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
21 JULY 1861 DARK DAY AT BULL RUN (cont.) Exploding Union shrapnel ripped through the Henry house striking udith Henry in the neck and flank and nearly amputating her foot. Her daughter, Ellen, had taken refuge within the fireplace and was Read More
21 JULY 1861 DARK DAY AT BULL RUN North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia had all seceded from the United States and established their capital in Richmond. US Army installations in the disputed Read More
6 JULY 1960 PROJECT VIGILANT On 16 May 1960, in response to the Soviet shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spyplane, Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a United Nations lectern vowing, “We will bury you!” The USSR was now Read More
18-20 MAY 1863 THE YAZOO CITY SHIPYARD After the failure of the Yazoo Pass expedition before Confederate Fort Pemberton in March 1863, MGEN Ulysses Grant adopted a new strategy against Vicksburg, the last and most menacing Rebel city preventing Union control Read More