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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 12/5/13 at 8:40 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 12/5/13 at 8:40 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 6 December 1863
Like many horrific accidents, the tragedy of the USS Weehawken today resulted from a number of causes taken together, none of which by themselves would necessarily have been fatal. The ship, under command of Commander Jesse M. Duncan, was patrolling Charleston Harbor. First, the ship was heavily overloaded with extra ammunition, the weight of which caused the vessel to ride unusually low in the water. Secondly, an inlet called a hawse pipe, along with a watertight hatch next to it, were left open when by usual practice they should have been dogged shut. Finally, a combination of a wind and a strong ebb tide cause a wave to wash up over the bow of the ship. Water poured into the open pipe and hatch, and the ship sank almost instantly. Some two dozen officers and men were drowned.
Another report: The United States monitor Weehawken, Commander Jesse Duncan, was sunk off Morris Island, South Carolina, on December 6, 1863. The loss was attributed to improper stowage of ammunition combined with rough seas. Four officers and twenty men drowned. Contemporary accounts tell of the last moments of her "terror stricken crew" and the "vain shrieks" of the firemen manning the pumps, and of "men in irons" that went down with her. The "paymaster's funds and the papers of the ship (went down) with her." The Weehawken was a "Passaic Class" monitor with a single revolving turret. The vessel measured 844 tons, 200' in length, 46' in breath, 12'6? in depth, and 10'6? draft. The gunboat had two Ericsson vibrating engines, and two Martin boilers. The Weehawken was armed with one 15-inch Dahlgren smoothbore and one 11-inch Dahlgren smooth-bore. The vessel had a complement of seventy-five men. The slow moving gunboat was rated at only five knots. The Weehawken was built by contract with Zeno Secor & Company of New York at the yard of Joseph Coldwell at Jersey City, New Jersey, at a total cost of $465,110.73, and was launched on November 5, 1863. At least one hundred and thirty tons of iron was removed from the wreck of the Weehawken by Professor Maillefert's salvage company in 1873.
The USS Violet, Acting Ensign Thomas Stothard, and the USS Aries, Acting Lieutenant Devens, sighted the blockade running British steamer Ceres aground and burning at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. During the night, Ceres floated free and, the flames having been extinguished, was seized by Violet.
Major General William T. Sherman and staff; accompanied by Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson, arrived at General Ambrose E. Burnside's headquarters, at Knoxville, Tennessee, at noon today.
A successful reconnaissance was made to Madison Court House, Virginia, by four squadrons of the First New York Dragoons, under Major Scott, demonstrating that no Rebel force existed in that quarter. At James City, a few Confederates, who retreated on the approach of the large Federal force, were seen. On Thoroughfare Mountain, the Southern signal-station was found in the possession of some thirty Confederate cavalry, who slipped away upon sighting the Yankees. They were pursued some distance by Scott's men, but without capture. It was found to be a good position for its past uses, as well as in turn to be used against them, as from it the position of nearly the whole Rebel army can be seen. The destruction was made as complete as possible.
The merchant steamer Chesapeake, commanded by Captain Willets, was seized by a party of partisan Rebels, who had taken passage in her, while on her way from New York to Portand, Maine. The pirates assaulted the crew, killed the engineer, and wounded two other officers, and, after landing the passengers at Partridge Island, successfully escaped with the vessel.
Like many horrific accidents, the tragedy of the USS Weehawken today resulted from a number of causes taken together, none of which by themselves would necessarily have been fatal. The ship, under command of Commander Jesse M. Duncan, was patrolling Charleston Harbor. First, the ship was heavily overloaded with extra ammunition, the weight of which caused the vessel to ride unusually low in the water. Secondly, an inlet called a hawse pipe, along with a watertight hatch next to it, were left open when by usual practice they should have been dogged shut. Finally, a combination of a wind and a strong ebb tide cause a wave to wash up over the bow of the ship. Water poured into the open pipe and hatch, and the ship sank almost instantly. Some two dozen officers and men were drowned.
Another report: The United States monitor Weehawken, Commander Jesse Duncan, was sunk off Morris Island, South Carolina, on December 6, 1863. The loss was attributed to improper stowage of ammunition combined with rough seas. Four officers and twenty men drowned. Contemporary accounts tell of the last moments of her "terror stricken crew" and the "vain shrieks" of the firemen manning the pumps, and of "men in irons" that went down with her. The "paymaster's funds and the papers of the ship (went down) with her." The Weehawken was a "Passaic Class" monitor with a single revolving turret. The vessel measured 844 tons, 200' in length, 46' in breath, 12'6? in depth, and 10'6? draft. The gunboat had two Ericsson vibrating engines, and two Martin boilers. The Weehawken was armed with one 15-inch Dahlgren smoothbore and one 11-inch Dahlgren smooth-bore. The vessel had a complement of seventy-five men. The slow moving gunboat was rated at only five knots. The Weehawken was built by contract with Zeno Secor & Company of New York at the yard of Joseph Coldwell at Jersey City, New Jersey, at a total cost of $465,110.73, and was launched on November 5, 1863. At least one hundred and thirty tons of iron was removed from the wreck of the Weehawken by Professor Maillefert's salvage company in 1873.
