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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 5/30/15 at 9:10 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 5/30/15 at 9:10 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 31 May 1865
Union Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox orders a reduction in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron to 10 steamers and four tug boats. The same order re-designates the Squadron as the East Gulf Squadron. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron is compressed to 15 steamers and six tug boats and is re-designated the South Atlantic Squadron. The West Gulf Squadron is also reduced to 15 steamers, one monitor and one river ironclad, and six tugs.
The following are today appointed Union Brigadier Generals: Henry Alanson Barnum, Robert Francis Catterson, William Thomas Clark, Americus Vespucius Rice, William Burnham Woods.
A Federal expedition travels from Barrancas, Florida, aboard the transports, Peabody, N.P Banks, Clyde, Hussar, and Tampico, as well as with the steamer, Itasca, to Apalachicola.
The firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor traditionally marks the opening salvos of the War Between the States. But before this assault on April 12, 1861, there was another battle--the first shots of the War--hundreds of miles to the south in Florida.
On 8 January 1861, United States Army guards repelled a group of Southern partisans intending to take Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Harbor. Some historians maintain this event could be considered the first hostile volleys fired in the Civil War.
Fort Barrancas, located on a barrier island, was one of four fortified areas that marked the southern defenses. Fort Barrancas has been a site for harbor citadels since 1763, when the British built a fort. The Spanish captured Pensacola from the British in 1781 and constructed their own stronghold on the site, calling it San Carlos de Barranca. The Spanish word barranca means bluff, which fairly describes the location of the fort.
The United States began constructing fortifications at Pensacola in the 1820s, when Pensacola Bay was chosen as the site for a Navy Yard. Along with Fort Barrancas, which defended the Navy Yard, there were Fort Pickens and Fort McRee, both located on islands at the entrance to the bay. The Advance Redoubt, near Fort Barrancas, was an infantry fort, designed to stop overland movement of enemy troops toward the Navy Yard.
Fort Pickens was the largest installation that guarded Pensacola Harbor. Constructed between 1829-1834, Pickens was located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore the mainland. Construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the Corps of Army Engineers. Employing slave labor, the fort used over 22 million bricks and was designed to be impregnable. Ironically, Chase was later appointed by the State of Florida to command its troops and seize for the South the very fort he had built.
That the defensive positions were of critical importance was realized by both the Union and the Confederacy. On 5 January, Senator David Levy Yulee wrote from Washington, DC, to Joseph Finegan at Tallahassee, "The immediately important thing to be done is the occupation of the forts and arsenals in Florida." Union soldiers in Florida occupied the Apalachicola arsenal at Chattahoochee, containing a small number of arms, 5,000 pounds of powder and about 175,000 cartridges; Fort Barrancas, with 44 cannons and ammunition; Barrancas barracks, where there was a field battery; Fort Pickens, equipped with 201 cannons with ammunition; Fort McRee, 125 seacoast and garrison cannons; Fort Taylor in Key West, with 60 cannons; Key West barracks, 4 cannons; Fort Marion, with 6 field batteries and some small arms; and Fort Jefferson on the Tortugas.
Senator Yulee pointed out, "The naval station and forts at Pensacola were first in consequence." There was then on the mainland one company of Federal artillery, commanded by John H. Winder, later to be promoted to general in the Confederate service. On account of Winder's absence Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer was in charge.
At the time of the Secession, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Lieutenant Slemmer, responsible for the U.S. forces at Fort Barrancas, decided that in spite of its dilapidated condition, Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision was accelerated around midnight of 8 January when his troops repelled a group of men intending to take the station. In consolidating his position, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated his 80 troops to Fort Pickens. Because of his tactical thinking, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.
Union Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox orders a reduction in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron to 10 steamers and four tug boats. The same order re-designates the Squadron as the East Gulf Squadron. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron is compressed to 15 steamers and six tug boats and is re-designated the South Atlantic Squadron. The West Gulf Squadron is also reduced to 15 steamers, one monitor and one river ironclad, and six tugs.
The following are today appointed Union Brigadier Generals: Henry Alanson Barnum, Robert Francis Catterson, William Thomas Clark, Americus Vespucius Rice, William Burnham Woods.
A Federal expedition travels from Barrancas, Florida, aboard the transports, Peabody, N.P Banks, Clyde, Hussar, and Tampico, as well as with the steamer, Itasca, to Apalachicola.
The firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor traditionally marks the opening salvos of the War Between the States. But before this assault on April 12, 1861, there was another battle--the first shots of the War--hundreds of miles to the south in Florida.
On 8 January 1861, United States Army guards repelled a group of Southern partisans intending to take Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Harbor. Some historians maintain this event could be considered the first hostile volleys fired in the Civil War.
