NOVEMBER 15, 1860: Lieutenant Thomas A. Craven, Commanding U.S. Naval Forces at Key West, notified Secretary of Navy Isaac Toucey that due to "the present deplorable condition of affairs in the Southern States" he had moved to prevent the seizure "by any bands of lawless men" of Forts Taylor and Jefferson.
Craven, on the USS Mohawk, defended Fort Jefferson and Lieutenant Fabius Stanly, USS Wyandotte, held Fort Taylor. Fort Jefferson was located a ways from Key West on Fry Tortugas Key. Fort Taylor was in Key West.
The far-sighted action on the part of Craven, who distinguished himself throughout the war, enabled the Union to retain the vital Key West posts, the importance of which, Craven noted "can not be overestimated, commanding as they do the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico."
--Old B-R'er
Friday, January 1, 2016
November 1860: Building Up the Navy
NOVEMBER, 1, 1860: The United States Navy planned to convert seven sailing ships into steam ships of war at a cost of $3,064,000.
War clouds on the horizon.
--Old B-Runner
War clouds on the horizon.
--Old B-Runner
Actually, I've Decided to Go Back and Start at the Beginning of the Civil War Naval Chronology Book
The Civil War Naval Chronology (CWNC) book actually started with a couple items from 1860 and then picked up regularly in 1861. I have decided to go back and start the CWNC from the beginning as we are now in the 155th anniversary of the war.
So, here goes a lot more typing.
--Old B-R'er
So, here goes a lot more typing.
--Old B-R'er
Reached the End of the Civil War Naval Chronology
Yesterdays posts marked the end of the "Civil War Naval Chronology" book that I have been using for the past three years. It ends with December 1865, but I would have liked to have had it continue through the wind-down of the Union Navy at the end of the war. That would be a good subject for a book.
When I broke this blog off from my "Saw the Elephant Civil War" blog I did not use this book at first. But after awhile, I thought it would be interesting to occasionally take a look at what was happening in navy history back 150 years ago because of the sesquicentennial.
At first, it was to just be covering the big things, but as I read it on a daily basis, it became apparent that there were so many overlooked and minor aspects to the Navy's role on both sides during the war, I decided to write about every one of them and to do it in newspaper-style with headlines and occasional comments.
There are a lot of sites where you can get the information, or better yet, buy the book, which I have. It is a very heavy and massive book. This book belongs in any serious Civil War naval library.
--Old B-Runner
When I broke this blog off from my "Saw the Elephant Civil War" blog I did not use this book at first. But after awhile, I thought it would be interesting to occasionally take a look at what was happening in navy history back 150 years ago because of the sesquicentennial.
At first, it was to just be covering the big things, but as I read it on a daily basis, it became apparent that there were so many overlooked and minor aspects to the Navy's role on both sides during the war, I decided to write about every one of them and to do it in newspaper-style with headlines and occasional comments.
There are a lot of sites where you can get the information, or better yet, buy the book, which I have. It is a very heavy and massive book. This book belongs in any serious Civil War naval library.
--Old B-Runner
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Welles' Annual Report for 1865-- Part 5: Cutting Back, But Not Too Much
"In the details of the policy and the measures by which our naval power is now brought down to the dimensions and distributed top the important operations of peace establishment, the country will see with relief and gratitude a large and signal reduction of the national expenditure. I need hardly to say that this great object is kept constantly and carefully in view by this department.
""Such alleviations of the public burdens is the plain dictate of a wise policy. Yet true wisdom directs that this policy of retrenchment in the naval branch of the public service must not be carried too far.
"It is still wise--the wisest--economy to cherish the navy, to husband its resources, to invite new supplies of youthful courage and skill to its service, to be amply supplied with all needful facilities and preparations for efficiency, and thus to hold within prompt and easy reach its vast and salutary power for the national defence and self-vindication."
--Old B-R'er
""Such alleviations of the public burdens is the plain dictate of a wise policy. Yet true wisdom directs that this policy of retrenchment in the naval branch of the public service must not be carried too far.
"It is still wise--the wisest--economy to cherish the navy, to husband its resources, to invite new supplies of youthful courage and skill to its service, to be amply supplied with all needful facilities and preparations for efficiency, and thus to hold within prompt and easy reach its vast and salutary power for the national defence and self-vindication."
--Old B-R'er
Welles' Annual Report for 1865-- Part 4: Protecting American Commerce
Gideon Welles added: "In time of peace our naval force should be actively employed visiting every commercial port where American capital is employed, and there are few available points on the globe which American enterprise has not penetrated and reached. But commerce needs protection, and our squadrons and public vessels in commission must not be inactive.
"One or more of our naval vessels ought annually to display the flag of the Union in every port where our ships may trade. The commerce and navy of a people have a common identity and are inseparable companions.
