Prelude to the War of 1812

                                                   15 MAY 1812                                    PRELUDE TO THE WAR OF 1812 At the turn of the 19th century the territory that is now Florida was Spanish.  This fact was of no reassurance to the administration of President James Madison in 1811.  Spain was Read More

The Gunboat Navy

                        28 FEBRUARY 1803                         THE GUNBOAT NAVY “We are sacrificing everything to navigation and a Navy,” was candidate Thomas Jefferson’s slogan in the presidential election campaign of 1799-1800.  Jefferson was an agrarian Southerner, distrustful of New England merchants and skeptical of our Read More

WATER WITCH Incident

                               1 FEBRUARY 1855                              WATER WITCH INCIDENT Our Navy launched a series of geographical explorations in the 19th century, focusing in part on South and Central America.  Here, the US had both strategic interests, in terms of the Monroe Doctrine prohibiting European Read More

Reconnaissance-in-Force

                       26-29 JANUARY 1862                     RECONNAISSANCE-IN-FORCE By January 1862, Union MGEN Thomas W. Sherman was ready to attempt to close the Savannah River, isolating the city of Savannah lying 15 miles upstream.  But the mouth of that river was guarded by masonry Fort Read More