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 12^th of January.  Two lessons had been learned in the failed attempt–the naval bombardment would have to be more effective, and the land assault would have to be more aggressive.  Even GEN Ulysses Grant recognized the importance of closing the last Confederate port and this time sent a new Army commander, MGEN Alfred J. Terry, with 12,000 troops and a siege train.

This morning, Porter moved the ironclad NEW IRONSIDES and four monitors to within 700 yards of the fort.  The gunners had orders to avoid random shots or vain attempts to carry away the flagpole, rather they were to dismantle the fort’s guns.  This time their work was effective, and by afternoon Terry was landing troops out of range onto the river shore.  To be sure, in these days the Army enjoyed primacy as a US military force, the Navy often being envisioned simply as a supporting force.  Porter probably knew that if Terry took the fort the Army would get sole credit for the victory.  Against this possibility Porter issued General Order 81 which instructed 1600 bluejackets and 400 Marines from Porter’s ships to take the fort by assaulting up the sloping sea face:

“The sailors will be armed with cutlasses, well sharpened, and with revolvers…When the signal is made to assault, the boats will pull around the stern of the monitors and land right abreast of them, and board the fort on the run in a seaman-like way.”

Late in the afternoon of the 15^th, 2000 sea-servicemen, who had never before fought as a unit, landed on the sea face under the command of LCDR Kidder R. Breese.  Unfortunately, the inclined wall turned out to be nearly vertical, ringed at its base by a breakwater of rocks.  There was little cover, and the Confederates rained down a hailstorm of canister and rifle fire.  Three unsuccessful charges cut the bluejackets to pieces, 350 of the landing party were killed or wounded.  Unable to advance or withdraw, they hunkered behind rocks through the cold night.  Exposure and sniping claimed more.  Thought this primary assault failed, the brave action at the foot of the wall diverted Confederate attention, allowing Terry to breach two gun traverses in the northwest corner before being discovered.  The fort fell.

The subsequent surrender of Wilmington validated GEN Lee’s dire prediction.  His defense of Richmond was fatally starved of supplies, and the Confederacy fell within four months.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Rehabilitation Medicine

Anderson, Bern.  By Sea and by River:  The Naval History of the Civil War.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962, pp. 276-84.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War.  New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 263, 266-72.

Gragg, Rod.  Confederate Goliath:  The Battle of Fort Fisher.  Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1991.

Page, Dave.  Ships Versus Shore:  Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers.  Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994, pp. 82-102.

Reed, Michael and John T. Kuehn.  “Triumph of Civil War ‘Jointness.'”  Naval History, Vol 27 (6), December 2013, pp. 32-39.

Robinson, Charles M.  Hurricane of Fire:  The Union Assault on Fort Fisher.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998.

Site visit, Fort Fisher State Park, Kure City, North Carolina, 8 December 2001.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Historians agree that one of David Dixon Porter’s shortcomings was his strong desire to achieve personal glory in battle, even at the cost of sailors’ lives.  Above is one example often cited from the Civil War.

Our WWI destroyer USS BREESE (DD-122) remembers LCDR Breese above.  David Dixon Porter and his father David Porter are remembered with five warships; TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, and DDG-78.

The post Ft. Fisher Falls (cont. from DEC 25) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                            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 Cape Fear River, she was out of range of deep-water Union guns.  Entrance from the Atlantic could be afforded by either of two channels, and Union patrols had difficulty covering both.  In addition, the northern channel, New Inlet, was guarded by the 75 guns of the massive earthen-walled Fort Fisher.  Wilmington had been transformed by blockade running.  As the rest of the South crumbled toward the end of the war, the steady supply of life’s finery and the affluence of a high profit industry were a cultural boon to the Cape Fear region.  As well, success attracted the undesirable speculators, gamblers, and riff-raff.  Both Lee and Grant appreciated what Wilmington represented to the South’s war effort.  Thus, in late 1864, the capture of Wilmington became a priority for the new commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, RADM David Dixon Porter.