"Wherever our merchant ships may be employed, there should be within convenient proximity a naval force to protect them and make known our national power."
The Secretary concluded his report: "As peace is being restored among us, the country now puts off the formidable naval armor which it had assumed to vindicate upon a mighty scale that supremacy of the national law which is the very life of our Union."
--Old B-Runner
"One or more of our naval vessels ought annually to display the flag of the Union in every port where our ships may trade. The commerce and navy of a people have a common identity and are inseparable companions.
"Wherever our merchant ships may be employed, there should be within convenient proximity a naval force to protect them and make known our national power."
The Secretary concluded his report: "As peace is being restored among us, the country now puts off the formidable naval armor which it had assumed to vindicate upon a mighty scale that supremacy of the national law which is the very life of our Union."
--Old B-Runner
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Welles' Annual Report for 1865-- Part 3: Re-establishing the Foreign Squadrons
Secretary Welles went on to report the joint operations leading to the evacuation of Mobile and the capitulation of the Confederacy through the Gulf coast. "On the 2nd of June, Galveston was surrendered, and the supremacy of the government was once more established on the entire coast, from Maine to and including Texas.
"With only limited means at the command of the department to begin with," he wrote, "the navy became suddenly an immense power."
During the war, the Navy had increased from 42 active commissioned ships to a fleet of nearly 700. Welles noted that 208 ships had been built or begun during that period, and 418 others, primarily steamers, had been purchased. The number of men in the service grew from 7,600 at the outset of the war to 51,500 at its close.
"An unrelaxing blockade was maintained for four years from the capes of the Chesapeake to the Rio grande, while a flotilla of gunboats, protecting and aiding the army in its movements, penetrated and patrolled our rivers, through an internal navigation almost continental, from the Potomac to the Mississippi.
"After the capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark, in August, 1861, port after port was wrested from the insurgents, until the flag of the Union was again restored in every harbor along our coast, and the rebellion was eventually wholly suppressed."
Welles continued: "As soon as our domestic troubles were overcome, the duty of attending to our interests abroad prompted the re-establishing of the foreign squadrons which had been suspended. The European, Brazil, and the East India squadrons have been organized anew upon as economical a scale as is consistent with their efficiency, the interests of commerce, and a proper regard for our position as a nation.""
--Old B-Runner
"With only limited means at the command of the department to begin with," he wrote, "the navy became suddenly an immense power."
During the war, the Navy had increased from 42 active commissioned ships to a fleet of nearly 700. Welles noted that 208 ships had been built or begun during that period, and 418 others, primarily steamers, had been purchased. The number of men in the service grew from 7,600 at the outset of the war to 51,500 at its close.
"An unrelaxing blockade was maintained for four years from the capes of the Chesapeake to the Rio grande, while a flotilla of gunboats, protecting and aiding the army in its movements, penetrated and patrolled our rivers, through an internal navigation almost continental, from the Potomac to the Mississippi.
"After the capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark, in August, 1861, port after port was wrested from the insurgents, until the flag of the Union was again restored in every harbor along our coast, and the rebellion was eventually wholly suppressed."
Welles continued: "As soon as our domestic troubles were overcome, the duty of attending to our interests abroad prompted the re-establishing of the foreign squadrons which had been suspended. The European, Brazil, and the East India squadrons have been organized anew upon as economical a scale as is consistent with their efficiency, the interests of commerce, and a proper regard for our position as a nation.""
--Old B-Runner
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Welles Annual Report for 1865-- Part 2: Capture of Charleston
Farther down the coast, Welles continued: "...Rear Admiral Dahlgren was engaged with assisting in the transfer of the right wing of the army to Beaufort, S.C., and in the course of General Sherman's march northward that officer and his army were aided by all needful naval operations.
"On the night of the 12th and 13th of February a joint movement was made along the approaches from Bull's Bay to Mount Pleasant, with a view of embarrassing the military commandant at Charleston, blinding him as to the actual military design.... Other less extensive movements than that at Bull's Bay were made about that period.... They were intended simply to attract the attention of the rebels and aiding General Sherman in accomplishing his great purpose of moving toward Richmond....
"The morning of the 18th [of February] revealed the fact that Charleston was evacuated. Thus, without a final struggle, the original seat of the rebellion, the most invulnerable and best protected city on the coast, whose defenses had cost immense treasure and labor, was abandoned, and the emblem of unity and freedom was again reinstated upon the walls of Sumter."
--Old B-Runner
"On the night of the 12th and 13th of February a joint movement was made along the approaches from Bull's Bay to Mount Pleasant, with a view of embarrassing the military commandant at Charleston, blinding him as to the actual military design.... Other less extensive movements than that at Bull's Bay were made about that period.... They were intended simply to attract the attention of the rebels and aiding General Sherman in accomplishing his great purpose of moving toward Richmond....
