The Second Battle of Fort Sumter, Union Attack September 7, 1863-- Part 1

From "The Longest Night:  A Military History of the Civil War" by David J. Eicher.

The USS Nantucket was involved in this battle.

On September 8, 1863, a squadron of nine Union ships including the monitors Catskill, Nahant, Montauk, Nantucket, Passaic, Patapsco and Weehawken, as well as the  ironclad gunboats USS New Ironsides and USS Keokuk.

It was iron against masonry.

By noon, Admiral Du Pont signaled to attack, but it wasn't until 3 p.m. that the ships opened on Fort Sumter.  The Weehawken took the lead, followed by the other monitors and became heavily engaged when a torpedo explodes under her and lifted her momentarily.

Artillery fire from Forts Sumter and Moultrie splashed about the ships and struck them, doing considerable damage throughout the afternoon.

--Old B-Runner

USS Nantucket Statistics-- Part 2: A 15-inch and an 11-inch Smoothbores in Turret

DRAFT:  10 feet 6 inches

PROPULSION:  2 Martin boilers, 1-shaft Ericsson vibrating  lever engine, 320 ihp.

SPEED:  7 knots

COMPLEMENT:  75 officers and enlisted

ARMAMENT:  one 15-inch smoothbore, one 11-ince Dahlgren smoothbore

ARMOR:  Iron

Side:  5-3 inch

Turret;  11 inches

Deck:  1-inch

It is too bad that one of the Civil War monitors was not kept to be used as a museum shop for future generations.

--Old B-Runner

USS Nantucket Statistics-- Part 1

HISTORY

BUILDER:  Atlantic Iron Works,  Boston, Massachusetts

LAUNCHED:  6 December 1862

COMMISSIONED:  26 February 1863

 RENAMED:  USS Medusa  15 June 1869 //  Renamed USS Nantucket 10 August 1869

FATE:   Sold, 14 November 1900

*****************************************

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

CLASS AND TYPE:   Passaic-class Monitor

DISPLACEMENT:  1.875 tons

LENGTH:    200 feet overall

BEAM:  46 feet

Old B-Runner

USS Nantucket, Monitor-- Part 2: A Long Career After the War

On September  15, 1863, the Nantucket captured the  British steamer Jupiter at sea.  (Monitors were fairly slow.  I'd sure like to know how that happened.)

The Nantucket again fought the Charleston forts on May  14, 1864 and remained on blockade duty until the end of the war.

Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on June 24, 1865, she remained in ordinary for a decade.  Renamed the Medusa  15 June 1869, she took back the name Nantucket 10 August 1869.  (A lot of U.S. ships changed their names during that period.  Again, I wonder why?)

Transferred to the Portsmouth Navy Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, in 1875, the Nantucket was twice briefly recommissioned 29 July to 12 December 1882 and 16 June to 6 October 1884, and operated along the northern east coast of the U.S..

Sher again lay in ordinary in New York until turned over to the North Carolina Naval Militia in 1895.  During the Spanish-American War the ship was stationed at Port Royal, South Carolina.

After being condemned as no longer fit for service, the Nantucket was sold at auction in Washington, D.C., on 14 November 1900.  A total of five bids were received for the vessel, with the winning bid of $13,111 made by Thomas Butler & Co. of Boston.  

The auction was said to have drawn a lot of interest because of the historic nature of the vessel.

--Old B-Runner

USS Nantucket (1862) Ironclad Monitor-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

The first ship to bear the name Nantucket in the U.S. Navy was a Passaic-class coastal monitor launched 6 December 1862 by Atlantic Iron Works, Boston, Massachusetts.  It was commissioned  26 February 1863, Commander Donald McNeil Fairfax in command.

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron,  the Nantucket participated  in the attack on the Confederate forts in Charleston Harbor 7 April 1863.  Struck 51 times during the valiant but unsuccessful assault, the ship was repaired at Port Royal and returned to  Charleston to support the Union Army on Morris Island.

She engaged Fort Wagner on 16, 17, 18 and 24 July.  The famed attack of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment took place on July 18.  That would be the black regiment made famous in the movie "Glory."

--Old B-Runner

The U.S. Navy's Newest Ship, the USS Nantucket (LCS-27) Christened Saturday. The First USS Nantucket Was a Monitor.

From the August 11, 2021, Boston Globe "USS Nantucket ready for action, carrying out naval legacy which began in Civil War" by Travis Anderson.