Porter’s first obstacle, Fort Fisher, was probably the Confederacy’s most impregnable fortification.  Located athwart a narrow spit of land running due south into the mouth of the Cape Fear River, laborers had worked unheeded for four years to perfect the works and extensive bombproofs.  The saw-toothed palisade was formidable, but in particular, the loose, sandy earth of the walls and floors swallowed cannonballs without damage.  Porter’s 55-ship Union Navy flotilla, the largest ever assembled to that day, arrived off Ft. Fisher on December 20^th.

Porter’s first attempt on the 23^rd was a bombship.  The sidewheel steamer LOUISIANA was laden with 350 tons of gunpowder and towed near the fort.  Her detonation that evening was impressive, but alas, ineffective.  Porter then rained upon Ft. Fisher an intensive two-day bombardment, at times reaching a rate of fire of 115 rounds per minute.  Assigned to Porter were 6500 Union Army troops under the dubiously capable MGEN Benjamin F. Butler, who had previously bungled an attack on Richmond.  On Christmas Day, 3000 of Butler’s troops were landed north of the fort for an assault.  But these troops were surprised to observe that Ft. Fisher had withstood two days of intensive bombardment with little visible damage.  Confederate commander COL William Lamb had lost fewer men than had been claimed by accidental explosions on the attacking Union ships!  He was able to man the palisade in force against the assault, pinning down Butler’s men through the day.  Unable to land more troops because of souring weather, Butler reembarked the stranded landing force.  Porter was furious, but his ships had exhausted their ammunition in the pre-Christmas bombardment, and he was forced to re-group.

Continued 15 JAN 2025…

Anderson, Bern.  By Sea and by River:  The Naval History of the Civil War.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962, pp. 276-84.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War.  New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 263, 266-72.

Gragg, Rod.  Confederate Goliath:  The Battle of Fort Fisher.  Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1991.

Page, Dave.  Ships Versus Shore:  Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers.  Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994, pp. 82-102.

Reed, Michael and John T. Kuehn.  “Triumph of Civil War ‘Jointness.'”  Naval History, Vol 27 (6), December 2013, pp. 32-39.

Robinson, Charles M.  Hurricane of Fire:  The Union Assault on Fort Fisher.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998.

Site visit, Fort Fisher State Park, Kure City, North Carolina, 8 December 2001.

The post Ft. Fisher Failure appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                         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 fort and executing local citizens for inciting the Seminole Indians to cross-border raids into Georgia.  His actions were lauded by a thankful American administration at the time.  However, six years later the actions of Commodore David Porter at Foxardo, Spanish Puerto Rico, were not seen by US officials in an equally accepting vein.  Indeed, by 1824 US-Spanish relations were delicate.  Spain had recently been forced to sell Florida to the United States under what they perceived to be a threat of war, and Spanish ships were being pirated on the high seas by American mercenaries claiming to be privateers for the newly declared (former Spanish) nations of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico.  In December 1824, Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard expressed his strong disapproval of Porter’s “extraordinary transactions at Foxardo.”  Southard recalled Porter, replacing him in January 1825 as Commodore of the West India Squadron with CAPT Lewis Warrington.  Porter, not a man of temperate disposition, was livid again.

A Court of Inquiry was convened, chaired by CAPT Isaac Chauncey, to review the events at Foxardo as well as Porter’s overall command of the Squadron.  They found that though Porter’s summary command was effectual, his actions at Foxardo warranted a Court Martial.  This was convened in July 1825 with CAPT James Barron as president.

Porter’s defense rested on a clause from his original orders of 1 February 1823 outlining the purpose of his command to be, “repressing piracy and affording effectual protection to the citizens and commerce of the United States.”  Public opinion largely favored Porter, an established naval hero for his stellar service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.  Nevertheless, the politically sensitive Court Martial found that his actions at Foxardo exceeded the authority of this orders and recommended a six-month suspension from duty (with pay).  Porter’s protests and appeals went for naught, and the bitter and disgruntled Captain resigned his commission in protest the following year.

Porter emigrated to Mexico where he became Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican Navy from 1826-29.  He returned to the United States but never again served with our Navy.  He acted instead, as US minister to the Barbary States under President Andrew Jackson’s tenure.  He died in 1843, still bitter over his treatment in this Foxardo affair. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 66-72.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 111.

Pratt, Fletcher.  The Compact History of the United States Navy, 3rd ed.  New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967, pp. 106-07.

