Greenville, N.C., in the Civil War-- Part 1: Raided Several Times

From the VisitGreenville site.

During the Civil War, Greenville's location on the Tar River made it a target for both Confederate and Union forces.  It was overrun and raided by Union forces several times and several skirmishes occurred in and around it.

The town was surrounded by earthworks and had several Confederate hospitals run by female citizens.

--Old B-R'er

November 9, 1862: Surrender of Greenville, North Carolina

NOVEMBER 9, 1862--  Greenville, North Carolina surrendered to a joint Army-Navy landing force under Second Assistant Engineer J.L. Lay of the USS Louisiana.

I lived in Greenville for a year and a half.

The USS Louisiana was blown up off Fort Fisher, N.C. in December 1864 in an effort to knock the sand fort down.

I will do some more research on this.

Home of ECU.  --Old B-Pirate

Action in North Carolina November 1862-- Part 2

NOVEMBER 11--  Demonstration on New Bern.

NOVEMBER  17--  Destruction of British schooner J.W. Pindar at Masonboro Inlet.

NOVEMBER 18--  Skirmish at Core Creek.

NOVEMBER 23-25--  Naval expedition on New River to Jacksonville  (Cushing)  This resulted in the capture and destruction of the USS Ellis.

NOVEMBER 29--  Capture of the schooner Levi Rowe.

--Old B-Runner

Action in North Carolina, November 1862-- Part 1:

NOVEMBER 1-12--   Expedition from New Bern (through Washington to Wilmington and toward Tarboro), including skirmishes at Little Creek and Rawls' Mill (destruction of property at Hamilton, slaves freed)  (Naval cooperation)

NOVEMBER 2--  Acrion at Rawles' Mill, Little Creek

NOVEMBER 4--  Capture of British bark Sophia

NOVEMBER 8-9--  Naval expedition to Rose Bay and Greenville.

NOVEMBER 11--  Demonstration on New Bern

--Old B-R'er

Action In North Carolina October 1862

From the North Carolina Civil War 150 site.

OCTOBER--  Confederate salt works at Bogue and Currituck Inlets destroyed.

OCTOBER 11--  Action at the Cape Fear River.  Engagement between battery and Union ships near Fort Caswell.

OCTOBER 21--  Reconnaissance at New Topsail Inlet and destruction of schooner Adelaide.

OCTOBER 22--  Capture of British brig Robert Bruce.

OCTOBER 39-NOVEMBER 9--  Naval expedition to Hamilton.

--Old B-Runner

More Action at Cedar Keys, Florida-- Part 2

The USS Somerset captured the blockade runner Curlew off Atsena Otie Key in June 1862 and in October destroyed salt works on James Island near Depot Key.  Some 2,000 bushels of salt were destroyed along with the salt works.  They also captured many civilian workers, slaves and horses.

In 1868, the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company built a lumber mill on Atsena Otie Key to supply wood for its pencil factory in New Jersey.

--Old B-Runner

Battle of Cedar Key (Florida) -- Part 1: Destruction of Railroad and Harbor

Continued from October 9, 2017.

The Battle of Cedar Key 7 January 1862.

The USS Hatteras landed sailors and Marines and attacked the railhead and Station No. 4.  At first they were repulsed by a company of Florida state cavalry and local civilian workers, but they succeeded in destroying tracks, engines and buildings before returning to their ship.

Then the Hatteras boarded and either sank or burned seven blockade runners in the harbor at Depot Key and landed a small force to burn the harbor facilities.  This was a small, but important event known as the Battle of Cedar Key.

--Old B-R'er

Fort Fisher

Major Charles Patterson Bolles supervised the first construction of fortifications of what eventually became Fort Fisher.  It became a part of the fort and was referred to as Battery Bolles.

The Wilmington area was under command of Confederate Generals Theophilus Holmes (for whom Fort Holmes on Smith island was named) and W.H.C. Whiting.  Whiting was Bolles' brother-in-law.

Fort Fisher was built by Confederate soldiers and slaves, of whom some 500 were from neighboring plantations.

Some Native Americans, mostly Lumbee Indians, were also impressed to build the fort.

--Old B-Runner

Army-Navy Cooperation October 1862-- Part 2: Action in Arkansas and South Carolina

OCTOBER 21--  The USS Louisville escorted the steamer Meteor which embarked Army troops at Bledsoe's Landing and Hamblin's Landing, Arkansas.  Both towns were burned in reprisal for Confederate guerrilla attacks on the mail steamer Gladiator on October 19.

