SKIRMISH AT FORT LOWRY

We are familiar with inspiring stories of epic battles and heroic sailors, but the day-to-day operations of Civil War gunboats were often less dramatic.

The Potomac Flotilla, tasked with protecting Washington, DC, and the upper Chesapeake, numbered 23 vessels by the beginning of 1865.  Most were converted flat-bottom ferryboats, shallow draft tugs, and small sloops and schooners.  Each was under 600 tons, mounting 2-6 guns.  USS MORSE was typical.  Built in 1859 as the sidewheel ferryboat Marion, she displaced 514 tons and measured 143 feet in length.  She was purchased in November 1861 and outfitted with six guns including a pair of 100-pounder rifles.  After service in the Carolinas, MORSE steamed to the Chesapeake in 1863.

By February 1865, GEN Robert E. Lee had only 45,000 Confederate troops remaining to resist GEN U.S. Grant’s siege of Petersburg, Virginia.  While further north, the Potomac Flotilla escorted a US Army detachment in mopping up Rebel activities on the peninsula between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.  Earlier in the war, Rebels from this area had launched daring raids in the Chesapeake.  The town of Tappahannock occupies this peninsula, protected then by an earthwork fortification, Fort Lowry.  Advanced scouting by Acting LCDR Edward Hooker in USS COMMODORE READ had revealed the presence of three Rebel 10-pounder rifles in the area, two at the fort and one at Jones Point lower on the Rappahannock.

On this day, the gunboats USS COMMODORE READ, MORSE, DELAWARE, and the Army’s MOSSWOOD steamed up the Rappahannock.  Hooker’s reconnaissance proved accurate, for at 0800 MORSE came under fire.  The offending 2-gun battery was completely concealed, not even their muzzle flashes could be spotted. Acting Master George W. Hyde returned fire, but for two hours his gunners targeted only bushes and shadows.  MORSE’s suffered a battered carpenter shop and the bulkhead between steerage and the medical spaces was wrecked.  Portholes were smashed, and 20 panes of glass elsewhere were shattered.  At 1000 the still hidden guns fell silent.

This day’s excitement now over, MORSE and DELAWARE turned to destroying nine boats and the bridge connecting Tappahannock with Fort Lowry.  The fort itself was found to be deserted, but the gunboats bombarded it regardless.  Operations halted at 1800 when MORSE ran aground in the poorly charted river.  A modicum of effort freed her, and by 1930 all had returned to the Union held wharf.

The following morning’s enlivenment featured only the grounding of the sidewheel steamer USS BANSHEE–finally refloated by the tide.  The overall mission now completed, Rebel activities on the peninsula largely ended.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  19 MAR 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. V-61.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 440.

“Report of Acting Master Hyde, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. MORSE, of engagement with Confederate battery near Fort Lowry, Va.”  IN:  Rush, Richard and Robert H. Woods.  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 5, Operations on the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers from December 7, 1861, to July 31, 1865; Atlantic Blockading Squadron from April 4 to July 15, 1861.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1897, p. 530.

“Report of executive officer, U.S.S. MORSE, of injuries sustained by that vessel in engagement with Confederate battery near Fort Lowry, Va.”  IN:  Rush, Richard and Robert H. Woods.  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 5, Operations on the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers from December 7, 1861, to July 31, 1865; Atlantic Blockading Squadron from April 4 to July 15, 1861.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1897, p. 531.

“Semimonthly statement of vessels of the Potomac Flotilla.”  IN: Rush, Richard and Robert H. Woods.  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 5, Operations on the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers from December 7, 1861, to July 31, 1865; Atlantic Blockading Squadron from April 4 to July 15, 1861.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1897, p. 531.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 70, 101.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Fort Lowry has been lost to history.  It had been built in 1861 as an 8-gun battery to counter Union incursions toward Fredricksburg, Virginia.  But situated as it was on swampy ground near Lowry Point, the fort was subject to frequent flooding and erosion over the years.  Its presence is remembered today only with a roadside marker near Dunnsville, Virginia.

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               THE FIRST BATTLE OF QUALLAH BATTOO

His trading mission scrubbed, Captain Charles Endicott refitted Friendship for sea and departed 4 March 1831 for Salem.  His landfall on 16 July was preceded several days by the arrival of another trader to Boston bearing news of Friendship’s tragedy.  The public outcry was intense, and crowds lined the shores at the merchantman’s arrival.  Friendship’s owners boldly petitioned the US government for redress.  When news of the event reached Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Navy, John Branch, he demanded retribution.  The 44-gun frigate USS Potomac was ordered to be specially repainted and re-rigged to resemble a Danish trader.  Sailing under CAPT John Downes, USN, and embarking an extra complement of Marines, Potomac stood down from Sandy Hook bound for the South Seas on 28 August 1831.  When Downes asked the Navy Department to clarify what actions he might take in Sumatra he was answered simply, “Give the rascals a good thrashing.”  Downes’ “trader” dropped anchor in Quallah Battoo on February 5th, 1832, keeping her gunports deceptively closed.  The pirates failed to take the bait however, and the next morning Downes landed a scouting party of the ship’s officers dressed as merchant seamen.  They counted 500 Malays in three wooden stockades that protected the Rajah, Sultan Po Mohamet, and the village.  Po Mohamet had been a kingpin of pirate activity in the region for years.