Reynolds, Clark G.  Famous American Admirals.  New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1978, pp. 254-55.

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, 2001, p. 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Puerto Rico remained a Spanish possession until the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War of 1898 ceded the island to the United States.

The subsequent US Navy warships PORTER (TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, DDG-78); CHAUNCEY (DD-3, DD-296, DD-667) and WARRINGTON (DD-30, DD-383, DD-843) all remember individuals above.

The post Foxardo Affair (cont.) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                              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 stolen property.  Several days earlier Mr. Stephen Cabot of Cabot, Bailey & Co., an American business operating in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, had reported the theft of $5000 worth of goods from their storehouse.  Those goods were thought to have been smuggled to Foxardo, a town on the eastern end of Puerto Rico where pirates enjoyed an active market for plundered goods.  Platt and Midshipman Robert Ritchie went ashore the following day, 27 October, to confer with the Captain of the Port and the local Alcalde, Francisco Caro, seeking redress.  Reasoning they would appear less threatening, Platt declined to wear his uniform.

Those ashore were immediately suspicious of civilian-clad sailors claiming to be officers in the American Navy.  After all, the sacking of coastal towns by pirates was not uncommon in the West Indies of this day.  Outwardly, both the Port Captain and Alcalde Caro were cordial and feigned sympathy for Platt’s mission.  But Platt’s subsequent breakfast in a local pub was cut short by an urgent call to the Alcalde’s office.  Here Platt was summarily arrested!  His protests went unheeded, though he was permitted to send to the ship for his uniform and a copy of his officer’s commission.  These were dismissed as forgeries, and Platt and Ritchie were thrown into jail as suspected pirates themselves!  Platt was later allowed to send to the ship for a copy of his orders from West India Squadron Commodore CAPT David Porter, which were received by local officials in a better light.  The two were released to BEAGLE after several hours confinement.  Platt immediately got underway for squadron headquarters in St. Thomas.

Porter was livid on 12 November when he learned of the incident.  The next day, in JOHN ADAMS, 28, BEAGLE, and GRAMPUS, 3, he anchored opposite a shore battery in Foxardo harbor.  BEAGLE positioned herself to cover a beach proposed as a landing site.  Porter then led 200 officers, bluejackets, and Marines ashore.  LT Cornelius K. Stribling was sent ahead to demand the Alcalde’s attention, and without hesitating further Porter stepped off toward the town.  Two gun batteries along the way were assaulted, their defenders running in panic.  Four Spanish 18-pounders were spiked.  Porter moved his landing force within 200 yards of the town gate where he came face-to-face with a hastily assembled mob of 70 militia and armed townspeople.  Tension gripped the scene until LT Stribling appeared under a white flag, with Caro.  During three hours of talks Porter demanded an apology, promising that otherwise, “the total destruction of Foxhardo will be the certain and immediate consequence.”  This prompted Spanish contrition, which Porter accepted.

Continued tomorrow…

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 66-72.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 111.

Pratt, Fletcher.  The Compact History of the United States Navy, 3rd ed.  New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967, pp. 106-07.

Reynolds, Clark G.  Famous American Admirals.  New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1978, pp. 254-55.

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, 2001, p. 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  To this day, the wearing of the uniform of the day is required when executing all official duties of the United States Navy.

Charles T. Platt had fought in the War of 1812 at the battles of Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, being wounded at the latter.  He served on Active Duty until 1855 when he transferred to the inactive list.  CDR Platt died 12 December 1860 as the clouds of the Civil War were gathering.  Cornelius Stribling was also a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War.  During the Civil War he commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the East Gulf Blockading Squadron from 1864 until the surrender.  RADM Stribling died 17 January 1880.  USS STRIBLING (DD-96, DD-867) remember Mr. Stribling.

