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
27 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1824 FOXARDO AFFAIR (cont.) So often in history, the similar actions of separate individuals are interpreted quite differently in light of the background circumstances. In 1818, GEN Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with US forces, capturing a Spanish Read More
27 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1824 FOXARDO AFFAIR With a splash, the anchor of USS BEAGLE hit the water of Foxardo harbor (modern Fajardo), Spanish Puerto Rico. The 3-gun US Navy schooner and her commander, LT Charles T. Platt, were in search of 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
200th ANNIVERSARY 3 AUGUST 1823 USS WEASEL vs. GALLAGO SEGUNDA (cont. from 22 JUL) Continental and US Navy warships had been cruising the Caribbean Sea since the earliest days of our Revolutionary War. Their initial mission was to suppress British Read More
200th ANNIVERSARY 21-22 JULY 1823 USS BEAGLE AND GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL) The demise of Diabolito ten days earlier did not bring piracy along the coast of Spanish Cuba to an end. Far from it. Piracy remained rampant Read More
5 JULY 1801 DAVID (JAMES) GLASGOW FARRAGUT BIRTHDAY Jordi Farragut Mesquida was a Minorcan-born sea captain sailing Spanish merchant ships between Vera Cruz, New Orleans, and Havana in the 1770s. With the outbreak of our Revolutionary War, Mesquida anglicized his Read More
6 MARCH 1823 DEATH OF LT COCKE Piracy was rampant in the Caribbean of the early 19th century. Independence movements in several Spanish New World colonies created the problem, as these new nations often sanctioned privateering against their former Spanish overlords. Read More
9-11 JANUARY 1863 REDUCTION OF ARKANSAS POST Arkansas sided with the South in the Civil War, and after the firing on Ft. Sumter, Arkansans prepared for an expected Union invasion. Their capital, Little Rock, and the Fort Smith arsenal lay on Read More