14 FEBRUARY – 8 JUNE 1839 NAVAL DIPLOMACY (cont.) When Master Commandant Uriah P. Levy approached the coast of Yucatan in USS VANDALIA, 20, in March 1839 it was uncertain the degree of intimidation he would discover to which American interests Read More
11 FEBRUARY-12 APRIL 1842 LAST EVERGLADES EXPEDITION After our acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, settlers came into increasing conflict with the Native Americans of Florida, collectively called Seminole Indians. Conflicts over territory and over the sheltering of runaway slaves Read More
11 FEBRUARY-12 APRIL 1842 LAST EVERGLADES EXPEDITION After our acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, settlers came into increasing conflict with the Native Americans of Florida, collectively called Seminole Indians. Conflicts over territory and over the sheltering of runaway slaves Read More
27 JANUARY-3 FEBRUARY 1943 DAISY CHAIN RESCUE In 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, American freighters crossing the North Atlantic were being torpedoed by German U-boats as Hitler tried to starve England into submission. By May, President Franklin Roosevelt declared an “Unlimited 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
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