The post Foxardo Affair appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                    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 was taking fire and steamboats risked being forced ashore.  Worse, Porter wrote, “…I am convinced that large quantities of goods were intentionally landed for the use of the rebels…”  To Porter’s way of thinking, “The war would never end this way…” 

Earlier, when Confederate sympathizers were noted plundering the steamer Hazel Dell, Porter sent LCDR LeRoy Fitch with four light-draft gunboats to Caseyville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River, to intervene.  Fitch’s men discovered the lightering operation and captured 33 guerrillas.  Porter ordered their personal property garnished at ten times the value of Hazel Dell’s cargo.  On October 19^th, guerrillas fired on the mail steamer Gladiator.  In reprisal, Porter sent LCDR Richard W. Meade in USS LOUISVILLE and the transport Meteor with 300 soldiers of the 11^th Indiana to Bledsoe’s Landing and Hamblin’s Landing, Arkansas.  Both towns were razed to the ground when it was learned they had sheltered the offenders.

On this date, Porter sent the gunboat BARON DE KALB to Hopefield, Arkansas, where a band of rebels was harassing Union sympathizers of that town.  CAPT John A. Winslow sent a party of 25 to investigate, under the command of Carpenter Robert H. Medill.  No roughnecks appeared, but ten Confederate Army scouts were spotted.  Medill’s men gave chase on foot, but the mounted rebels sped off into the countryside.  Undaunted, Medill ran to the local livery and impressed horses into immediate service.  All of his party who could be mounted galloped off in pursuit.  Across the Arkansas flood plain the horses raced.  The dust of the escaping Confederates could be seen ahead, with the Yankees slowly gaining.  Soon they closed within rifle range, and shots erupted in both directions.  A running gun battle reminiscent of the wild west ranged over the next miles.  Horses well lathered, Medill closed further.  After a nine-mile race, a few “shots across the bow” brought the rebels to heel.  Confederate Army Captain Russell and a LT Brown in company with eight soldiers were taken prisoner.  The otherwise thrilling episode was only marred by two accidental casualties.  While embarking his prisoners aboard the Union tugboat Spiteful, a musket discharged, killing the tug’s engineer, Joseph Chaplain, and wounding the engineer’s mate Archy Palmer. 

Porter’s ruthless campaign was, “…the only way of putting a stop to guerrilla warfare, and though the method is stringent, officers are instructed to put it down at all hazards.”

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  31 OCT 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. II-103, II-104.

Goodspeed, M. Hill.  U.S. Navy:  A Complete History. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Foundation, 2003, p. 199.

letter of RADM D.D. Porter to Gideon Welles, dtd. 27 October 1862.  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 23, Naval Forces on Western Waters from April 12 to December 31, 1862.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1910, pp. 451-52.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  USS BATON DE KALB was a Cairo-class casemated gunboat, 175 feet in length with an encased stern paddlewheel and 13 guns.  She was named for John Baron de Kalb, of Huttendorf, Bavaria, who accompanied Lafayette to America during the Revolutionary War and assisted the Continental Army.  John Baron de Kalb was mortally wounded at the battle of Camden, New Jersey, on 16 August 1780.  USS BARON DE KALB did not survive the Civil War, falling victim to a Confederate mine in the Yazoo River on 13 July 1863.

          John A. Winalow is better remembered for an action later in the war when he commanded USS KEARSARGE in her famous duel with CSS ALABAMA off Cherbourg, France.  Winslow survived the war and was advanced to the rank of RADM in 1870.  Three US Navy warships remember Mr. Winslow, TB-5, DD-53, and DD-359.

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                                                 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 and French predation on our merchant vessels in the lucrative rum and sugar trades.  But with the struggles for independence of the Spanish New World colonies of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico in the 1820s, these newly declared republics commissioned privateers to cruise against Spanish shipping.  Unfortunately, privateers rarely distinguished Spanish vessels from those of other nations, and frank piracy devolved.  In September 1821, three American traders fell victim–their crews murdered, and the ships plundered and burned.  In response, President James Monroe turned to his Secretary of the Navy, Smith Thompson, with instructions to formulate a West India Squadron specifically to fight piracy.  Our Navy, at the time, consisted largely of blue-water assets incapable of prosecuting the shallow bays and coves of Caribbean islands.  Thus, in February 1823 a specialty squadron of eight shallow-draft, 3-gun schooners, augmented with large row barges and support ships–our West India Squadron–departed for the Caribbean under Commodore David Porter.  These proved quite effective in anti-piracy operations as buccaneer havens along the Cuban coast (a favorite hideout) began falling to Porter’s force.

