From the July 17, 2017, Massachusetts Live "Sword of Robert Gould Shaw, Colonel of first all-black unit in the Civil War, found in home north of Boston."
After being lost for more than 150 years, his sword was given to the Massachusetts Historical Society on Tuesday.
Society President Dennis Fiorri called Shaw's sword "The Holy Grail of Civil War swords. A Confederate soldier stripped the sword from the lifeless Shaw, along with the rest of his belongings following the battle.
--Old B-Runner
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Col. Shaw's Sword Found: Commanded the 54th Massachusetts
From the July 13, 2017, CBS News, Boston "Civil War Col. Robert Gould Shaw's long-lost sword found in attic."
He was commanding officer of the Union's first all-black regiment and his sword is now in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It was given to them by the descendants of Robert Shaw.
There is a statue honoring Col. Shaw outside the Massachusetts State House.
Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts in the famous 1863 attack on Fort Wagner, guarding Charleston, South Carolina. He was killed in the attack along with many of his men. The 54th was made even more famous by the acclaimed film "Glory." His sword was then stolen by a Confederate soldier.
The sword was recently discovered in a Boston North Shore family attic by Mary Minturn Wood and her brother, descendants of Shaw's sister, Susanna.
When they saw the initials "R.G.S.," they knew they had a historical artifact. Instead of offering it at auction, they gifted it to the historical society where it will be on display Tuesday.
More Power to Them for Gifting It. --Old B-Runner
He was commanding officer of the Union's first all-black regiment and his sword is now in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It was given to them by the descendants of Robert Shaw.
There is a statue honoring Col. Shaw outside the Massachusetts State House.
Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts in the famous 1863 attack on Fort Wagner, guarding Charleston, South Carolina. He was killed in the attack along with many of his men. The 54th was made even more famous by the acclaimed film "Glory." His sword was then stolen by a Confederate soldier.
The sword was recently discovered in a Boston North Shore family attic by Mary Minturn Wood and her brother, descendants of Shaw's sister, Susanna.
When they saw the initials "R.G.S.," they knew they had a historical artifact. Instead of offering it at auction, they gifted it to the historical society where it will be on display Tuesday.
More Power to Them for Gifting It. --Old B-Runner
Monday, July 24, 2017
July 24, 1862: The Growing Importance of Vicksburg
JULY 24TH, 1862: Rear Admiral Farragut's fleet departed its station below Vicksburg, as the falling water level of the river and sickness among his ships' crews necessitated withdrawal to Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Farragut's return to the lower Mississippi made abundantly clear the strategic importance of Vicksburg for, although the Navy held the vast majority of the river, Confederate control of Vicksburg enabled the South to continue to get supplies for her armies in the East from Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
To prevent as much of this as possible, Rear Admiral Davis and Major General Samuel R. Curtis provided for combined Army-Navy expeditions along the banks of the Mississippi River from Helena, Arkansas, to Vicksburg.
Though supplies continued to move across the river, this action prevented the Confederates from maintaining and reinforcing batteries at strategic points, an important factor in the following year's operations.
--Old B-Runner
Farragut's return to the lower Mississippi made abundantly clear the strategic importance of Vicksburg for, although the Navy held the vast majority of the river, Confederate control of Vicksburg enabled the South to continue to get supplies for her armies in the East from Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
To prevent as much of this as possible, Rear Admiral Davis and Major General Samuel R. Curtis provided for combined Army-Navy expeditions along the banks of the Mississippi River from Helena, Arkansas, to Vicksburg.
Though supplies continued to move across the river, this action prevented the Confederates from maintaining and reinforcing batteries at strategic points, an important factor in the following year's operations.
--Old B-Runner
Friday, July 21, 2017
Diving On the Condor- Part 2: Easy Self-Guided Tour... Underwater, Though.
In between the hull and stern there is outer hull plating, intact I-beam frames, the water tank, "beehive" boilers, both engines, paddle wheel shafts, paddle wheel hubs, the keelson and too many other pieces to be listed here.
The engine room is clearly defined by the bottom of the bulkheads while having enough room to swim between the engines in full dive gear.
There is a diving travel line running down her middle and buoys on the surface locating the ends of the ship. Dive slates have been made for the site, which will provide the diver the ability to take a self-guided tour around the complete wreck.