It was formally christened  Saturday at a ceremony  on the Menominee River  in Marinette, Wisconsin.  It is a Freedom class Littoral Combat  Ship (LCS).  The new ship is very fast, automated and lethal, equipped with rolling airframe missiles and a Mark 110 gun, capable of firing 220 rounds per minute.

It is the third U.S. Navy ship named Nantucket.

The first one was a Passaic-class coastal monitor commissioned on February 26, 1863.  It was assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the attacks on the Confederate forts, including Fort Sumter, defending Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

During that mission, the Nantucket was struck 51 times.  Battered, but no irreparably damaged, the ship was repaired and returned to duty.  It returned to Charleston and took part in operations against Norris Island.

The second USS Nantucket was a wooden lightship built in 1907 for the Lighthouse Service and transferred to the Navy in 1917.  During World War I, it continued its duty warning ships of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals and aided in guarding the nearby waters against U-boat attacks.

I Have to Admit to Have Never Heard of This Monitor Before.  --Old B-R'er

J.R.M. Mullany at Battle of Mobile Bay-- Part 4: The End of the Battle

The fight for Mobile Bay was soon over at this point.  With the USS Oneida and USS Galena out of action,  the rest of Farragut's fleet took the CSS Gaines and CSS Salma out of action and then concentrated on the Confederate ironclad CSS Tennessee.  

Ramming the ship failed to stop it, but the concentrated fore of the heavy guns of the three remaining monitors eventually put  the Tennessee out of action and a gravely wounded Buchanan was forced to surrender.

The USS Galena finished out her days quietly.  After three months of duty with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and four months of repairs,  it returned to  river duty in the Eastern Theater, where its career had begun as an ironclad.

In 1872, a decade after her launch in Mystic, Connecticut, the ironclad-turned-gunboat  was broken up at Norfolk Navy Yard.

--Old B-Runner

J.R.M. Mullany at Battle of Mobile Bay-- Part 3: A Regular Pounding

Weighing the risk of remaining where they were under fire of Fort Morgan or proceeding and taking chances with the Confederate torpedoes (Mines), Farragut too the lead, supposedly uttered his famous quote, "Damn the torpedoes!  Full speed ahead.'  The USS Hartford surged ahead and the other ships in his line followed.

At the rear of the column, Commander J.R.M. Mullany's USS Oneida was the ship on the Fort Morgan side of the USS Galena.  As it was now the closest ship, the fort turned its fire on it.  It suffered severe damage to its steering gear and several fires broke out below decks.

The two ships were almost out of range of the fort, when a 7-inch rifle shell passed through the  chain armor on the ship's side and exploded in the starboard boiler at the water line.  Nearly all of the  below decks were scalded to death by escaping steam.

Within an hour the Oneida had lost  the use of at least two of its guns and a shot from the CSS Tennessee knocked out a third and severely wounded  Mullany.

Fortunately at this stage of the battle, Farragut's ironclads had driven the Tennessee back and saved both the Oneida and Galena from further mauling.

Commander Clark Wells of the Galena used his powerful  800-hp engine to move the much heavier Oneida to deeper and safer waters.

--Old B-Runner

August 8, 2000: Wreckage of Hunley Recovered

From the August 8, 2021, Chicago Tribune.

AUGUST 8, 2020

The wreckage of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank in 1864 after attacking and sinking the Union ship USS Housatonic, was recovered of the South Carolina coast and returned to port.

--Old B-R'er

J.R.M. Mullany at Battle of Mobile Bay-- Part 2: The Tecumseh Hits a Mine and Sinks

Almost immediately, Farragut's ships ran into trouble passing Fort Morgan and as the Confederate ironclad CSS Tennessee came into view.

Led by the USS Brooklyn, his leading wooden vessel, and closely followed by the flagship, USS Hartford, began slipping beyond the screen of U.S. monitors.  Fearful that the wooden ships would be easy prey for the approaching CSS Tennessee,   Commander Tunis A. Craven, ordered his monitor, USS Tecumseh, to cut through the minefield and intercept the Rebel ship.

This gamble failed for at 7:30 am, the Tecumseh struck a Confederate mine and sank with Craven and 92 others within a matter of minutes.

The USS Brooklyn's captain then became hesitant to proceed after what happened to the Tecumseh, brought his ship to a stop, which also brought the entire wooden to stop while under heavy fire from Fort Morgan's 45 guns.

The Battle of Mobile Bay was up for grabs at this point.  The Union ship's couldn't remain where they were and there was big fear of proceeding because of what had happened to the Tecumseh.