For the 30 or so crewmen aboard one of these schooners, USS WEASEL, duty was hard and unsung.  Commonly they operated from open boats, sometimes days away from their parent ship.  Enduring all manner of weather, sailors would search through the hundreds of coves and lagoons.  Backbreaking days at the oars were punctuated by moments of intense hand-to-hand fighting.  But more feared even than combat were the unseen and mysterious paludal and yellow fevers that claimed many more lives than combat.  And not unlike the Vietnam conflict centuries later, it was perpetually difficult to distinguish legals from pirates.

In July 1823 a pirate haven at Sigaumpa Bay, Cuba, was attacked, killing 75 renegades and their leader, Diabolito.  On the 21^st BEAGLE, 3, and GREYHOUND, 3, attacked and defeated another stronghold at Cape Cruz.  On this day WEASEL was cruising off Cuba when she sighted a suspect schooner moving along the shore.  When LT Beverly Kennon moved his warship closer, the mysterious vessel opened fire.  In light of July’s activities Kennon’s crew turned to, but upon noting WEASEL’s long gun and two carronades, the one-gun schooner quickly hove to.  This time she turned out to be the skittish, but legitimate Spanish coaster Gallago Segunda.  She was restored to her owners.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 AUG 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 50.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 181.

Roberts, W. Adolphe and Lowell Brentano.  The Book of the Navy.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday $ Co., 1944, pp. 76, 86.

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, pp. 24, 35, 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Boarding and inspection ops by the US Navy and Coast Guard continue even in today’s Caribbean.  In modern times, such is usually for enforcement of anti-drug, anti-terrorism, or immigration laws.

Porter’s eight schooners were built originally for the Chesapeake Bay trade.  They were purchased and armed with a single long 12- or 18-pounder on a circular mount amidships, often with two or three carronades and swivels.  They departed Baltimore on 15 February 1823.

The West India Squadron (later “West Indies”) had a second mission.  Since the late 18^th century, the institution of slavery had become abhorrent to many Americans.  In 1808 Congress banned American participation in the slave trade, then centered largely in the Caribbean.  However, prosecution of slavers required blue-water assets, a capability unavailable to Porter.  As such, anti-slavery laws stood unenforced for decades.

Beverly Kennon was a veteran of combat in the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars.  He was promoted to CAPT in the 1830s and headed the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1943.  He died in the accidental explosion of the experimental “Peacemaker” gun in 1844.  His brother, George, was a Navy surgeon.

The post USS WEASEL vs. Gallago Segunda (cont. from 22 JUL) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                            200^th 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 and American ships continued to fall victim.  So too, were those of many other nations.  Our West India Squadron, commanded by Commodore David Porter, included several small, fast schooners capable of operations in the shallow bays and coves of the region.  On 21 July 1823 two of these schooners, USS BEAGLE, 3, and USS GREYHOUND, 3, were working along the southern coast of Cuba searching for pirate activities.  Wishing to inspect the region about Cape Cruz more thoroughly, LT Lawrence Kearny, skipper of GREYHOUND, rowed ashore with his counterpart from BEAGLE, LT John T. Newton.  They carried a couple muskets and a fowling piece that might add a tasty game bird to the dinner fare that evening.

Finding nothing initially, they rowed further around the Cape.  As they did so they noted several huts sheltered between large rocks and high bushes.  Then shots suddenly rang out in their direction!  Indeed, the officers found themselves in a well-laid crossfire clearly planned by nefarious actors, probably pirates.  Newton and Kearny beat a hasty retreat.

This following morning the officers returned, this time flying the American flag from their transom.  They were again fired upon.  Convinced they had stumbled into a pirate nest, the schooners were warped into position in the shallow bay near the ambush site.  A shore party of seamen and Marines led by one of Kearny’s junior lieutenants, David G. Farragut, was quietly landed to work into the rear of the pirate position.  Then a frontal assault began with the schooners opening fire and a second assault party hitting headforemost on the beach.  The pirates found themselves trapped between two forces and briefly put up a fierce battle.  Then as was so often the case, they fled into the jungle with their women and children.  Farragut’s men chased the pirates to the point of exhaustion, their clothing torn by the undergrowth and their shoes shredded on the sharp rocks.  But alas, the pirates’ knowledge of the trails and terrain allowed their escape.