"The morning of the 18th [of February] revealed the fact that Charleston was evacuated. Thus, without a final struggle, the original seat of the rebellion, the most invulnerable and best protected city on the coast, whose defenses had cost immense treasure and labor, was abandoned, and the emblem of unity and freedom was again reinstated upon the walls of Sumter."
--Old B-Runner
Monday, December 28, 2015
December 27, 1865: Welles Annual Report-- Part 1: Fort Fisher's Fall Key to Confederacy's Collapse
DECEMBER 27, 1865: In his fourth annual report to the President, Secretary Welles summarized naval activity during 1865 and reviewed the contributions of the Navy to the North's war effort. "The demands upon the naval service," he wrote, "which for four years had been exacting, were relaxed upon the fall of Fort fisher.
"That event, and the possession of Cape Fear river, closed all access to Wilmington, the port of rebel supplies, put an end to illicit traffic with the states in insurrection, and extinguished the last remnants of that broken commerce which foreign adventurers had, notwithstanding constant and severe losses persisted in carrying on by breach of blockade."
--Welles noted that the evacuation of Wilmington "was preliminary to the fall of Richmond and the surrender of rebel armies, which were thenceforward deprived of supplies from abroad."
But while general Lee's soldiers were thus cut off from their source of supplies, the Union troops were assured full logistic support and freedom of movement because the North dominated the waterways at General Grant's vital base at City Point.
--Old B-Runner
"That event, and the possession of Cape Fear river, closed all access to Wilmington, the port of rebel supplies, put an end to illicit traffic with the states in insurrection, and extinguished the last remnants of that broken commerce which foreign adventurers had, notwithstanding constant and severe losses persisted in carrying on by breach of blockade."
--Welles noted that the evacuation of Wilmington "was preliminary to the fall of Richmond and the surrender of rebel armies, which were thenceforward deprived of supplies from abroad."
But while general Lee's soldiers were thus cut off from their source of supplies, the Union troops were assured full logistic support and freedom of movement because the North dominated the waterways at General Grant's vital base at City Point.
--Old B-Runner
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Secretary Welles Has It In for Semmes-- Part 2
Raphael Semmes was released from prison in April 1866 without ever having been brought to trial.
The government considered its legal case against him inadequate as Semmes had never been in actual custody of Union forces when the Alabama was sunk off Cherbourg, France, on 19 June 1864. he had been rescued by the English yacht Deerhound.
--Old B-R'er
The government considered its legal case against him inadequate as Semmes had never been in actual custody of Union forces when the Alabama was sunk off Cherbourg, France, on 19 June 1864. he had been rescued by the English yacht Deerhound.
--Old B-R'er
December 27, 1865: Welles Greatly Dislikes Admiral Semmes-- Part 1
From the Civil War Naval Chronology.
Dec. 27, 1865: Secretary Welles observed in his diary that his orders to arrest Raphael Semmes had been carried out and that the ex-Confederate raider captain was being brought to Washington to stand trial for breaking parole.
"He did not belong in the Rebel region, "wrote Welles, "and has not therefore the poor apology of those who shelter themselves under the action of their States; he was educated and supported by that government which he deserted in disregard of his obligations and his oath; he made it his business to rob and destroy ships and property of his unarmed countrymen engaged in peaceful commerce; when he finally fought and was conquered he practiced a fraud, and in violation of his surrender broke faith, and without ever being exchanged fought against the Union at Richmond."
Semmes definitely had something to worry about once in Washington as Welles definitely had it in for him. At the end of the diary entry, Welles was referring to the battle between the USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama which resulted in the latter's being sunk. However, Semmes was not captured at the time and as such had not agreed to a parole.
--Old B-Runner
Dec. 27, 1865: Secretary Welles observed in his diary that his orders to arrest Raphael Semmes had been carried out and that the ex-Confederate raider captain was being brought to Washington to stand trial for breaking parole.
"He did not belong in the Rebel region, "wrote Welles, "and has not therefore the poor apology of those who shelter themselves under the action of their States; he was educated and supported by that government which he deserted in disregard of his obligations and his oath; he made it his business to rob and destroy ships and property of his unarmed countrymen engaged in peaceful commerce; when he finally fought and was conquered he practiced a fraud, and in violation of his surrender broke faith, and without ever being exchanged fought against the Union at Richmond."
Semmes definitely had something to worry about once in Washington as Welles definitely had it in for him. At the end of the diary entry, Welles was referring to the battle between the USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama which resulted in the latter's being sunk. However, Semmes was not captured at the time and as such had not agreed to a parole.
--Old B-Runner
Friday, December 25, 2015
Four Major Military Events That Took Place on Christmas Day: Fort Fisher
From the DoDLive by Katie Lange.