The USS Violet, Acting Ensign Thomas Stothard, and the USS Aries, Acting Lieutenant Devens, sighted the blockade running British steamer Ceres aground and burning at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. During the night, Ceres floated free and, the flames having been extinguished, was seized by Violet.
Major General William T. Sherman and staff; accompanied by Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson, arrived at General Ambrose E. Burnside's headquarters, at Knoxville, Tennessee, at noon today.
A successful reconnaissance was made to Madison Court House, Virginia, by four squadrons of the First New York Dragoons, under Major Scott, demonstrating that no Rebel force existed in that quarter. At James City, a few Confederates, who retreated on the approach of the large Federal force, were seen. On Thoroughfare Mountain, the Southern signal-station was found in the possession of some thirty Confederate cavalry, who slipped away upon sighting the Yankees. They were pursued some distance by Scott's men, but without capture. It was found to be a good position for its past uses, as well as in turn to be used against them, as from it the position of nearly the whole Rebel army can be seen. The destruction was made as complete as possible.
The merchant steamer Chesapeake, commanded by Captain Willets, was seized by a party of partisan Rebels, who had taken passage in her, while on her way from New York to Portand, Maine. The pirates assaulted the crew, killed the engineer, and wounded two other officers, and, after landing the passengers at Partridge Island, successfully escaped with the vessel.
This post was edited on 12/6/13 at 4:54 am
1
Posted on 12/6/13 at 8:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 7 December 1863
As the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was essentially the same document as the one used by the United States (with three significant and important modifications-like term limits, line item veto and banning the international slave trade) it was not surprising that many events, such as the opening of sessions of Congress, occurred at the same time. Such was the case today as legislative bodies were convened in both Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In Richmond, the report from the President was grim. Foreign relations had not improved, Jefferson Davis reported, which meant they basically did not exist. Finances were in dire straits, the prisoner-of-war exchange system remained in limbo, and the army had suffered “grave reverses”, but the level of patriotism remained high. In Washington, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles reported that the blockade was solid “...commencing at Alexandria, Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande.”
In his third annual report to the President, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: "A blockade commencing at Alexandria, in Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande, has been effectively maintained. The extent of this blockade . . . . covers a distance of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine statute miles, with one hundred and eighty-nine harbor or pier openings or indentations, and much of the coast presents a double shore to be guarded . . . a naval force of more than one hundred vessels has been employed in patrolling the rivers, cutting off rebel supplies, and co-operating with the armies. . . . The distance thus traversed and patrolled by the gunboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries is 3,615 miles, and the sounds, bayous, rivers and inlets of the States upon the Atlantic and the Gulf, covering an extent of about 2,000 miles, have also been . . . watched with unceasing vigilance." Welles reported a naval strength of 34,000 sea-men and 588 ships displacing 467,967 tons, mounting 4,443 guns. More than 1,000 ships had been captured by alert blockaders, as the results of weakness at sea were driven home to the beleaguered South. The North's mighty force afloat had severed the Confederacy along the Mississippi and pierced ever deeper into her interior; amphibious assaults from the sea had driven her still further from her coasts; and the vise of the blockade clamped down more tightly on an already withering economy and military capability.
Steamer Chesapeake (formerly the Totten, a 460-ton wooden steamship built in 1853 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; rebuilt and renamed Chesapeake in 1857) of the New York and Portland Line, en route to Portland, Maine, was seized off Cape Cod by a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers led by John C. Braine. The bizarre undertaking had been planned at St. John, New Brunswick, by Captain John Parker (whose real name seems to have been Vernon G. Locke), former commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution. Parker ordered Braine and his men to New York where they purchased side arms and boarded Chesapeake as passengers. At the appropriate moment they threw aside their disguises. and after a brief exchange of gunfire in which the second engineer was killed, took possession of the steamer. They intended to make for Wilmington after coaling in Nova Scotia. Captain Parker came on board in the Bay of Fundy and took charge. News of the capture elicited a quick response in the Navy Department. Ships from Philadelphia northward were ordered out in pursuit. On 17 December USS Ella and Annie, Acting Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice Admiralty Court ultimately restored the steamer to her original American owners. Most of the Confederates escaped and John Braine would again cause the Union much concern before the war ended.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox transmitted a list of ships reported to be running the blockade and urged Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to prosecute the blockade even more vigorously. "While the captures are numerous, it is not the less evident that there are many that escape capture." Some ships would successfully run the blockade until the end of the war.
Major General John Gray Foster, from his headquarters at Tazewell, Tennessee, sent the following to the Federal War Department: “Longstreet is on a full retreat up the valley. Your orders about following with cavalry, shall be carried out. My division of cavalry attacked the enemy's cavalry in one of the passes of Clinch Mountains, yesterday P. M., and are pushing them vigorously. Couriers from Knoxville arrived last night. The road is clear. Sherman arrived here yesterday.”
