USS PATAPSCO

The Rebel-controlled guns of Forts Sumter, Moultrie, and Johnson straddling the entrance to Charleston harbor anchored the Confederate defenses in the late Civil War.  The mouth of the harbor and the entrance channel were obstructed with log booms, pilings, and “torpedoes” (underwater mines).  The Civil War saw the first effective use of fixed underwater mines, and Union warships off Charleston had learned a healthy respect for torpedoes.  Working parties in rowboats regularly dragged the approaches to Charleston with grappling hooks to find and remove these “infernal devices.”  Because these parties worked within range of Confederates on Morris and Sullivan’s Islands, a Union gunboat was usually detailed to provide cover.  Such was the ironclad monitor PATAPSCO’s duty after sunset this evening.

As the rowboats worked 100-200 yards off her beams, PATAPSCO occupied the channel, drifting seaward with the ebbing tide, then steaming back up to the Lehigh buoy.  Her commanding officer, LCDR Stephen P. Quackenbush, and about 40 sailors were out on the monitor’s deck, directing the boats sweeping for torpedoes.  The XO, LT William T. Sampson, conned the monitor from atop the rotating turret.  This night there was no pestering fire from the shore and three times, PATAPSCO drifted lazily down the channel with the tide.  Three times she turned and steamed back up.  But as she made her third return about 2010 hours, a sudden, sharp explosion rocked her port bow.  The cloud of steam and a geyser of seawater immediately alerted Sampson that he had struck a torpedo.  He had no time to react.  Within 15 seconds the forward deck flooded, and in another 30 seconds the monitor rested on the bottom of the 50-foot-deep channel.  Curiously, Sampson only got his feet wet, for when all motion stopped the top of the turret was only ankle-deep.  He simply stepped into the rescuing launch.  Quackenbush and 42 sailors on deck were fished from the water, but the crewmen below decks were not so lucky.  Civil War monitors did not have escape hatches.  To protect against boarders, such ships were built with only one or two hatches leading below deck.  As a result, only two sailors from below were able to scramble to safety.  Sixty-four men, including the Assistant Surgeon Samuel H. Peltz, the surgeon’s steward; the sick nurse; most of the engineers, firemen, and coal heavers; the paymaster; and all the cooks were trapped and died.

Visitors to modern Fort Moultrie National Historical Park on Sullivan’s Island will notice an obelisk commemorating the Union sailors lost with PATAPSCO.  In fact, the monitor still lies today where she sank on this date, having since been partially salvaged, then blasted flat to clear the channel.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. V-16.

“Report of Lieutenant-Commander Quackenbush, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. PATAPSCO” dtd. 16 January 1865.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 16, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1864, to August 8, 1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1903, pp. 175-76.

“Report of Lieutenant Sampson, U.S. Navy, executive officer of the U.S.S. PATAPSCO” dtd. 16 January 1865.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 16, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1864, to August 8, 1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1903, pp. 176-78.

“Report of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, U.S. Navy,” dtd. 16 January 1865.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 16, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1864, to August 8, 1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1903, pp. 171-75.

“Report of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, U.S. Navy, transmitting report of proceedings of a court of enquiry,” dtd. 29 January 1865.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 16, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1864, to August 8, 1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1903, pp. 178-80.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 81.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This sinking marked the fourth loss of a monitor during the war, the second to torpedoes.  It prompted both tactical and strategic changes to the Union’s campaign against Charleston.  From this date, only tugboats and launches were used to protect sweepers clearing Charleston’s channels, and the strategy for the joint Army/Navy assault on Charleston was altered.  The point of attack was shifted northward, away from Charleston Harbor, to the less protected waters of Bull’s Bay about 10 miles up the coast.

PATAPSCO’s executive officer, William T. Sampson, is of course better remembered for his action as the senior in command of US Navy forces off Santiago, Cuba, three decades later in the Spanish-American War.  He is one of several Navy veterans of the Civil War who remained on Active Duty to fight in that latter conflict.

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                                 INTERCEPTING THE MEGA-GUNS

When South Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter to start the Civil War, all but one of the foundries in the United States were in the North.  Only the Tredeger Iron Works in Richmond could bore cannon for the South.  Jefferson Davis was forced to purchase cannon abroad, Britain becoming one of the major suppliers.  The English-made Armstrong, Whitworth, and Blakeley muzzle-loading and early breech-loading rifled cannon became popular with Confederate fighters.  All three were similarly designed cast iron tubes over which multiple heavy iron reinforcing bands were pounded while still red hot.  The result was a gun whose firing chamber could withstand the higher pressures necessary for large, rifled shells.  The largest of these guns weighed four tons and fired conical projectiles weighing 80 pounds.

