Leslie’s Retreat

                                              26 FEBRUARY 1775                                               LESLIE’S RETREAT The garrisoning of Royal troops in the private homes of Boston residents risked the discovery of weapons and munitions stores hidden by Patriot colonials.  Such stores were secretly moved out of the city, prompting periodic expeditions Read More

Naval Diplomacy (cont.)

                                      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

Naval Diplomacy

                                     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

Last Everglades Expedition

                                     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

Daisy Chain Rescue

                                   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

Ft. Fisher Falls (cont. from DEC 25)

                                            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

Ft. Fisher Failure

                                           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

The “Apache” (cont.)

                                     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

Medill’s Wild-West Chase

                                               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