By Sea and by River, the Naval history of the Civil War

[Double D]

When I was at the U.S.S. Cairo Museum I picked up a copy of Bern Anderson’s, By Sea and by River, the Naval history of the Civil War copyright 1962.   Interesting reading.   

I thought as I was reading I would pull out some highlights for pondering and discussion.
Quote from the preface about the sources used in writing the book. 

“The Rebellion Record, edited by Frank Moore is a 12 volume collection of documents, narratives, anecdotes, poetry, etc., published as the war progressed.  It is of value in revealing some of the heated atmosphere and distorted reporting of the period.  With few exceptions, newspapers shaded their reports to fit the editorial policy of the paper resulting in biased accounts, which added little to the true record in the naval field."

Looks like there has been little change over the past 150 years in the field of journalism.

[seacoastartillery]

     Does this book give a detailed account of the riverine operations on the Yazoo and other rivers around Vicksburg?  That certainly is the truth about newspapers!

Tracy

[Double D]

I just started reading haven't got to Mississippi. I'm not sure it's in chronological order or not could be.  George will be yelling at me for not reading my  HTML book...

Do any drawings or pictures exist of Ericsson’s 12 inch gun Oregon or Stockton’s 12 inch Peacemaker?  Why did Peacemaker fail?

[Double D]

What armament did CSS Sumter nee SS Habana carry?

Using the free WiFi at  McDonalds is a real eye opener...You guys who insist on posting picture in high resolutions will get no mercy form  me.   Save your pictures at  72 dpi for posting.

Those of you  who post your pictures as attachments are assured of not having you pictures seen at all with this speed aagh,  I miss my high speed internet and it is another month before I get home.

[Double D]

What was the 10 inch gun the Confederates had at Fort Hatteras in August 1861 during the Hatteras Inlet Operation?

[Double D]

This doesn’t have anything to do with cannons, but I have to wonder?  Did the successful Army-Navy amphibious operations on the Carolina coast in 1861 serve as the spark to fuel the creation of expanding the role of the Marines from a shipboard fighting force and landing party, to a naval infantry able to exploit naval coastal operations as is goal the modern Corps of Marines? That was the sole shortcoming of the operations, failure to exploit these bridgeheads.  The Army had their own operational goals and the concept of naval infantry didn’t fit the traditional army role.

[Double D]

Description of the battle between Monitor and Merrimack:  Close range, ships touching…9 inch, 7 inch and 6 inch guns for Merrimack and two 11 inch guns for Monitor…Merrimack’s armor dented, inner structure cracked and splintered.  2 killed, 19 wounded on Merrimack.  Capt. Worden was the only serious injury on Monitor.  He was injured by shell exploding directly over eye hole.  Other injuries on Monitor were minor from being knocked down by concussion of shot impact on turret.  Monitor fired “55 rounds in two gun salvos, loading and firing ever six to eight minutes.”

[Double D]

Last Monitor to be stricken from Naval list was in 1937.  What ship was that?  Any pictures?

Well that gives you guys a lot to look over and ponder and discuss....

[seacoastartillery]

     

Do any drawings or pictures exist of Ericsson’s 12 inch gun Oregon or Stockton’s 12 inch Peacemaker?  Why did Peacemaker fail?

     When Mike and visited the Washington Navy Yard in 2006, we noticed large, plain looking naval gun with a 12" bore surrounded by lots of Brooke cannon.  The sign indicated that this was an English-made cannon by the Mersey Iron Works in 1845, a  replacement for the ill-fated 'Peacemaker' which blew up because it was built quickly, with design defects, under direction from US Navy Commander Stockton, ignoring several of John Ericsson's design details which were chiefly centered around a wrought iron hooped construction.  It was made by a foundry in the U.S.  One of these guns, now located at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland is called the 'Oregon Gun'.  It is a 12" Ericsson Navy Gun, thought by some to also be made in England, but we have found no proof of this as yet.  Lack of markings does not help identification.  Largely because of Stockton's political connections, he was exonerated of any fault in the disaster aboard the Princeton.  It was blamed on the original Swedish inventor instead, John Ericsson, who's design was not followed. 