--Old B-Runner

J.R.M. Mullany at the Battle of Mobile Bay-- Part 1: USS Oneida Lashed to Former Ironclad USS Galena

From 290 Foundation  USS Galena.

The USS Oneida was lashed to the USS Galena when Farragut's fleet passed by Fort Morgan, guarding Mobile Bay.

In May 1864, the Galen joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and joined Admiral Farragut's long-delayed attempt to capture Mobile, Alabama.  Farragut gathered a fleet of eighteen ships, including four of the  latest ironclads to run the gauntlet of defending fire.

Among the Monitors were  the Tecumseh and Manhattan with their massive  15-inch Dahlgren cannons and the USS Winnebago and Chickasaw, each carrying four 11-inch Dahlgrens.

The USS Galena was now captained by  Lt. Cmdr.  Clark H. Wells.  The Galena had been one of the Union Navy's three original ironclads, but had not  worked out and had had its iron removed, so now was a wooden ship.

On August 5, 1864,   Farragut's ironclads led the advance toward Fort Morgan.  Beyond the fort,  Confederate Admiral  Franklin Buchanan's small defending fleet, including the ironclad CSS Tennessee and gunboats Gaines, Morgan and Selma.

Trailing closely behind the monitors, just to port, were Farragut's seven largest wooden warships, each with a smaller gunboat lashed to its port side.  The Galena was lashed to the port side of the USS Oneida, away from Fort Morgan.

--Old B-Runner

August 5, This Date in Civil War Naval History: Farragut and the USS Monitor

From the August 5, 2021, Chicago Tribune.

These two things were of significant importance to the Civil War Navis.

**  1864:  

Admiral David Farragut is said to have given his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes!  Full speed ahead!" as he led the Union fleet against Confederate forces in Alabama's Mobile Bay.

Of course, I have been writing about two other naval officers who were at this battle:  Charles V. Gridley and J.R.M. Mullany, although neither would have heard the admiral's utterance as they were at the end of the line on the USS Oneida.

**  2002:  

The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised form the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

--Old B-Runner

J.R. Madison Mullany's Navy Career

From Naval History and heritage Command Navy Officers:  1798-1900

MIDSHIPMAN:  7 January 1832

PASSED MIDSHIPMAN:  23 June 1838

LIEUTENANT:  28 February 1844

COMMANDER:  18 October 1861

CAPTAIN:  25 July 1866

COMMODORE:  15 August 1870

REAR ADMIRAL:  5 June 1874

RETIRED LIST:  26 October 1879

DIED:  17  September 1887

--Old B-Runner

Mrs. Mullany Applies for Pension Increase-- Part 2: Those Horrible Wounds at the Battle of Mobile Bay

Of those forty-seven years of active service, over twenty-three years were spent on sea duty, and during twenty  years more, he was detailed on other important service.

At the Battle of Mobile, August 5, 1864,  he was placed in command of the Oneida by Admiral Farragut, and during the encounter his vessel, being in the rear of the line, was exposed to an exceptionally sever fire from Fort Morgan and the vessels of the enemy.

While in the gallant discharge of his duty, Commander Mullany was wounded severely  in several places; one of the wounds necessitated  the immediate amputation of his left arm; another fragment of shell struck him in the back, remaining embedded there until his death; while still another shattered  his shoulder blade, causing him serious  permanent  trouble.

Your committee, in consideration of  the long term of service of Rear Admiral Mullany and his exceptionally  active duties during this time, recommend the passage of the bill which is herewith submitted.

Hope Mrs. Mullany Got the Increase.  

--Old B-Runner

Mrs. Mullany Applies for a Pension Increase-- Part 1: Asking for Increase from $30 to $50 a Month

eBay has a copy of a government document as per the request and asking $22 for it.

50th Congress, First Session Report # 573

March 14, 1888

Mr. Blair from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following:

Report to accompany Bill S. 2346

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Jennie Hart Mullany, praying for an increase in pension, have examined the same, and report:

The applicant Jennie Hart Mullany is the widow of Rear Admiral J.R.M. Mullany, who died October 6, 1887, she is now drawing a pension of $30 under general law, and askes that it now be increased to $50 a month.

Her husband entered the Navy as a midshipman, January 7, 1832, and continued in active service in the various grades to which he was duly promoted until October 29, 1879, when he was retired as rear-admiral, having reached the age of sixty-two years.

More to Come.  --Old B-Runner