These events took place on Christmas Day:
1775-- Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware River and attack on the British at Trenton. A big victory.
1864-- The First Battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. A Confederate victory, Union loss.
1896-- "Stars and Stripes Forever" written by John Philip Sousa.
1972-- Operation Linebacker II begins against North Vietnam.
--Old B-Runner
These events took place on Christmas Day:
1775-- Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware River and attack on the British at Trenton. A big victory.
1864-- The First Battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. A Confederate victory, Union loss.
1896-- "Stars and Stripes Forever" written by John Philip Sousa.
1972-- Operation Linebacker II begins against North Vietnam.
--Old B-Runner
Thursday, December 24, 2015
CSS Arctic-- Part 3: Did the USS Arctic Become the CSS Arctic?
I ended up doing a whole lot of research on this ship yesterday. It's probable history started becoming apparent.
From the Civil War Talk site.
Another person found two references to Civil War ships named Arctic. One was the CSS Arctic, a floating battery stationed at Wilmington, N.C. It was destroyed in December 1864 or early 1865 depending upon the source.
The other was the USS Arctic, commissioned by the U.S. Navy and having service with the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1859, it was transferred to the Lighthouse Board and saw duty as a lightship for twenty years.
Another person said the CSS Arctic was converted from a lightship and mounted three cannons.
It was possibly raised and put back into service again.
He believes the Confederate and Union Arctics were one and the same ship.
--Old B-Runner
From the Civil War Talk site.
Another person found two references to Civil War ships named Arctic. One was the CSS Arctic, a floating battery stationed at Wilmington, N.C. It was destroyed in December 1864 or early 1865 depending upon the source.
The other was the USS Arctic, commissioned by the U.S. Navy and having service with the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1859, it was transferred to the Lighthouse Board and saw duty as a lightship for twenty years.
Another person said the CSS Arctic was converted from a lightship and mounted three cannons.
It was possibly raised and put back into service again.
He believes the Confederate and Union Arctics were one and the same ship.
--Old B-Runner
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
CSS Arctic-- Part 2: Union Ship/Confederate Ship?
Another person wrote some information that I have seen in several places concerning the CSS Arctic.
Flt. Btry: 3 guns (Floating battery)
Built in Wilmington 1863, as ironclad floating battery and additional duty as a receiving ship for Flag Officer Robert F. Pinckney's Naval Forces Station Cape Fear River from 1862-1864 with Lt. C.B. Poindexter, CSN, in command.
Her machinery removed in the latter part of 1862 for ironclad CSS Richmond then completing in Richmond.
With threat of First Attack on Fort Fisher, it was sunk 24 December 1864 to obstruct the Cape Fear River channel.
Another person commented that the Arctic's engine was removed in 1859 and was providing power to a sawmill when the CSS Richmond was commissioned with engines built by Naval Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia.
--These are some conflicting accounts Indeed. --Old B-Runner
Flt. Btry: 3 guns (Floating battery)
Built in Wilmington 1863, as ironclad floating battery and additional duty as a receiving ship for Flag Officer Robert F. Pinckney's Naval Forces Station Cape Fear River from 1862-1864 with Lt. C.B. Poindexter, CSN, in command.
Her machinery removed in the latter part of 1862 for ironclad CSS Richmond then completing in Richmond.
With threat of First Attack on Fort Fisher, it was sunk 24 December 1864 to obstruct the Cape Fear River channel.
Another person commented that the Arctic's engine was removed in 1859 and was providing power to a sawmill when the CSS Richmond was commissioned with engines built by Naval Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia.
--These are some conflicting accounts Indeed. --Old B-Runner
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
CSS Arctic-- Part 1: Somewhat of a Mystery Ship
I have been writing about J.J. Ingraham who at least at times was stationed as a boatswain on the CSS Arctic. There is not a lot written about the CSS Arctic at the Wilmington (N.C.) Naval Station in the Cape Fear River.
Civil War Talk had a thread running on it at one time "CSS Arctic--what do we know?" Not much.
A person wrote that he knew it was a floating battery with a "nifty" name, but that was about it.
Another commented that it was a receiving ship and at one time 38 Confederate Marines were stationed there after the loss of their ship, the CSS Raleigh.
Wikipedia lists it as an ironclad floating battery, burned in 1865, but had no article on it.
--Old B-R'er
Civil War Talk had a thread running on it at one time "CSS Arctic--what do we know?" Not much.
A person wrote that he knew it was a floating battery with a "nifty" name, but that was about it.
Another commented that it was a receiving ship and at one time 38 Confederate Marines were stationed there after the loss of their ship, the CSS Raleigh.
Wikipedia lists it as an ironclad floating battery, burned in 1865, but had no article on it.
--Old B-R'er
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