On the 3^rd of July 1863, Union agents in Liverpool reported that the British steamer Gibraltar, the former CSS SUMTER, had left that port carrying two Blakeley guns.  What was unusual about this particular shipment was the massive size of the two Blakeley’s.  They had been specially cast for the Confederacy; enormous, breech-loading, and each reportedly weighed 22 tons.  They fired rifled, steel-tipped shells of 750 pounds.  Intelligence indicated the guns were bound for Charleston, the hotbed of Southern rebellion and a major blockade running port, then under Union siege.  Like most goods bound for the South, the shipment was sent first to Bermuda, where it would be re-loaded onto a sleek blockade runner to brave the Union line.  Should these guns reach Charleston, they might easily shift the balance of power.  They had to be intercepted!

So on August 22^nd Navy Secretary Gideon Welles contacted RADM John A. Dahlgren, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, enclosing a message from War Secretary William H. Seward that the massive guns had safely reached Bermuda ten days earlier.  At that moment a wooden sidewheel steamer just purchased from her civilian operators and commissioned USS FORT JACKSON was fitting out in New York City.  Welles seized the opportunity this day to divert the one-year-old steamer to a SecNav-directed mission–to cruise back and forth along the Bermuda Line commonly used by blockade runners approaching the Carolina coast.  FORT JACKSON did so, at least until her boiler burned out on 16 September, but did not encounter an incoming runner.

Despite Union vigilance the guns did reach Wilmington, NC, in November.  Gibraltar herself made the run.  One of the guns was emplaced in the shore defenses at White Point on the Cape Fear River, however on the first test firing, the breech plug failed and the barrel cracked in eight places.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  30 AUG 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. III-133.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 433.

“Letter of the Secretary of the Navy to Acting Rear Admiral Lee, U.S. Navy, transmitting extracts from consular reports.”  IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 9, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron from May 5, 1863, to May 5, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1899, pp. 127-29.

“Report of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, U.S. Navy, regarding the landing of Blakeley guns by the steamer SUMTER, at Wilmington, N.C.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 15, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1863, to September 30, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1902, p. 109-10.

Tucker, Spencer.  Arming the Fleet:  U.S. Navy Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 226-28.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Gibraltar met a no less inglorious fate herself. On a subsequent blockade run she was sunk by friendly Confederate shore batteries off Charleston when she was mistaken for a Union blockader on a foggy morning.

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                  BULLS ISLAND INCIDENT (cont.)

The morning of 31 January roused CAPT Charles T. Haskell’s Confederates from their rest at the Gibbes house and greeted the arrival of 50 Confederate reinforcements from Fort Moultrie.  Suspecting FLAMBEAU would send a second search party ashore, Haskell set out for Gibbes wharf to lay an ambush.  But before his now sizeable force could reach the wharf, they noted more longboats coming ashore, this time carrying 75 sailors and Marines in a first wave, followed by 50 more.  The sailors searched the area of the previous day’s captures and were observed to discover a rifle and pistol that had undoubtedly been dropped by d’Estimauville in his flight to escape.

Haskell concealed his men behind the Gibbes summerhouse and waited.  Seventy-five Union sailors and Marines worked their way slowly in his direction until Haskell noted them to be in range.  Half of his men rose and fired a sudden volley, the other half standing at the ready.  The thick underbrush deflected most of the volley, only the Union Captain of the Foretop, Marine Lieutenant Alexander Cushman, was killed, and Acting Ensign G. Cottrell was wounded in the arm and the thigh.  LT Smith, in command of the shore party, scanned the area to determine the exact location of the enemy.  Unable to do so, and suspecting the enemy to be large in numbers, Smith withdrew his men.  Haskell had observed that one of the Federal launches mounted a boat howitzer and recognized his own boats might be thus attacked.  He withdrew his men as well, to Capers Island across the channel. 

Now any further combat on Bull Island was trumped by events elsewhere.  Unbeknownst to any in the vicinity of the island, in the pre-dawn hours of this same 31 January morning, the Confederate ironclad rams PALMETTO STATE and CHICORA launched an attack on the Union blockade off the mouth of Charleston Harbor, then took up position off Sullivan’s Island under the guns of Fort Moultrie.  This attack temporarily scurried Bull Island’s Yankees.  Then on the morning of February 1^st Haskell’s force was recalled to the garrison at Fort Moultrie.  FLAMBEAU got underway as well, ordered to help re-establish Yankee control of Charleston’s approaches.