President Abraham Lincoln issued the following recommendation for prayer and thanksgiving, for the defeat of the Rebels under General James Longstreet: “Reliable information having been received that the insurgent force is retreating from East-Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position, and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the national cause.”
A debate on the question of the employment of substitutes in the Southern army was held in the Confederate Congress.
The steamer Von Phul, on a trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, was fired into at a point about eight miles above Bayou Sara, and seriously damaged.
Major General John A. Logan assumed command of the Fifteenth army corps, at Bridgeport, Alabama.
Full and enthusiastic meetings were held in various portions of Indiana. At the capital of the State, General Henry B. Carrington made a strategical speech, illustrated by maps and diagrams, showing how the Rebels could eventually be circumvented.
As the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was essentially the same document as the one used by the United States (with three significant and important modifications-like term limits, line item veto and banning the international slave trade) it was not surprising that many events, such as the opening of sessions of Congress, occurred at the same time. Such was the case today as legislative bodies were convened in both Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In Richmond, the report from the President was grim. Foreign relations had not improved, Jefferson Davis reported, which meant they basically did not exist. Finances were in dire straits, the prisoner-of-war exchange system remained in limbo, and the army had suffered “grave reverses”, but the level of patriotism remained high. In Washington, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles reported that the blockade was solid “...commencing at Alexandria, Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande.”
In his third annual report to the President, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: "A blockade commencing at Alexandria, in Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande, has been effectively maintained. The extent of this blockade . . . . covers a distance of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine statute miles, with one hundred and eighty-nine harbor or pier openings or indentations, and much of the coast presents a double shore to be guarded . . . a naval force of more than one hundred vessels has been employed in patrolling the rivers, cutting off rebel supplies, and co-operating with the armies. . . . The distance thus traversed and patrolled by the gunboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries is 3,615 miles, and the sounds, bayous, rivers and inlets of the States upon the Atlantic and the Gulf, covering an extent of about 2,000 miles, have also been . . . watched with unceasing vigilance." Welles reported a naval strength of 34,000 sea-men and 588 ships displacing 467,967 tons, mounting 4,443 guns. More than 1,000 ships had been captured by alert blockaders, as the results of weakness at sea were driven home to the beleaguered South. The North's mighty force afloat had severed the Confederacy along the Mississippi and pierced ever deeper into her interior; amphibious assaults from the sea had driven her still further from her coasts; and the vise of the blockade clamped down more tightly on an already withering economy and military capability.
Steamer Chesapeake (formerly the Totten, a 460-ton wooden steamship built in 1853 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; rebuilt and renamed Chesapeake in 1857) of the New York and Portland Line, en route to Portland, Maine, was seized off Cape Cod by a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers led by John C. Braine. The bizarre undertaking had been planned at St. John, New Brunswick, by Captain John Parker (whose real name seems to have been Vernon G. Locke), former commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution. Parker ordered Braine and his men to New York where they purchased side arms and boarded Chesapeake as passengers. At the appropriate moment they threw aside their disguises. and after a brief exchange of gunfire in which the second engineer was killed, took possession of the steamer. They intended to make for Wilmington after coaling in Nova Scotia. Captain Parker came on board in the Bay of Fundy and took charge. News of the capture elicited a quick response in the Navy Department. Ships from Philadelphia northward were ordered out in pursuit. On 17 December USS Ella and Annie, Acting Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice Admiralty Court ultimately restored the steamer to her original American owners. Most of the Confederates escaped and John Braine would again cause the Union much concern before the war ended.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox transmitted a list of ships reported to be running the blockade and urged Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to prosecute the blockade even more vigorously. "While the captures are numerous, it is not the less evident that there are many that escape capture." Some ships would successfully run the blockade until the end of the war.
Major General John Gray Foster, from his headquarters at Tazewell, Tennessee, sent the following to the Federal War Department: “Longstreet is on a full retreat up the valley. Your orders about following with cavalry, shall be carried out. My division of cavalry attacked the enemy's cavalry in one of the passes of Clinch Mountains, yesterday P. M., and are pushing them vigorously. Couriers from Knoxville arrived last night. The road is clear. Sherman arrived here yesterday.”
President Abraham Lincoln issued the following recommendation for prayer and thanksgiving, for the defeat of the Rebels under General James Longstreet: “Reliable information having been received that the insurgent force is retreating from East-Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position, and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the national cause.”
A debate on the question of the employment of substitutes in the Southern army was held in the Confederate Congress.
The steamer Von Phul, on a trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, was fired into at a point about eight miles above Bayou Sara, and seriously damaged.
Major General John A. Logan assumed command of the Fifteenth army corps, at Bridgeport, Alabama.
Full and enthusiastic meetings were held in various portions of Indiana. At the capital of the State, General Henry B. Carrington made a strategical speech, illustrated by maps and diagrams, showing how the Rebels could eventually be circumvented.
This post was edited on 12/7/13 at 6:23 am
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