Of course, the diving saying "Take only pictures and leave only bubbles" applies here.
Hopefully, the blockade-runner Beauregard (General Beauregard/Havelock) will be the next one the become a state dive site. This ship is located right in front of where my grandparents' beach cottage was on Carolina Beach before Hurricane Haze hit in 1954.
--Old B-Runner
The engine room is clearly defined by the bottom of the bulkheads while having enough room to swim between the engines in full dive gear.
There is a diving travel line running down her middle and buoys on the surface locating the ends of the ship. Dive slates have been made for the site, which will provide the diver the ability to take a self-guided tour around the complete wreck.
Of course, the diving saying "Take only pictures and leave only bubbles" applies here.
Hopefully, the blockade-runner Beauregard (General Beauregard/Havelock) will be the next one the become a state dive site. This ship is located right in front of where my grandparents' beach cottage was on Carolina Beach before Hurricane Haze hit in 1954.
--Old B-Runner
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Diving On the Condor-- Part 1: More Than a Beginner's Rating
From the North Carolina State Archives.
A real nice sit with a map and cutaway views of the Condor's wreck.
The Condor is in relatively shallow, 24 foot of water on a rocky bed. Parts of its machinery are only 13 feet below the waterline. This would normally mark the site of a beginner's rating in diving. However, the sometimes less-than-clear water and 150-year-old iron makes it higher rating than beginner.
The 218.6 foot iron hulled steamship is relatively intact. The ship's bow is still attached along with the stern post and rudder.
--Old B-Runner
A real nice sit with a map and cutaway views of the Condor's wreck.
The Condor is in relatively shallow, 24 foot of water on a rocky bed. Parts of its machinery are only 13 feet below the waterline. This would normally mark the site of a beginner's rating in diving. However, the sometimes less-than-clear water and 150-year-old iron makes it higher rating than beginner.
The 218.6 foot iron hulled steamship is relatively intact. The ship's bow is still attached along with the stern post and rudder.
--Old B-Runner
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Fort Fisher's Beat the Heat Summer Lectures Continue
The lectures take place at the Fort Fisher Museum's E. Gehrig Spencer Theater at 2 p.m. and are put on by the Fort Fisher State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Fisher.
JULY 22
TOPIC: Burrington, Dobbs and Tryon: The Cape Fear's Royal Governors. These men ruled North Carolina before the American Revolution.
Speaker will be Jack Fryer, historian, author and educator.
JULY 29
TOPIC: "The Twisted History of North Carolina and the Civil War."
Speaker will be Michael Hardy, Civil War historian and author.
Again, Sure Wish I Could Be There. Just Watch the Traffic on Saturdays During the Summer. --Old B-Runner
JULY 22
TOPIC: Burrington, Dobbs and Tryon: The Cape Fear's Royal Governors. These men ruled North Carolina before the American Revolution.
Speaker will be Jack Fryer, historian, author and educator.
JULY 29
TOPIC: "The Twisted History of North Carolina and the Civil War."
Speaker will be Michael Hardy, Civil War historian and author.
Again, Sure Wish I Could Be There. Just Watch the Traffic on Saturdays During the Summer. --Old B-Runner
The Blockade-Runner Condor-- Part 2: Rose O'Neal Greenhow Drowned
More famous than the ship herself was one of her passengers,famous Confederate spy and supporter Rose O'Neal Greenhow, who died in the surf when her small boat overturned while making her escape from the vessel.
Tradition maintains that she was weighed down with vital dispatches to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and $2,000 in gold.
There is a diorama of her death from the old Blockade Runner Museum at the Carolina Beach Town Hall on US-421. She was buried in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery.
--Old B-R'er
Tradition maintains that she was weighed down with vital dispatches to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and $2,000 in gold.
There is a diorama of her death from the old Blockade Runner Museum at the Carolina Beach Town Hall on US-421. She was buried in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery.
--Old B-R'er
The Blockade-Runner Condor-- Part 1: Made It Through Blockade, But Ran Aground
From Wide Open Space-- Famous Blockade Runners.
Earlier this summer, the state of North Carolina opened the Condor Dive Site.
The blockade-runner Condor was 270 feet long, with a 24-foot beam and crew of fifty.