LT Sheldon and Assistant Engineer Pemble continued to be held at Fort Moultrie.  Union POWs from the Charleston area were usually sent to Columbia, South Carolina, and from there to one of several Confederate prison camps distributed throughout the South.  Facing such a fate, Assistant Engineer Pemble favored discretion over valor–he swore an oath to the Confederacy and joined the enemy.  LT Sheldon was exchanged later that summer and returned to the Union Navy.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6 FEB 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Abstract log of the U.S. bark Restless, Acting Master Browne, U.S. Navy, Commanding.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 491.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 410-11.

“Report of Acting Master Sheldon, U.S. Navy, regarding his capture.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 575.

“Report of Capt. Charles T. Haskell, jr., C.S. Army, commanding post.”  IN:  The War of Rebellion:  A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XIV.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1885, pp. 210-11.

“Report of Lieutenant-Commander Upshur, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. Flambeau.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 573-74.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 90-91.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The formidable defenses of Charleston Harbor proved quite difficult for Union forces to overcome.  At several times during the long siege of this city, Federal commanders considered flanking approaches from the north or south.  Bull’s Bay was one landing point scouted for a potential northern flanking option.  From here the Yankees would have proceeded inland to take Goose Creek, Monck’s Corner, and Summerville to encircle Charleston from the rear.  Such possibilities were not lost on the Confederate defenders, after all the British had flanked the city from the south via the Stono River in 1780.  Earthwork defenses were thrown up surrounding Charleston, some of which can still be seen today, in modern Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, northeast of the city, near the intersection of US 17 and Long Point Road.

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                      BULLS ISLAND INCIDENT

Bull Island is a low coastal island 10 miles north of Charleston Harbor separated from the mainland by the Intercoastal Waterway.  Today a national wildlife refuge, in antebellum times it was owned by a family named Gibbes, who built a house and a separate summer cottage on the island.  Bull’s Bay indents the shoreline north of the island and was regularly investigated by Union blockading ships during the Civil War.  Indeed, on 28 December 1862 USS FLAMBEAU and USS RESTLESS landed a shore party that burned a Rebel battery on the island.  Having noted the abundance of game during that sortie, FLAMBEAU’s skipper, LCDR J.H. Upshur, returned this day and sent two foraging parties ashore:  Acting 1^st Assistant Engineer, A.G. Pemble and the skipper’s steward, Mr. d’Estimauville comprised one party; and Acting Master LT William B. Sheldon and a freed Negro made up the second.  On FLAMBEAU the expected shots were heard in the distance, but curiously d’Estimauville and the Negro were seen running back to the longboat in panic!

On the other side of the island earlier that same morning Confederate Army CAPT Charles T. Haskell, Jr. and seven men from the garrison at Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island to the south had landed.  They were to scout Union activity and reconnoiter FLAMBEAU.  They noted her at anchor in Bull’s Bay, and unaware of the Yanks ashore, proceeded to investigate the Gibbes house.

Engineer Pemble was cautiously on the lookout for Rebel activity when he noticed Haskell’s men milling about the abandoned Gibbes house.  But as he approached to investigate further he was set upon by the Rebels.  D’Estimauville fled and was chased for nearly a mile and a half.  In desperation the steward then turned and fired his Enfield rifle at his pursuers, who paused long enough for d’Estimauville to duck under a thicket.  He evaded detection and later managed to escape.  Haskell now laid a similar trap for LT Sheldon who stumbled into the Rebels as well.  Likewise, his Negro partner turned, ran, and successfully escaped.  The Confederate commander sent his two prisoners back to Fort Moultrie at the same time requesting 50 more men as reinforcements.

News of the officers’ capture, but not of their fate, reached FLAMBEAU.  An immediate response was forthcoming.  The ship was brought to within 200 yards of the beach and her guns were run out.  A hundred-man rescue party of sailors and Marines rowed ashore.  For the rest of the afternoon and into the night they searched, but in vain.  It wasn’t until around 2300 that the last of their boats returned to FLAMBEAU.

Haskell and most of his men were still on the island.  They had lain under cover, watching the search party most of the day.  That night they bedded down in the Gibbes house, confident that once their reinforcements arrived, they could challenge the Yankee intrusion.

