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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 12/18/13 at 8:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 12/18/13 at 8:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 19 December 1863
It may not sound like much of an accomplishment. Certainly few theses were ever written on it, and absolutely no military songs or marches ever were aired in honor of this voyage of the USS Restless. But her captain, Acting Master W.R. Browne, had his assignment and pursued his enemy relentlessly: the salt suppliers of St. Andrew’s Bay, Florida. He had been on this mission for some weeks all along the Florida shore, and had achieved quite a bit of demolition, and today even Browne may have been startled when he sat down to write up his official report. Articles destroyed included “within the past 10 days 290 saltworks, 33 covered wagons, 12 flatboats, 2 sloops (five tons each), 6 ox carts, 4000 bushels of salt, 268 buildings at the different saltworks, 529 iron kettles averaging 150 gallons each, 105 iron boilers for boiling brine.” And, he added, “it is believed that the enemy destroyed as many more to prevent us from doing so.”
Another report: An expedition under Acting Master W. R. Browne, comprising the USS Restless, Bloomer, and Caroline, proceeded up St. Andrew's Bay, Florida, to continue the destruction of Confederate salt works. A landing party went ashore under Bloomer's guns and destroyed those works not already demolished by the Southerners when reports of the naval party were received. Browne was able to report that he had "...cleared the three arms of this extensive bay of salt works...Within the past ten days," he added, "290 salt works, 33 covered wagons, 12 flatboats, two sloops (3 ton each) 6 ox carts, 4,000 bushels of salt, 268 buildings at the different salt works, 529 iron kettles averaging 150 gallons each, 103 iron boilers for boiling brine [were destroyed], and it is believed that the enemy destroyed as many more to prevent us from doing so."
Mrs. Patterson Allan, charged with carrying on a treasonable correspondence with persons in the North, was arraigned before Commissioner Watson, at Richmond, Virginia. The letter which she was charged with writing, was enclosed in a box, and directed to Reverend Morgan Dix; both were then placed in a buff envelope, and addressed to Miss H. Harris, New York.
Captain George Washington Alexander--commandant at Castle Thunder, a Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia--was relieved from command at that point, and confined to his quarters, under arrest, charged with malfeasance in office. It was alleged that he extorted large sums of money from prisoners confined in that institution, by promising to use his influence for their benefit, and in some cases permitting the prisoners to go at large, upon paying him large sums of money. He was also charged with trading largely in greenbacks.
Colonel A. D. Streight, and his Adjutant, Lieutenant Reed, in attempting to escape from Libby Prison, at Richmond, Virginia, were detected, and “put in the dungeon.”
Major General Hiram U. Grant arrived at Nashville, Tennessee.
It may not sound like much of an accomplishment. Certainly few theses were ever written on it, and absolutely no military songs or marches ever were aired in honor of this voyage of the USS Restless. But her captain, Acting Master W.R. Browne, had his assignment and pursued his enemy relentlessly: the salt suppliers of St. Andrew’s Bay, Florida. He had been on this mission for some weeks all along the Florida shore, and had achieved quite a bit of demolition, and today even Browne may have been startled when he sat down to write up his official report. Articles destroyed included “within the past 10 days 290 saltworks, 33 covered wagons, 12 flatboats, 2 sloops (five tons each), 6 ox carts, 4000 bushels of salt, 268 buildings at the different saltworks, 529 iron kettles averaging 150 gallons each, 105 iron boilers for boiling brine.” And, he added, “it is believed that the enemy destroyed as many more to prevent us from doing so.”
Another report: An expedition under Acting Master W. R. Browne, comprising the USS Restless, Bloomer, and Caroline, proceeded up St. Andrew's Bay, Florida, to continue the destruction of Confederate salt works. A landing party went ashore under Bloomer's guns and destroyed those works not already demolished by the Southerners when reports of the naval party were received. Browne was able to report that he had "...cleared the three arms of this extensive bay of salt works...Within the past ten days," he added, "290 salt works, 33 covered wagons, 12 flatboats, two sloops (3 ton each) 6 ox carts, 4,000 bushels of salt, 268 buildings at the different salt works, 529 iron kettles averaging 150 gallons each, 103 iron boilers for boiling brine [were destroyed], and it is believed that the enemy destroyed as many more to prevent us from doing so."
Mrs. Patterson Allan, charged with carrying on a treasonable correspondence with persons in the North, was arraigned before Commissioner Watson, at Richmond, Virginia. The letter which she was charged with writing, was enclosed in a box, and directed to Reverend Morgan Dix; both were then placed in a buff envelope, and addressed to Miss H. Harris, New York.
Captain George Washington Alexander--commandant at Castle Thunder, a Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia--was relieved from command at that point, and confined to his quarters, under arrest, charged with malfeasance in office. It was alleged that he extorted large sums of money from prisoners confined in that institution, by promising to use his influence for their benefit, and in some cases permitting the prisoners to go at large, upon paying him large sums of money. He was also charged with trading largely in greenbacks.
Colonel A. D. Streight, and his Adjutant, Lieutenant Reed, in attempting to escape from Libby Prison, at Richmond, Virginia, were detected, and “put in the dungeon.”
Major General Hiram U. Grant arrived at Nashville, Tennessee.