It was chased on its maiden voyage by blockaders but arrived under the guns of Fort Fisher safely on 1 October 1864 at Swash Channel Bar at the New Inlet entrance to the Cape Fear River and Wilmington, its destination.
However, it ran aground, possibly while avoiding the wreck of the blockade-runner Night Hawk.
--Old B-Runner
Earlier this summer, the state of North Carolina opened the Condor Dive Site.
The blockade-runner Condor was 270 feet long, with a 24-foot beam and crew of fifty.
It was chased on its maiden voyage by blockaders but arrived under the guns of Fort Fisher safely on 1 October 1864 at Swash Channel Bar at the New Inlet entrance to the Cape Fear River and Wilmington, its destination.
However, it ran aground, possibly while avoiding the wreck of the blockade-runner Night Hawk.
--Old B-Runner
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
July 18, 1862: USNA Open for Navy "Boys"
JULY 18TH, 1862: Secretary of Navy Welles notified Flag Officers commanding squadrons of a bill authorizing the President to appoint annually three midshipmen to the Naval Academy from the enlisted boys of the Navy.
"They must be of good moral character, able to read and write well, writing from dictation and spelling with correctness, and to perform with accuracy the various operations of the primary rules of arithmetic, viz, numeration, and the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers."
Each Flag Officers was requested to nominate one candidate from his command "not over 18 years of age."
We Need More Officers. --Old B-Runner
"They must be of good moral character, able to read and write well, writing from dictation and spelling with correctness, and to perform with accuracy the various operations of the primary rules of arithmetic, viz, numeration, and the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers."
Each Flag Officers was requested to nominate one candidate from his command "not over 18 years of age."
We Need More Officers. --Old B-Runner
Monday, July 17, 2017
PCU Minnesota Unveils New Logo and a Werden Connection
From the December 16, 2011, American Navy "PCU Minnesota Officially Unveils New Logo" by Lt.Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg.
To start with, PCU Minnesota is the Pre-Commission Unit and the Minnesota in question is the new nuclear submarine (SSN-783).
This was quite an interesting article to come across in light of what I have been writing about.
More than 100 high school and college students submitted logos to the Pre-Commissioning Unit Minnesota (SSN-783).
Jakob Bartels' design won and received a $1,500 college scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to the submarine's commissioning in Norfolk in late 2013.
His family members have served in the U.S. military. Including the great uncle of his great grandmother, Mary Werden Whiteside. Her middle name, Werden, looks very familiar in the last several posts. We are talking about U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Reed Werden, who, in another coincidence, once served on the steam frigate USS Minnesota and was at the first battle between ironclads, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.
I am not sure he was on the Minnesota at the Battle of Hampton Roads, however.
Very Interesting, Though. --Old B-Runner
To start with, PCU Minnesota is the Pre-Commission Unit and the Minnesota in question is the new nuclear submarine (SSN-783).
This was quite an interesting article to come across in light of what I have been writing about.
More than 100 high school and college students submitted logos to the Pre-Commissioning Unit Minnesota (SSN-783).
Jakob Bartels' design won and received a $1,500 college scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to the submarine's commissioning in Norfolk in late 2013.
His family members have served in the U.S. military. Including the great uncle of his great grandmother, Mary Werden Whiteside. Her middle name, Werden, looks very familiar in the last several posts. We are talking about U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Reed Werden, who, in another coincidence, once served on the steam frigate USS Minnesota and was at the first battle between ironclads, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.
I am not sure he was on the Minnesota at the Battle of Hampton Roads, however.
Very Interesting, Though. --Old B-Runner
Friday, July 14, 2017
Reed Werden, USN-- Part 3: Blockaded the CSS Stonewall in Havana Harbor
He was Fleet Captain in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron from 1864-1865 and commanded the steamer USS Powhatan. He blockaded the Confederate ram CSS Stonewall in the port of Havana until she was surrendered by Spanish authorities.
Commissioned captain 25 July 1866 and commodore 27 April 1871. Promotion to rear admiral came 4 February 1875 and later became commander-in-chief of the South Pacific Station 1875-1876.
He was placed on the retired list at his own request.
--Old B-R'er
Commissioned captain 25 July 1866 and commodore 27 April 1871. Promotion to rear admiral came 4 February 1875 and later became commander-in-chief of the South Pacific Station 1875-1876.