Tracy and Mike

The 'Oregon Gun'  looks very much like this one which is the replacement gun, a Mersey Iron Works produced gun located at the Washington Navy Yard.  Adding to the confusion, this gun is sometimes referred to as the 'Stockton Gun' or 'Mersey Gun'.    From www.markerhunter.worldpress.com




     The Federal assault on the forts of Hatteras inlet in 1861 included bombardment of Ft. Hatteras with a dozen smoothbore cannon and Ft. Clark with only five.  Five more were unmounted in Ft. Hatteras, as I recall and could not be used during the battle.  One of these was a 10" Columbiad, the largest gun they had. 

Tracy and Mike

[GGaskill]

George will be yelling at me for not reading my  HTML book...

Your choice.     Have you tried Starbucks for a faster connection?

[seacoastartillery]

What armament did CSS Sumter nee SS Habana carry?

     After the Confederates bought the commercial ship Habanna at New Orleans in 1861, it was refitted as a bark-rigged cruiser and commerce raider and re-named  the CSS Sumter armed with 4,  32 Pdrs. and an 8" Gun.  Interesting?  Not really, but the captain and crew became the nucleus of the super-famous CSS Alabama commerce raider which terrorized the North's merchant fleet for almost 2 years.  That's correct, Captain Raphael Semmes and First Officer Kell and other members of the Sumter's crew went out in search of commercial ships to seize. They captured 16 in about 6 months before ending up in Gibralter, unable to get needed repairs.

      Interestingly enough, one of the federal ships keeping an eye on them in April of 1862 was the Gunboat Chippewa, which, with the Gemsbok dueled with Fort Macon's Confederate batteries about a month earlier in March of 1862.  Also watching them closely was the crew of the Kearsarge which Semmes and Kell would meet later on in a naval battle between the CSS Alabama and the Kearsarge which the Confederate Captain initiated and resulted in the sinking of the Alabama off the coast of France in 1864.  Curiously, Semmes' first commerce raider, The Sumter, later re-named Gibralter would sink very close to where the Alabama sank in 1864, three years later in 1867.   Transferred to the new ship just completed in England in August of 1862, Semmes and crew would go on to capture more prizes than any other commerce raider in history. 

     Fascinating details of the Alabama's epic voyage and her final battle with the Federal Sloop-of-war, Kearsarge can be learned from reading the truly outstanding book,  Wolf of the Deep, by Stephen Fox.  30 to 40 copies of this book are now available from $1 to $10, used and new.

Tracy

[Double D]

George will be yelling at me for not reading my  HTML book...

Your choice.     Have you tried Starbucks for a faster connection?

Yes did try Starbucks,,, full parking lot, lots of blackberrys and Ipad or whatever those little hand computer widgets are...eating up the bandwidth,

[Double D]

Lt. John T. Wood who served aboard Merrimack criticized Monitor gunnery for not concentrating fire at one point as that would have broken Merrimack’s armor.  Another Monitor class vessel later did just that at Mobile Bay and disabled her opponent. 
Ironclad Galena…what did she look like and how as she armed?

Galena and Monitor’s attack of Fort Darling another justification for a dedicated Naval Infantry.  Actually as you read more and more of this history of Civil War naval operations you will notice a pattern of failing of land based troops to exploit the opportunities created by the naval gunboats when engaging military objectives along waterways.  One young Army Brigadier General named Grant saw the value of the coordination of the two forces as the Mississippi River campaign moved up the Tennessee and Cumberland River to take Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. 
 
Have to remember that at the time there was a War Department and a Navy Department and no Department of Defense---interservice rivalry at its finest-worst. 


 Don’t recall the high point in the History of my Marine Corps when it evolved from a small shipboard fighting force to a larger sized naval infantry conducting large scale shore side operations. Early Marine Corps history has the Marines in many small unit operations.   I believe the Corps was operating on the larger scale by the time of the Spanish American War.  The civil War sure pointed out the need for such troops.

