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
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
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY TWO WEEKS LATER THE “APACHE” (cont.) Two weeks had gone by since a captured Marine had suffered a grizzly death at the hands of the notorious female Viet Cong sniper and interrogator “the Apache” (see story 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
8 JULY 1879-23 MARCH 1882 THE JEANNETTE EXPEDITION One of the less well known but certainly invaluable activities of the US Navy has been meteorologic, oceanographic, and geographic research. Naval expeditions have surveyed the world’s oceans, reached both Poles and explored Read More
11 AUGUST 1835 THE SEMINOLE WARS Florida’s aboriginal natives fell victim to European diseases and enslavement during two centuries of Spanish rule from the 1500s. Their demise left a vacuum into which displaced northern tribes, runaway slaves, and American squatters filed. 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
28 MAY 1754 WASHINGTON STARTS A WAR (cont.) (Now) LTC George Washington had no authority to do what he was about to do. There had been no declaration of war between France and England, nor did Washington’s orders require him to Read More
28 MAY 1754 WASHINGTON STARTS A WAR We know it as the French and Indian War, in Europe it was the Seven Years War between England and France. The war ignited in western Pennsylvania with control of North America as the Read More