Back on the beach, Farragut’s men discovered plundered goods in the huts.  Eight pirate skiffs along with a swivel gun (a favorite pirate weapon) and small arms were discovered.  A search of nearby caves revealed more plundered goods as well as human remains.  Convinced a major pirate lair had been located, Kearny burned the buildings and carried off the weapons and boats.  He returned to cruising until an outbreak of yellow fever gripped the area that autumn.  As was Porter’s custom facing such disease, the Squadron waited out the epidemic to the north, in the States.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25-28 JUL 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 53-54.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 107.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 158.

“Naval Register for the Year 1822.”  AT: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/USN/1822/NavReg1822.html, retrieved 1 April 2013.

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. 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  “Commodore” was not an official Navy rank until the Civil War.  Porter’s military rank was CAPT, though officers in charge of major squadrons were customarily permitted to use the informal title “Commodore.”  No additional pay was authorized.

BEAGLE, GREYHOUND and several other similar schooners had been built or purchased specifically for duty chasing Caribbean pirates.  After the area was secured in the latter 1820s, these schooners were sold.

Farragut was a brand new junior LT, having just been promoted the year before.  Farragut’s full brother, William A.C. Farragut, was also serving as a LT in the Navy at this time, having also been taken in by the family of CDORE Porter after the Farraguts’ destitute father nursed Porter’s father in a critical illness.  David G. Farragut was thereby step-brother to David Dixon Porter and William D. Porter, CDORE Porter’s natural children.  Farragut’s step-uncle, Master Commandant John Porter, was also serving in our Navy at this time.

The Kearny surname is perhaps better known as that of Stephen W. Kearny, a US Army officer of the California campaign in the Mexican War.  Stephen, the namesake of Kearny Mesa north of San Diego, was Lawrence’s 2^nd cousin.  KEARNY (DD-432) and WILLIAM D. PORTER (DD-579) remember (later) Commodores Lawrence Kearny and William Porter.  Newton is not remembered with a warship (two WWI era ships bearing that name had their civilian names retained).

The post USS BEAGLE and GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                                    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 name to “George Farragut” and came to our newly declared nation to fight against King George III.  Serving with the South Carolina State Navy, he was wounded and captured during the British siege of Charleston.  A prisoner exchange allowed him to fight again at the battle of Cowpens.  He finished the war as a MAJ in a light horse company of the North Carolina State Regiment.  With the peace, George married his North Carolina sweetheart, Elizabeth Shine, and the couple moved west to Tennessee.  Their first of five children, James Glasgow Farragut, was born this day.

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Spanish-speaking George was selected for an administrative position in New Orleans.  Son James had his first nautical adventure on the 1700-mile flatboat trip down the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers.  In 1808, during a yellow fever outbreak, family friend LT David Porter, Jr., USN, brought his ailing father (and Revolutionary veteran), David Porter, Sr., to the Farragut home.  The elder Porter had Consumption (tuberculosis), complicated acutely with sunstroke.  Despite Elizabeth’s ministrations, the elder Porter died on 22 June.  Indeed, Elizabeth died that same day of yellow fever.  A distraught George Farragut consigned the care of his children to friends–James to LT Porter.  When James reached 9 years of age, Porter arranged an appointment as a midshipman, taking him under his wing and into combat in the War of 1812 aboard ESSEX, 32.  James changed his Christian name to David to honor his adopted father and steadily rose through the officer ranks.

A southerner by birth, David Glasgow Farragut nevertheless distinguished himself as a Union Navy commander during the Civil War.  To be sure, on 16 July 1862, Farragut was the first officer appointed a Rear Admiral with Congress’ creation of that rank.  Later, on 5 August 1864, from his flagship USS HARTFORD, RADM Farragut entered the Confederate held waters of Mobile Bay.  When the guns of the Confederate forts opened, the lead ship backed down in the channel, threatening to ruin the operation.  In his typical fiery style, Farragut ordered HARTFORD to pass around BROOKLYN–through a known mine field (mines in these days were called “torpedoes.”)  With the order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Farragut gambled that months of submersion had waterlogged the devices.  HARTFORD’s crew could hear the primers of the torpedoes snapping, but Farragut’s daring paid off, and the squadron went on to rout the Confederates.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 JUL 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cogar, William B.  Dictionary of Admirals of the U.S. Navy, Vol 1 1862-1900.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 60-61.