OCTOBER 22--  A Naval battery of three 12-pdr. boat howitzers from the USS Wabash supported Union troops at the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina.

The Wabash's battery took part in many amphibious operations along the South Atlantic coas--Old B-R'er

Army-Navy Cooperation October 1862-- Part 1" Capture of Jacksonville, Florida

Civil War Naval Chronology

This past Saturday, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group met to talk about Army-Navy cooperation in the Civil war.

There was a lot of that as I have seen in my blog entries from those pages.

I went back and took a look at just the ones listed as joint cooperation for October 1862.

OCTOBER 3--  Joint expedition and engaged Confederate battery at St. John's Bluff, Florida, guarding Jacksonville.  This resulted in the capture of that city.

OCTOBER 7--  Sailors and troops in the Army transport Darlington captured the steamer Governor Milton on the St. john's River.

--Old B-Runner

Charles William MacCord-- Part 2: Involved in Construction of the USS Monitor

Stevens Institute of Technology

The library has three linear feet of Mr. MacCord's papers (and in this case including plans to the USS Monitor).

  The documents span 1860 to 1865.

It was the designer, John Ericsson who named his ship the Monitor.

The USS Monitor was laid down by the Continental Ironworks in New York City on October 25, 1861 and launched exactly 100 days later on January 30, 1862.

Charles William MacCord joined the Delamater Ironworks, New York City, and became chief draughtsman for John Ericsson from 1859-1868.  He drew at least 34 of the drawings for the Monitor.

After the war, he was the first chairman of the Mechanical Drawing Department at the Stevens Institute of Technology when it opened in 1871.

After the famous battle with the CSS Virginia, the Navy canceled all plans for construction of wooden warships according to the site, but I'm not sure about this.

--Old B-R'er

Push for Robert Smalls Statue in South Carolina

There is a push in South Carolina to erect a statue to Robert Smalls, the black man who seized the Confederate transport Planter in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, sailed it out and surrendered to the Union Navy blockading the port.  he later commanded the fort.

This was quite a feat of heroism and two state senators, Greg Gregory and Darrell Jackson want it to be erected on the grounds of the state house in Columbia.

I would agree that it is a fitting statue to someone who showed such courage.

However, there are Confederate statues on the grounds and they should be allowed to remain.

--Old B-Runner

November 2, 1862: CSS Alabama Captures a Whaling Ship

NOVEMBER 2ND, 1862: The CSS Alabama, Captain Semmes, captured and burned the whaling ship Levi Starbuck, near Bermuda.

One of Many.  --Old B-Runner

Charles William MacCord-- Part 1: Ericsson's Chief Draftsman

From the Oct. 10, 2010 Dead Confederates blog.  The Monitor's Screw.

Back on October 30, I wrote about this man when I came across his name and what he did in the Stevens Institute student newspaper.

It is surprising, that with over 100 patentable inventions on the USS Monitor that no one in authority bothered to preserve the ship's construction drawings..  The Navy didn't, the Continental Ironworks who built it didn't, nor did the ship's inventor, John Ericsson.

But, these drawings were saved by Charles William MacCord, described as the "cantankerous chief draftsman, of John Ericsson.

MacCord was later on the faculty of the Stevens Institute of Technology when it opened and this is where the drawings are preserved.

Thanks Mr. MacCord

Pirates, Revolution and Ironclads-- Part 2: The CSS Georgia, Water Witch and Rattlesbake

The CSS Georgia ironclad was sunk in 1864 to prevent capture by General Sherman's Union forces.  It was relatively forgotten until the 1960s when Savannah River dredging revealed the remains.  In 2013, a portion was recovered and that continued to 2015.  However, none of the ship is currently on display.

The USS Water Witch was captured by the Confederate Navy and the Rattlesnake, passenger ship turned into a gunboat and then a blockade-runner.  Both were sunk just south of the Savannah River.

The Water Witch was sunk by Confederates to avoid capture.  The Rattlesnake was sunk in a battle with the ironclad Monitor USS Montauk.  This ship served as a temporary prison for six of the Lincoln assassination conspirators.

Artifacts from the Water Witch and a full scale model of it can be seen at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia.

--Old V-Runner