Fort Barrancas, located on a barrier island, was one of four fortified areas that marked the southern defenses. Fort Barrancas has been a site for harbor citadels since 1763, when the British built a fort. The Spanish captured Pensacola from the British in 1781 and constructed their own stronghold on the site, calling it San Carlos de Barranca. The Spanish word barranca means bluff, which fairly describes the location of the fort.
The United States began constructing fortifications at Pensacola in the 1820s, when Pensacola Bay was chosen as the site for a Navy Yard. Along with Fort Barrancas, which defended the Navy Yard, there were Fort Pickens and Fort McRee, both located on islands at the entrance to the bay. The Advance Redoubt, near Fort Barrancas, was an infantry fort, designed to stop overland movement of enemy troops toward the Navy Yard.
Fort Pickens was the largest installation that guarded Pensacola Harbor. Constructed between 1829-1834, Pickens was located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore the mainland. Construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the Corps of Army Engineers. Employing slave labor, the fort used over 22 million bricks and was designed to be impregnable. Ironically, Chase was later appointed by the State of Florida to command its troops and seize for the South the very fort he had built.
That the defensive positions were of critical importance was realized by both the Union and the Confederacy. On 5 January, Senator David Levy Yulee wrote from Washington, DC, to Joseph Finegan at Tallahassee, "The immediately important thing to be done is the occupation of the forts and arsenals in Florida." Union soldiers in Florida occupied the Apalachicola arsenal at Chattahoochee, containing a small number of arms, 5,000 pounds of powder and about 175,000 cartridges; Fort Barrancas, with 44 cannons and ammunition; Barrancas barracks, where there was a field battery; Fort Pickens, equipped with 201 cannons with ammunition; Fort McRee, 125 seacoast and garrison cannons; Fort Taylor in Key West, with 60 cannons; Key West barracks, 4 cannons; Fort Marion, with 6 field batteries and some small arms; and Fort Jefferson on the Tortugas.
Senator Yulee pointed out, "The naval station and forts at Pensacola were first in consequence." There was then on the mainland one company of Federal artillery, commanded by John H. Winder, later to be promoted to general in the Confederate service. On account of Winder's absence Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer was in charge.
At the time of the Secession, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Lieutenant Slemmer, responsible for the U.S. forces at Fort Barrancas, decided that in spite of its dilapidated condition, Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision was accelerated around midnight of 8 January when his troops repelled a group of men intending to take the station. In consolidating his position, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated his 80 troops to Fort Pickens. Because of his tactical thinking, Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.
1
Posted on 5/31/15 at 9:00 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 1 June 1865
A Federal expedition travels through Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties, West Virginia, and Highland County, Virginia, reportedly in search of horse thieves. The Yankees moved to Huttonsville, Gatewood's, Back Creek Valley, Galltown, Monterey, New Hampton, and the surrounding areas, without finding any horse thieves.
Skirmishing breaks out at Sweetwater Station, in the Nebraska Territory.
In his report regarding the surrender of Confederate forces, Major General Edward R. S. Canby, commanding the Military Division of West Mississippi, noted: "...during the whole period of my command in the Southwest, I was materially aided by the zealous and efficient cooperation of the naval forces of the West Gulf and Mississippi squadrons, and a more effective acknowledgement than mine is due to Admiral Farragut, Commodore Palmer, Admiral Thatcher, successive commanders of the West Gulf, and Admirals Porter and Lee, of the Mississippi Squadron, and to their subordinates in both squadrons."
Lieutenant Commander Nathaniel Green, in the U.S.S. Itasca, commanded the naval units in a combined Army-Navy movement to occupy Apalachicola, Florida. Brigadier General Alexander Asboth, commanding the expedition, commended Green highly for his "...nautical skill and efficiency, as well as his friendly willingness to aid..." which, the General reported, materially contributed to the successful execution of the mission.
The last official orders of the War Between the States sees a Navy expedition head up the Red River north of Shreveport to take possession of the C.S.S. Missouri and a small naval flotilla which includes a number of submarines. Warned of underwater activity in the area, the wary sailors arrive to find the Missouri and her crew waiting for capture, and the submarines all scuttled and their crews escaped.