Hoehling, A.A.  Damn the Torpedoes!  Naval Incidents of the Civil War.  Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Pub., 1989, pp. 105-20.

Lewis, J.D.  “American Revolution in North Carolina.”  AT:  https://www.carolina.com/NC/Revolution/nc_patriot_military_major_s.html, retrieved 16 June 2023.

Lyons, Renee Critcher.  Foreign-Born American Patriots: Sixteen Volunteer Leaders in the Revolutionary War.  New York, NY: McFarland & Company, 2013, p. 91.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, pp. 104, 147-48.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 31-32, 74.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  History records little about David Porter, Sr.’s Revolutionary War naval service.  His son, David Porter, Jr., and David, Jr.’s son, David Dixon Porter, are remembered with our warships PORTER (TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, DDG-78).  David Glasgow Farragut has become an icon of our service’s heritage and is remembered with FARRAGUT (TB-11, DD-300, DD-348, DDG-37 (DLG-6), DDG-99).

Historians have since debated the actual words used by Farragut to command HARTFORD forward at Mobile Bay–but his intent is accurately portrayed with the quote above.

The use of “torpedo” for an underwater mine derives from the name of a fish.  The torpedo ray is native to the shallow waters of our Atlantic shores.  Like the electric eel, the torpedo ray can generate an electric shock and does so when stepped upon by waders.

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                                           DEATH OF LT COCKE

Piracy was rampant in the Caribbean of the early 19^th century.  Independence movements in several Spanish New World colonies created the problem, as these new nations often sanctioned privateering against their former Spanish overlords.  In turn, the Spanish of Puerto Rico and Cuba commissioned privateering against the former colonies of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.  Extending their official sanction, privateering captains often crossed into frank piracy, indiscriminately taking prizes of all ships, even American.  Spanish pirates operated from the many remote coves and bays of the Cuban and Puerto Rican coasts under this quasi-legitimacy–ironically, taking Spanish vessels as well!  So bad had the problem become, that on 26 March 1822 the US Navy established the West India Squadron to convoy American merchantmen and police the seas.  Surely, US officials thought, the Spanish authorities would be supportive of our actions against Caribbean piracy, as the Spanish would unavoidably benefit.  But enthusiasm for American operations in and around Cuba and Puerto Rico was never better than chilly, to say the least.

When the new commander of our West India Squadron, Commodore David Porter, arrived at St. Thomas (then Danish) on 3 March 1823, he sent a message to the Spanish governor, Don Miguel de la Torres, asking for a list of vessels legally commissioned to operate against the enemies of Spain.  Thus, Porter might know, “how and when to respect them.”  As the US was in the awkward position of having recognized the new governments in Colombia and Mexico, Porter further asked for details about actions the Puerto Ricans had sanctioned against Colombian and Mexican vessels trading with the United States.  Porter sent the 3-gun schooner USS GREYHOUND on March 4^th to deliver the note to San Juan.

Nothing was heard from GREYHOUND for two days.  On this day, LT W.H. Cocke, in the schooner FOX, 3, was sent into San Juan to inquire after GREYHOUND.  As Cocke approached the harbor entrance, a battery in the fortification of St. John opened fire.  Usually such warning shots passed harmlessly across the bows, but this time a groan was heard from the quarterdeck.  Blood streamed to the scuppers; the one-in-a-million shot had mortally cut down LT Cocke.

The commander of the garrison claimed he had been ordered to allow no American vessel into San Juan.  Calm did prevail, and an official apology was forthcoming.  This despite the Spanish authorities’ knowledge that at the same time Porter was combating true piracy, mercenary American civilians had sought privateering commissions from Venezuela and Colombia–and were legitimately plundering Spanish shipping!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 MAR 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 42-44.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 437.

