: Joining the Army of the Potomac

A quarter of theofficers had no previous military training.  At least five of the 27th's officers were immigrants.  One each came from Poland, Germany and England.  Two were from Ireland.  Irish-born Lt. Col. John W. Donnellan eventually took over command of the regiment.

In April 1864, the regiment was moved by rail and steamer to Virginia to join Burnside's  IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  Along the way,  men in Pittsburgh threw stones at one of the companies.  But, they were cheered in Baltimore.

On April 25, they marched past  President Lincoln who reviewed them from a balcony at the  Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C..

They were placed in Ferrero's  Fourth Division, an almost all-black unit.  In May they were brigaded in Ferrero's First Brigade under  Joshua Siegfried. On May 4-5 they moved towards the Wilderness where they did not get into the actual fighting but were relegated to guarding supply trains.

--Old Secesh

USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 3: Just the Facts

JUST THE FACTS

NAMESAKE:  Robert J. Walker

United States Senator from Mississippi (1836-1845)

Secretary of the Treasury (1845-1849)

Governor of Kansas Territory (1857)

BUILDER:  Joseph Tomlinson, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

COMPLETED:  1844  (Intended as U.S. Revenue Service cutter, but turned down.)

ACQUIRED:  1848

 IN SERVICE:  1848

FATE: Sunk in collision 21 June 1860

--Old B-Runner

USCSS Robert J. Walker (1844)-- Part 1: Coast Survey Ship

From Wikipedia

John Julius Guthrie also served on this ship before the Civil War according to one source I found.  But, in addition, it was amazing how many naval officers who gained fame during the Civil War also were on this ship.

The USCS  Robert J. Walker was a survey ship that served  in the United States  Coast Survey, a predecessor of  the United States Coast and Geodetic  Survey, from  1848 until its sinking in 1860 after a collision at sea.  Her loss resulted in the loss of twenty men, the greatest loss of life in a single incident to ever befall the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or any of its ancestor agencies.

The Robert J. Walker was a sidewheel steamer built in 1844 by Joseph Tomlinson at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as one of the U.S. government's  first iron-hulled  steamers.  She was among   eight steamers originally intended for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, but the Revenue Service decided that steamers were too expensive to maintain and operate, and she instead entered Coast Survey service in 1848.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Lexington-- Part 1: Timberclad Bought By U.S. Navy

From Wikipedia.

In the last post, I mentioned this ship being one of the two who helped turn Shiloh into a Union victory.

The USS Lexington was a Timberclad ship.  (Instead of iron, they were clad in thick wood.)  It was built as a sidewheel ship in 1861 in Pittsburgh, Pa., and purchased  by the U.S. Navy and converted into a gunboat at Cincinnati under the direction of Commander John Rodgers.

It joined the Western Flotilla at Cairo, Illinois, 12 August 1861.

It was 177 feet long and had a 34-foot beam and was armed with four 8-inch Dahlgren smoothbores and two 32-pdr. guns.

--Old B-Runner

March 27, 1862: The Ellet Rams (The Army Gets Into the Gunboat Ram Business

MARCH 27TH, 1862:  Secretary of War Stanton instructed Engineer Charles Ellet Jr.:  "You will proceed immediately to Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and New Albany and take measures to provide steam rams for defense against ironclad vessels on the Western waters."

The next day he wired Ellet at Pittsburgh:  "General [James K.] Moorhead has gone to Pittsburg to aid you and put you in communication with the committee there.  The rebels have a ram at Memphis.  Lose no time."

Later, Stanton described the Ellet rams to General Halleck:  "They are the most powerful steamboats, with upper cabins removed, and bows filled in with heavy timber.  It is not proposed to wait for putting on iron. This is the mode in which the Merrimack will be met.  Can you not have something of the kind speedily prepared at St. Louis also?"

Army Ships.  --Old B-R'er

The Proper Care of Gunboats and Building New Ones-- Part 2

March 26, 1862:  Union commanders in the west and elsewhere recognized how much the margin of Union superiority and the power to thrust deep into the Confederacy depended upon the gunboats, and care was exercised not to lose the effectiveness of this mobile force.

Meanwhile, greatly concerned about the threats of Confederate naval ironclads, Secretary of War Stanton wired the President of the Board of Trade at Pittsburgh:  "This Department desires the immediate aid all of all of your association in the following particulars:  1st.  That you will appoint three of its active members most familiar with the steamboat and engine building who would act in concert with this Department and under its direction, and from patriotic motives devote some time and attention for thirty days in purchasing and preparing such means of defense on the Western waters against ironclad boats as the engineers of this Department may devise....

"My object is to bring the energetic, patriotic spirit and enlightened, practical judgement of your city to aid the Government in a matter of great moment, where hours must count and dollars not be squandered."

--Old B-Runner

Admiral Lee Looking for More Ships in Western Waters

NOVEMBER 23RD, 1864:  Constantly alert to the need to strengthen his squadron for the difficult work of convoying and patrolling the Western Rivers, Rear Admiral Lee on this date dispatched a group of officers on a confidential mission to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh "and other places if necessary, for the purpose of purchasing ten sound, strong, and swift light draft steamers to be converted into gunboats."

Ten were eventually bought, converted and added to the Mississippi Squadron in early 1865.

--Old B-R'er