Full report: Lieutenant William E. Fitzhugh, in the U.S.S. Ouachita, leads a naval expedition of seven gunboats up the Red River escorting 4,000 troops under Major General Francis J. Herron. These troops were moving into the trans-Mississippi theater to garrison the forts and posts surrendered by Confederate General Kirby Smith and to establish law and order in the region. At Alexandria, Louisiana, Fitzhugh met with Lieutenant Jonathan H. Carter, the senior Confederate naval officer in the trans-Mississippi department and received the surrender of all naval vessels, equipment, and personnel in that region. The most formidable vessel surrendered was the stern-wheel ironclad, C.S.S. Missouri, commanded by Lieutenant J. H. Carter. The ship had been built in Shreveport and late in March, when the river had risen sufficiently, had steamed down river to Alexandria. There Carter had written enthusiastically to General Simon B. Buckner: "I will...be pleased to welcome you on the deck of the Missouri, when we arrive at Grand Ecore...I hope to be a valuable [addition] to your forces defending the valley." The Missouri, however, never had this opportunity for battle, although she had the distinction of being the last Confederate ironclad to be surrendered in home waters.
Before burning the Abigail, the commander of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, obtained a stove from her for his cabin, one of the many items that had not been provided when the C.S.S. Shenandoah hastily left the Liverpool the previous Autumn. He needed it in the ensuing days as he navigated along the frozen shores of Siberia. "I continued as far as the Chi-jinskiki Bay, but found it so full of ice the steamer could not be entered. I then stood along the land of eastern Siberia as far as Tausk Bay, when she was forced away by the ice, and I left for Shantaski [Shantarski] Island, but I found ice in such quantities before we reached the 150º meridian of east longitude that she was forced to the southward finding ice in almost every direction and apparently closing on her."
"The situation caused anxiety of mind, and I solved the seamanship problem before us. The scene was cold, the mercury several degrees below zero, the ice varied in thickness from fifteen to thirty feet and, although not very firm, was sufficiently so to injure the Shenandoah if we were not very careful. I wanted to reach Shantarski Island (called by whalers Greer Island) for there is fishing there and in the bays southwest of it."
In this chill sea, the Shenandoah met severe gales. "The damage from these gales is much increased by the heavy ice which a vessel is likely to be driven on and wrecked. We encountered the first one of those gales to windward of twenty miles of floe ice, and if we had been lying to with the ice under our lea, the Shenandoah would probably have been lost with her entire crew."
"It became imperatively necessary to relieve the ship of her perilous situation. She was run a little distance from and along the floe until a passage was seen from aloft through it with open water beyond. Into this passage she was entered and in a short time she was lying to under close reefed sails with the floe to windward, and this was the solution of that seamanship problem alluded to a little time before, for our dreaded enemy was now become our best friend, the fury of the sea was expended on it and not against the Shenandoah. It was a breakwater for the ship."
"She laid perfectly easy, the water was as smooth as a pond, while the seas on the weather edge of the floe broke furiously, throwing sheets of water twenty feet high, to all appearances a fog bank."
"It was so far away we could only hear the hurrying of wind as it piped louder and carried in it a penetrating mist. The Shenandoah being relieved of the threatened danger, the next thought was to prevent her from going into the ice during the thick weather, which now came on in fine rain and sleet. The wind was bitter cold, turning the rain into ice and forming a crust everywhere. The braces, blocks, yards, sails, and all the running rigging was perfectly coated with ice from a half to two inches thick, so that it was impossible to use the braces and icicles of great length and size hung from every portion of the rigging."
"The gale had passed over, and it was calm, the clouds were exhausted, the rosy tints of morn opened upon a scene of enchantment, and when the sunlight burst on us, the flash and sparkle from truck to deck, from bowsprit to topsail awakened exclamations of enthusiastic delight over the fair ship."
"The disposition was evidently not to disturb, but leave to enjoyment the crystal mantle of the Shenandoah. Finally the crew was sent aloft with billets of wood to dislodge the ice and free the running rigging. The large icicles falling from aloft rendered the deck dangerous to move upon, and it soon became covered with clear, beautiful ice, which was removed to the tanks, casks, and every vessel capable of receiving it."
A Federal expedition travels through Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties, West Virginia, and Highland County, Virginia, reportedly in search of horse thieves. The Yankees moved to Huttonsville, Gatewood's, Back Creek Valley, Galltown, Monterey, New Hampton, and the surrounding areas, without finding any horse thieves.
Skirmishing breaks out at Sweetwater Station, in the Nebraska Territory.
In his report regarding the surrender of Confederate forces, Major General Edward R. S. Canby, commanding the Military Division of West Mississippi, noted: "...during the whole period of my command in the Southwest, I was materially aided by the zealous and efficient cooperation of the naval forces of the West Gulf and Mississippi squadrons, and a more effective acknowledgement than mine is due to Admiral Farragut, Commodore Palmer, Admiral Thatcher, successive commanders of the West Gulf, and Admirals Porter and Lee, of the Mississippi Squadron, and to their subordinates in both squadrons."
Lieutenant Commander Nathaniel Green, in the U.S.S. Itasca, commanded the naval units in a combined Army-Navy movement to occupy Apalachicola, Florida. Brigadier General Alexander Asboth, commanding the expedition, commended Green highly for his "...nautical skill and efficiency, as well as his friendly willingness to aid..." which, the General reported, materially contributed to the successful execution of the mission.