Continued tomorrow…

“Abstract log of the U.S. bark RESTLESS, Acting Master Browne, U.S. Navy, Commanding.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 491.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 410-11.

“Report of Acting Master Sheldon, U.S. Navy, regarding his capture.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 575.

“Report of Capt. Charles T. Haskell, jr., C.S. Army, commanding post.”  IN:  The War of Rebellion:  A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XIV.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1885, pp. 210-11.

“Report of Lieutenant-Commander Upshur, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. FLAMBEAU.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 573-74.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 90-91.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The 180-foot, brigantine-rigged, single screw, wooden FLAMBEAU had originally been built for the China coastal trade.  But a US Navy hard pressed for blockading ships at the beginning of the Civil War had purchased and armed her in November of 1861.  As was not uncommon for similar warships, her civilian name was retained.

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                     CHRISTMAS DAY ATTACK!

Our first warship named MARBLEHEAD was one of 23 Unadilla-class wooden gunboats built in the first year of the Civil War.  Looking outwardly like a two-masted sailing brig, a single stack amidships revealed her steam capability and the absence of sidewheels signaled her innovative screw propulsion.  At 158 feet and drawing less than 10 feet, she was employed in river patrols along Confederate shores.  The Stono River, just south of Charleston, coursed through enemy-held South Carolina and was still contested in late 1863.  A Union attempt on Charleston via the Stono had been turned away at the battle of Secessionville in June 1862, and seven months later Rebel shore batteries had disabled and captured the gunboat USS ISAAC SMITH.

This Christmas Day MARBLEHEAD lay in the Stono channel above the town of Legaréville.  At the 0620 crack of dawn hidden Rebel batteries opened fire from a distance of only 800 yards.  As with ISAAC SMITH the year before, the Rebels concentrated on the hull and rigging.  LCDR Richard W. Meade returned fire immediately despite mounting damage.  One Confederate shot struck the gunboat’s waist three inches above the water line, tore away two berths on the starboard side, splintered five deck planks, then carried away two port berths as it exited.  The maintopmast was shot away 15 feet below the cap.  Flying debris struck down crewmen, but MARBLEHEAD held her position and fought on.

The mortar schooner C.P. WILLIAMS was 4 1/2 miles away, up the nearby Folly River, and upon hearing the cannon slipped her cable, hoisted sail, and fell down to a position above MARBLEHEAD.  Likewise USS PAWNEE, from below, got underway and proceeded to the mouth of the Kiawah River, where she anchored in excellent position to enfilade the Confederates.  It had taken less than 40 minutes for three Union gunboats to begin pummeling the Rebels from above, below, and directly abreast.  This time the Union Navy would not be denied.  At 0730 the enemy scurried from their breastworks in panic.  Union Landsmen found two working VIII-inch seacoast howitzers, while the scattered knapsacks, personal gear, and 72 shovels indicated the haste with which the Rebels had taken flight.  One artilleryman lay dying and six horses had been lost.

MARBLEHEAD had taken the brunt of the action, having been hit 20 times and cut-up heavily aloft.  Captain of the Forecastle Robert Brown, and Ordinary Seamen Joseph Phillips and Lorenzo D. Snow had been killed and four were wounded.  Meade commended BM William Farley, QM James Miller, Landsman Charles Moore (wounded), and contraband slave Robert Blake for their bravery in the battle–all four were recognized with the awarding of the Medal of Honor.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  30 DEC 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 229.

report of Asst. Surgeon B.H. Kidder of Marblehead.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 15, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1863, to September 30, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1902, p. 191.

report of LCDR R.W. Meade of Marblehead.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 15, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1863, to September 30, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1902, pp. 192-93.

report of CDR G.B. Balch of Pawnee.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 15, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from October 1, 1863, to September 30, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1902, pp. 188-90.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 49-50, 52.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 715, 767, 849, 851.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The morale-busting potential of a successful holiday attack has frequently motivated our enemies.  We pray that our shipmates currently deployed in combat zones be preserved this Christmas season.

CAPT Richard Worsam Meade II (1807-1870) was born in Cadiz, Spain, while his father served as US Naval agent to Spain.  His younger brother was George Gordon Meade, a US Army general officer of the Civil War and the victor at Gettysburg.  CAPT Meade’s son, Richard Worsam Meade III (1837-1897) also served in the Union Navy of the Civil War as a LT, rising eventually to the rank of RADM.

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