Then at 0200 this morning a storming party of 282 Marines and bluejackets went ashore.  Divided into three sections, they attacked at dawn.  Two stockades fell within minutes, but the third was more tenaciously defended.  Two assaults were beaten back, the Marines finding their muskets nearly useless at such close quarters.  Shortly reinforced from the other sections, several more assaults were mounted.  Finally, after two hours of cutlass and pistol action the natives were routed.

The Malays regrouped into a fourth stockade that had been too well camouflaged to be noticed the day before.  Two American charges against this redoubt, now against native cannon and muskets, were also rebuffed.  But a third sent the remaining natives scurrying into the jungle.  Only two Americans were lost in the day’s fighting, but 150 natives, including Po Mohamet, lay dead.  While the shore party set about torching the village, Potomac slipped across the harbor to the site of another pirate den and reduced this with a fierce hour-long cannonade.

Shortly a promise was received that the Stars and Stripes would be respected in the future.  Potomac weighed anchor, continuing on a diplomatic mission to China.  But alas, the pirates honored their promise only until Downes faded over the horizon.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom

Rehabilitation Medicine

Corn, Charles.  The Scents of Eden:  A History of the Spice Trade.  New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1998, pp. 291-98.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, pp. 362-63.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 155-58.

Metcalf, Clyde H.  A History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939, p. 90.

Nalty, Bernard.  “Pirates and Pepper”.  IN:  Schuon, Karl.  The Leathernecks.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1963, pp. 67-70.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 44, 46.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In the same manner as America’s 21st century War on Terrorism, an organized national military operating at distance from its shores can find it difficult to sustain gains won against local terrorist cells.  Within weeks of Potomac’s departure, piracy against American traders resumed in Sumatra.  Our Navy was forced to make a second foray to this same location in December 1838–but that’s another story for another time.

The gallant actions of the Leathernecks at Quallah Battoo have become legendary in USMC heritage.  Noted artist Charles Waterhouse has rendered a depiction of the Marines this day, reprints of which are often seen hanging in modern USMC facilities.

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              FRIENDSHIP AND THE SUMATRAN PIRATES

Salem, Massachusetts, was one of our busiest seaports in the early days of our young nation.  In fact, it was the major port through which the American spice trade was conducted.  About the turn of the 19th century Salem shipping firms learned of the handsome profits to be made trading for pepper, then grown only in the Far East.  Salem’s merchant fleet was soon calling regularly on several Javanese and Sumatran villages where local rajahs would collect pepper from the interior for sale to the white men.  Thus, it was that the American merchantman Friendship anchored off on the village of Quallah Battoo in what is now Indonesia in January of 1831.

Piracy was a clear risk that pepper traders assumed, for along this western coast of Sumatra the practice had thrived for centuries.  So was Captain Charles Endicott suspicious when a native prahu pulled near the ship on a dark January night.  Its occupants confessed to be smuggling pepper and were cautiously permitted to board.  In truth they were reconnoitering Friendship.

Days later the local rajah lured Endicott and his officers ashore with promises of more pepper recently transhipped from the interior.  While the officers were thus engaged, a party of natives outnumbering Friendship’s remaining crew boarded.  Within minutes the 1st Mate, Mr. Knight, the steward, and several crewmen fell to the native’s krises.  Four crewmen jumped overboard and managed to swim away as the natives became distracted by the booty for which they had attacked.  Ashore, Endicott observed his crewmen jumping from Friendship and discerned the ruse.  He quietly mustered his officers and pushed-off in the ship’s pinnacle.

Correctly judging his remaining strength to be less than necessary to challenge the natives, Endicott’s men began rowing for the port of Muckie, 25 miles distant.  Through the day they labored, reaching the mouth of the Soo Soo River after nightfall.  Here they were able to obtain fresh water but dared not make a landfall.  Braving a sudden squall, they struggled onward, passing several hostile villages along the way.  With a makeshift sail of gunny sacks, Endicott’s men safely reached Muckie at 0100 that night.  They were sheltered by three American traders lying at anchor.  They were eventually reunited with the haggard four who had swum for their lives only to endure mosquitos, crocodiles, starvation, and exposure before reaching friendly natives.

The sympathetic captain of James Monroe, one of the traders, mounted a successful effort to re-take Friendship in the days that followed, but she was found to have been stripped of her specie, cargo, and $12,000 worth of spars and rigging the pirates could re-sell to future traders.  Endicott further observed many natives bedecked in red, white, and blue striped finery, clearly cut from Western cloth.  Even the wardroom’s gingham tablecloth was noted to be gracing the shoulders of a native warrior.

Continued tomorrow…

Corn, Charles.  The Scents of Eden:  A History of the Spice Trade.  New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1998, pp. 280-92.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 114.

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