The last official orders of the War Between the States sees a Navy expedition head up the Red River north of Shreveport to take possession of the C.S.S. Missouri and a small naval flotilla which includes a number of submarines. Warned of underwater activity in the area, the wary sailors arrive to find the Missouri and her crew waiting for capture, and the submarines all scuttled and their crews escaped.
Full report: Lieutenant William E. Fitzhugh, in the U.S.S. Ouachita, leads a naval expedition of seven gunboats up the Red River escorting 4,000 troops under Major General Francis J. Herron. These troops were moving into the trans-Mississippi theater to garrison the forts and posts surrendered by Confederate General Kirby Smith and to establish law and order in the region. At Alexandria, Louisiana, Fitzhugh met with Lieutenant Jonathan H. Carter, the senior Confederate naval officer in the trans-Mississippi department and received the surrender of all naval vessels, equipment, and personnel in that region. The most formidable vessel surrendered was the stern-wheel ironclad, C.S.S. Missouri, commanded by Lieutenant J. H. Carter. The ship had been built in Shreveport and late in March, when the river had risen sufficiently, had steamed down river to Alexandria. There Carter had written enthusiastically to General Simon B. Buckner: "I will...be pleased to welcome you on the deck of the Missouri, when we arrive at Grand Ecore...I hope to be a valuable [addition] to your forces defending the valley." The Missouri, however, never had this opportunity for battle, although she had the distinction of being the last Confederate ironclad to be surrendered in home waters.
Before burning the Abigail, the commander of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, obtained a stove from her for his cabin, one of the many items that had not been provided when the C.S.S. Shenandoah hastily left the Liverpool the previous Autumn. He needed it in the ensuing days as he navigated along the frozen shores of Siberia. "I continued as far as the Chi-jinskiki Bay, but found it so full of ice the steamer could not be entered. I then stood along the land of eastern Siberia as far as Tausk Bay, when she was forced away by the ice, and I left for Shantaski [Shantarski] Island, but I found ice in such quantities before we reached the 150º meridian of east longitude that she was forced to the southward finding ice in almost every direction and apparently closing on her."
"The situation caused anxiety of mind, and I solved the seamanship problem before us. The scene was cold, the mercury several degrees below zero, the ice varied in thickness from fifteen to thirty feet and, although not very firm, was sufficiently so to injure the Shenandoah if we were not very careful. I wanted to reach Shantarski Island (called by whalers Greer Island) for there is fishing there and in the bays southwest of it."
In this chill sea, the Shenandoah met severe gales. "The damage from these gales is much increased by the heavy ice which a vessel is likely to be driven on and wrecked. We encountered the first one of those gales to windward of twenty miles of floe ice, and if we had been lying to with the ice under our lea, the Shenandoah would probably have been lost with her entire crew."
"It became imperatively necessary to relieve the ship of her perilous situation. She was run a little distance from and along the floe until a passage was seen from aloft through it with open water beyond. Into this passage she was entered and in a short time she was lying to under close reefed sails with the floe to windward, and this was the solution of that seamanship problem alluded to a little time before, for our dreaded enemy was now become our best friend, the fury of the sea was expended on it and not against the Shenandoah. It was a breakwater for the ship."
"She laid perfectly easy, the water was as smooth as a pond, while the seas on the weather edge of the floe broke furiously, throwing sheets of water twenty feet high, to all appearances a fog bank."
"It was so far away we could only hear the hurrying of wind as it piped louder and carried in it a penetrating mist. The Shenandoah being relieved of the threatened danger, the next thought was to prevent her from going into the ice during the thick weather, which now came on in fine rain and sleet. The wind was bitter cold, turning the rain into ice and forming a crust everywhere. The braces, blocks, yards, sails, and all the running rigging was perfectly coated with ice from a half to two inches thick, so that it was impossible to use the braces and icicles of great length and size hung from every portion of the rigging."
"The gale had passed over, and it was calm, the clouds were exhausted, the rosy tints of morn opened upon a scene of enchantment, and when the sunlight burst on us, the flash and sparkle from truck to deck, from bowsprit to topsail awakened exclamations of enthusiastic delight over the fair ship."
"The disposition was evidently not to disturb, but leave to enjoyment the crystal mantle of the Shenandoah. Finally the crew was sent aloft with billets of wood to dislodge the ice and free the running rigging. The large icicles falling from aloft rendered the deck dangerous to move upon, and it soon became covered with clear, beautiful ice, which was removed to the tanks, casks, and every vessel capable of receiving it."
This post was edited on 6/1/15 at 1:28 pm
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