22 APRIL 1864 THE LOSS OF PETREL To bolster Union naval forces patrolling the Mississippi in the Civil War, our Navy purchased a total of 63 existing sternwheel and sidewheel riverboats. Protection was added to their upper works in the form Read More
15 APRIL 1862 RADM CHARLES HENRY DAVIS Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, commander of the Civil War Western Gunboat Flotilla supporting US Army operations in the upper Mississippi River, was in poor health. He had been struck in this foot with shrapnel Read More
12-14 MARCH 1864 EASTPORT BEFORE FORT DE RUSSY The year 1863 had seen a turn in the Civil War in favor of the Union. A Confederate foray into the north had been reversed at Gettysburg and the last Rebel stronghold on Read More
6 FEBRUARY 1908 RED ROVER AND SINCE… When early American naval forces fought in distant locales our Navy often had to supply her own hospital facilities. In our earliest days this was accomplished by designating certain of the expeditionary warships as Read More
13-15 JANUARY 1865 FT. FISHER FALLS (cont. from Dec 25) After MGEN Benjamin Butler’s Christmas assault was rebuffed, RADM David Dixon Porter returned off Fort Fisher on the 12th of January. Two lessons had been learned in the failed attempt–the naval Read More
31 DECEMBER 1862 THE LOSS OF MONITOR Our Navy first entertained the new technology of armor plating in 1842 when Congress authorized inventor Robert L. Stevens to construct an ironclad steamship for coastal defense. However, delays in construction, funding, and the Read More
23-25 DECEMBER 1864 FT. FISHER FAILURE Several factors made Wilmington, North Carolina, a valuable entry port for blockade running. Wilmington was equidistant from the main smuggling bases in Nassau and Bermuda, with good rail connections inland. Positioned 28 miles up the Read More
25 OCTOBER 1862 MEDILL’S WILD-WEST CHASE Acting RADM David Dixon Porter decried enemy guerrilla actions along the Mississippi during the Civil War. From Mississippi Squadron headquarters in Cairo, Illinois, he wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that commercial river traffic Read More
18-23 SEPTEMBER 1863 “TERROR OF THE CHESAPEAKE” John Yates Beall was born New Year’s Day, 1839, on a farm in Walnut Grove, Virginia (now West Virginia). His dreams of studying law seemed to come true when he was admitted to the University of Read More
5 AUGUST 1864 CAPTURE OF CSS TENNESSEE By August 1864, the last remaining Confederate seaport not in Union hands was Mobile, Alabama. At 0530 this morning, VADM David G. Farragut’s Union squadron “damned the torpedoes” and forced their way past Fort Read More