This post was edited on 12/19/13 at 7:09 am
1
Posted on 12/19/13 at 8:15 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 20 December 1863
The recent command changes at the top of the Confederate Army of Tennessee seemed to have settled down. After Braxton Bragg had come General William J. Hardee; replacing Hardee now was General Joseph Eggleston Johnston. As he settled into the intricacies of his new office there was the expected bureaucratic tangle of orders, requisitions and paperwork of all sorts to be gone through. At the top of the pile was the obligatory letter from his President, Jefferson Finis Davis. To call it a letter of congratulations, under the circumstances, would not be quite correct, but not yet was it a missive of condolence. “The difficulties of your new position,” Davis wrote, “are realized, and the Government will make every possible effort to aid you...” What Davis did not need to write, because Johnston, like every other Confederate commander, already knew it, was that there was precious little that Richmond could do to aid the effort in the West. The effort of sending Longstreet’s corps of the Army of Northern Virginia to Tennessee had, in the end, been a failure.
The steamer Antonica ran aground on Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, attempting to run the blockade. Boat crews from the USS Governor Buckingham, under Acting Lieutenant William G. Saltonstall, captured her crew but were unable to get the steamer off. Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee noted: "She will be a total loss..." Antonica had formerly run the blockade a number of times under British registry and the name of Herald, "...carrying from 1,000 to 1,200 bales of cotton at a time."
The USS Connecticut, under Commander John Jay Almy, seized the British blockade running schooner Sallie with a cargo of salt off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina. Almy would eventually become a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and hold the record for the longest period of seagoing service-27 years, 10 months.
The Third Wisconsin cavalry returned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, from a successful reconnaissance southward. They were within five miles of the Red River, but finding that the Rebels had changed position since last advices, they were unable to proceed further. Their return was a constant skirmish for over one hundred miles, strong bodies of the enemy being posted at all the crossroads to intercept them. They, however, cut their way through. In some places they evaded the enemy by taking blind mountain passes. Their loss was small.
Mrs. Anne Johnston, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was tried at Nashville, Tennessee, before the Military Committee, for acting as a Confederate spy and smuggling saddles and harness from Cincinnati into the Rebel lines. The articles were packed in barrels, purporting to contain bacon, for the shipment of which permits had been regularly obtained.
The schooner USS Fox, Acting Master George Ashbury in charge, tender to the United States flagship San Jacinto and assigned to the East-Gulf squadron, destroyed in the Suwanee River, Florida, a Rebel steamer, supposed to be the Little Leila, formerly the Paw-Paw, and before that the Flushing. She was set fire to by a boat's crew belonging to the Fox. The Fox then captured the steamer Powerful at the mouth of the Suwannee River. The steamer had been abandoned by her crew on the approach of the Union ship, and, unable to stop a serious leak, Ashbury ordered the blockade runner destroyed.
The recent command changes at the top of the Confederate Army of Tennessee seemed to have settled down. After Braxton Bragg had come General William J. Hardee; replacing Hardee now was General Joseph Eggleston Johnston. As he settled into the intricacies of his new office there was the expected bureaucratic tangle of orders, requisitions and paperwork of all sorts to be gone through. At the top of the pile was the obligatory letter from his President, Jefferson Finis Davis. To call it a letter of congratulations, under the circumstances, would not be quite correct, but not yet was it a missive of condolence. “The difficulties of your new position,” Davis wrote, “are realized, and the Government will make every possible effort to aid you...” What Davis did not need to write, because Johnston, like every other Confederate commander, already knew it, was that there was precious little that Richmond could do to aid the effort in the West. The effort of sending Longstreet’s corps of the Army of Northern Virginia to Tennessee had, in the end, been a failure.
The steamer Antonica ran aground on Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, attempting to run the blockade. Boat crews from the USS Governor Buckingham, under Acting Lieutenant William G. Saltonstall, captured her crew but were unable to get the steamer off. Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee noted: "She will be a total loss..." Antonica had formerly run the blockade a number of times under British registry and the name of Herald, "...carrying from 1,000 to 1,200 bales of cotton at a time."
The USS Connecticut, under Commander John Jay Almy, seized the British blockade running schooner Sallie with a cargo of salt off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina. Almy would eventually become a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and hold the record for the longest period of seagoing service-27 years, 10 months.
The Third Wisconsin cavalry returned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, from a successful reconnaissance southward. They were within five miles of the Red River, but finding that the Rebels had changed position since last advices, they were unable to proceed further. Their return was a constant skirmish for over one hundred miles, strong bodies of the enemy being posted at all the crossroads to intercept them. They, however, cut their way through. In some places they evaded the enemy by taking blind mountain passes. Their loss was small.
Mrs. Anne Johnston, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was tried at Nashville, Tennessee, before the Military Committee, for acting as a Confederate spy and smuggling saddles and harness from Cincinnati into the Rebel lines. The articles were packed in barrels, purporting to contain bacon, for the shipment of which permits had been regularly obtained.
The schooner USS Fox, Acting Master George Ashbury in charge, tender to the United States flagship San Jacinto and assigned to the East-Gulf squadron, destroyed in the Suwanee River, Florida, a Rebel steamer, supposed to be the Little Leila, formerly the Paw-Paw, and before that the Flushing. She was set fire to by a boat's crew belonging to the Fox. The Fox then captured the steamer Powerful at the mouth of the Suwannee River. The steamer had been abandoned by her crew on the approach of the Union ship, and, unable to stop a serious leak, Ashbury ordered the blockade runner destroyed.
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