“Naval Register for the Year 1822.”  AT: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/USN/1822/NavReg1822.html, retrieved 1 April 2013.

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. 37.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The skipper of GREYHOUND was Master Commandant John Porter, brother of the Commodore.  Nothing ill had befallen GREYHOUND.  She had simply been detained awaiting a Puerto Rican response.

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                   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 the Arkansas River, which was navigable in those days all the way into Oklahoma.  A concerned Governor Henry Rector appointed MGEN Thomas C. Hindman, CSA, to defend that river.  Through Hindman’s prodigious efforts a fort was constructed at a sharp bend in the lower Arkansas, 50 miles from its mouth at the Mississippi, at the site of a 1686 French trading post.  Fort Hindman was completed in the Fall of 1862 and garrisoned with 6,000 of Arkansas’ finest, including 35 naval gunners from the ram CSS Pontchartrain then under construction in Little Rock.

As Grant and Farragut stalled before Vicksburg late in 1862, one of Grant’s corps commanders, MGEN John A. McClernand, an Illinois politician turned general officer and personal friend of Lincoln, petitioned the President directly with his idea for an expedition against Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post.  Desperate for any victory, Lincoln assented.  On January 9^th McClernand led a massive army of 32,000 up the Arkansas River on 60 steamers, escorted by RADM David Dixon Porter and the twin-stack, casemated, paddlewheel  gunboats USS BARON de KALB, LOUISVILLE, LEXINGTON, CINCINNATI, RATTLER and BLACK HAWK.  When the fort’s Confederate commander, BGEN Thomas J. Churchill, CSA, was instructed to hold until relieved or destroyed.

Union troops landed on January 10^th, below the fort and on the opposite bank to block a Confederate retreat.  Then Porter’s gunboats opened a murderous bombardment, first on the Confederate picket lines, then on the fort itself.  The fort’s two largest cannon, in solid oak casemate overlain with four layers of railroad iron, proved no match for the powerful naval guns.  The Confederates were pummeled, but Union troops ashore were not able to completely invest the position before sunset.  This morning the bombardment renewed.  Porter’s gunners succeeded in dismounting the fort’s thirteen guns, then Porter began lobbing explosive shells at the rifle pits still stalling the ground advance.  A massed charge of the 120^th Ohio convinced Churchill to surrender; Admiral Porter and his gunboat Captains accepted his sword.

Though the battle validated the power of naval gunnery and secured Grant’s right flank around Vicksburg, in truth it added little to the strategic campaign for the Mississippi.  Grant was furious at what he saw as glory-seeking with “Caesar’s half of my army” on the part of McClernand.  The Illinoisan’s army was quickly dissolved, and he was relegated back to corps command.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  18 JAN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Coleman, Roger E.  The Arkansas Post Story (rev).  Washington, DC: Eastern National, 2002, pp. 107-17.

Coombe, Jack D.  Thunder Along the Mississippi:  The River Battles that Split the Confederacy.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1996, pp. 189-91.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. III 7-8.

Hearn, Chester G., “Admiral Porter and his ‘Damned Gunboats.'”  Naval History, Vol 10 (3), May/June 1996, pp. 40-42.

Page, Dave.  Ships Versus Shore:  Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers.  Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994, pp. 335-39.

Porter, David D.  The Naval History of the Civil War.  Mineola, NY: Dover Pub., 1886, pp. 289-93.

Site visit.  Arkansas Post National Memorial, AR, 11 October 2003.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Despite the thunderous bombardment that devastated Arkansas Post, surprisingly few casualties are reported.  Confederates lost 60 killed, 80 wounded and 4,800 captured.  McClernand lost 173 killed or missing and 898 wounded.  However the civilian town of Arkansas Post surrounding Fort Hindman was dealt a blow from which it never recovered.  The devastation to the Confederate army protecting Arkansas was as serious as the damage to Fort Hindman.  Neither the army nor the fort was ever reconstituted–probably a factor in Arkansas remaining a peripheral theater throughout the rest of the war. 

Today the site of Ft. Hindman has been lost to river erosion, but the Confederate trench and picket lines can still be seen.  The Arkansas Post National Memorial, administered by the National Park Service, celebrates the memory of this once-proud Confederate bastion.

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