He was placed on the retired list at his own request.
--Old B-R'er
Reed Werden, USN-- Part 2: Served in NABS and SABS
Reed Werden was on the steam frigate USS Minnesota when the Civil War began and participated in the attacks of the forts at Hatteras Inlet and operations in the North Carolina Sounds in Stringham's fleet. The USS Stars and Stripes, his former ship, was also there.
He commanded the steamers USS Yankee and USS Stars and Stripes in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 1861-1862. While in command of the Stars and Stripes, he led the First Division in the capture of Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
He was commissioned to the rank of commander 16 July 1862, and commanded the USS Conemaugh in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron 1862-1863.
--Old B-Runner
He commanded the steamers USS Yankee and USS Stars and Stripes in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 1861-1862. While in command of the Stars and Stripes, he led the First Division in the capture of Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
He was commissioned to the rank of commander 16 July 1862, and commanded the USS Conemaugh in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron 1862-1863.
--Old B-Runner
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Reed Werden, USN-- Part 1 Commanded the USS Stars and Stripes
From the Hall of North and South Americans.
He was the first commander of the USS Stars and Stripes which I have been writing about.Reed Werden was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania 28 February 1818 and died at Newport, Rhode Island 13 July 1886. He was appointed midshipman from Ohio 9 January 1834 and became passed midshipman 16 July 1840. Commissioned lieutenant 27 February 1847.
Served on the sloop USS Germantown during the Mexican War 1847-1848 where he commanded a detachment from that ship during action againstTuspan and Tampico.
--Old B-Runner
He was the first commander of the USS Stars and Stripes which I have been writing about.Reed Werden was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania 28 February 1818 and died at Newport, Rhode Island 13 July 1886. He was appointed midshipman from Ohio 9 January 1834 and became passed midshipman 16 July 1840. Commissioned lieutenant 27 February 1847.
Served on the sloop USS Germantown during the Mexican War 1847-1848 where he commanded a detachment from that ship during action againstTuspan and Tampico.
--Old B-Runner
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
McHenry County Civil War Round Table Meeting Tonight: Topic Is Show and Tell
It has been a busy three days for me as far as Civil War events are concerned. And, that is considering that I am all the way up here in Illinois, by the Wisconsin line and about 30 miles west of Lake Michigan.
Sunday, I attended the Civil War Days re-enactment in Wauconda, Illinois, and saw some interesting presentations by people playing the roles of Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth. And then I saw the second day of the Battle of Shiloh (which didn't go so well for our boys in gray, you know).
I sat at the Camp Douglas Sons of Confederate Veterans tent and had conversation with members of the 154th Tennessee Re-enactors.
Today I am going to Woodstock, Illinois, for the monthly meeting of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table at the Woodstock Library. Tonight's topic will be Show and Tell. Members will bring items and talk about them, but we have been seriously fore-warned not to bring any weapons.
The meeting starts at 7 in the downstairs meeting room.
Before the meeting, a bunch of us will get together for dinner at Three Brothers Restuarant on Illinois Highway 47.
Getting Me Civil War On. --Old B-R'er
Sunday, I attended the Civil War Days re-enactment in Wauconda, Illinois, and saw some interesting presentations by people playing the roles of Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth. And then I saw the second day of the Battle of Shiloh (which didn't go so well for our boys in gray, you know).
I sat at the Camp Douglas Sons of Confederate Veterans tent and had conversation with members of the 154th Tennessee Re-enactors.
Today I am going to Woodstock, Illinois, for the monthly meeting of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table at the Woodstock Library. Tonight's topic will be Show and Tell. Members will bring items and talk about them, but we have been seriously fore-warned not to bring any weapons.
The meeting starts at 7 in the downstairs meeting room.
Before the meeting, a bunch of us will get together for dinner at Three Brothers Restuarant on Illinois Highway 47.
Getting Me Civil War On. --Old B-R'er
July 11, 1862: A Congressional Act of Relief for the Cumberland and Congress Dead's Families
JULY 11TH, 1862: Congress passed an act for the relief of relatives of officers and enlisted men who died on board the USS Congress and Cumberland when the CSS Virginia destroyed those vessels and threatened to break the blockade of Norfolk four months earlier.
--Old B-Runner
--Old B-Runner
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)