Description of a hit on Carondelet from a 10 inch gun fired from Fort Donelson: ….(Commander) “Walke attacked the fort until Carondelet was hit by a ten inch shot which penetrated her armor. This caused slight damage as the shot bounced around in the casemate and finally settled in the engine room wounding 10 men slightly”    I can’t imagine a 10 inch shot bouncing around inside that boat---a very deadly game of pong for sure. Any idea what the lone 10 inch gun was a Fort  Donelson.

I notice author Andersen referring to  guns as inch size and not pounder as was the practice of the age.  Anderson referred to the inaccuracy of published reports of the era and compounds that with his on in accuracies.  He stated earlier that the River Gunboats were armed with 8 and 10 inch guns and we know there actually armed with 36 and 42 PDR’s.

One of the lessons learned early on in the River campaign and particularly at Fort Donelson was the tactic of running the gunboats in close to a fort- 500-600 yards and overwhelming it with fire power resulted in to much damage to the vessels.  The practice then became to stand off and fire on the river forts.  A placard at U.S.S. Cairo indicated the River ironclads were designed for direct frontal attack by mass fire.   I wonder if the need to standoff and fire brought about the need for sighting equipment and aids such as the chiseled notches on the muzzle swells.

[seacoastartillery]

The USS Cheyenne - originally named USS Wyoming and renamed Cheyenne in 1909 - was the last monitor. She wasn't stricken from the Navy List until 1937.

Tracy

One of the new Monitors of the US Navy, she was different from the 'coastal monitors' common in the Civil War era.  With higher freeboard, she was an ocean-going monitor although used mostly along the US West-Coast.  The USS WYOMING was the last monitor built for the US Navy. WYOMING was launched on December 8, 1900.  One of four Arkansas Class Monitors, the Wyoming had the largest naval guns of that time, two 12" 40 caliber guns in her turret. She also had 4,  4" and 2,  6pdr. guns. Laid down in San Fransisco in 1900,  she was commissioned in 1902.  She served as a submarine tender during WWI.


U.S. Navy photo

[GGaskill]

Ocean going or not, it still looks like it would have been a wet ship in the open ocean.  Another image:

[Double D]

Didn't they also have some Monitors during  Vietnam...any old Riverine Patrol guy hanging around here? I think they called themselves River Rats!!!

[GGaskill]

I thought those were fiberglass hulls and gasoline engines vs. iron hulls and coal fired steam engines.

[Double D]

I thought those were fiberglass hulls and gasoline engines vs. iron hulls and coal fired steam engines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_%28warship%29

"Vietnam Monitors were originally converted from World War II 56-foot-long all steel Landing Craft Mechanized (LCMs) Mark 6s. They were constructed under two phases; Programs 4 & 5. Under Program 4, 10 Monitors were armed with one 40mm cannon and then fielded. Program 5 Monitors would correct any deficiencies from the previous vessels, and were fielded as the Monitor (H) 105mm (Howitzer) and the Monitor (F) (Flamethrower).[6] The Program 4 Monitors mounted their single barrel 40mm cannon in a Mk 52 turret; while the Program 5 Monitors mounted their 105mm cannon in a T172 turret, and the six Flamethrowers were mounted in M8 cupula turrets (one on each side of the vessel's 40mm turret).[7] Because the U.S. Marine Corps was also using the M49 105mm howitzer, there was a shortage, and only 8 Monitor (H) versions could be procured for the Brown Water Navy.

As fielded, the 24 Monitors of the U.S. Navy in Vietnam averaged about 10 tons of armor, were about 60' long, had two screws, were powered by two 64NH9 diesel engines, 8.5 knots (maximum speed), 17½' wide, 3½' draft, and were normally manned by 11 crewmen. When South Vietnam fell on 30 April 1975, all Monitors fell into the enemy's hands; leaving only one survivor, a training Monitor, that never left the US. "Training" Monitor #C-18 is on display, along with one PCF (Swift Boat), and one PBR (Patrol Boat River) at the U.S. Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California."

[seacoastartillery]

    Kinda spooky learning about the inclusion of flame throwers on those Vietnam era monitors.  It indicates just how close those riverbanks were and brings home the fact that ambushes were common and deadly.

      Showing the longevity of the Passaic Class Civil War Monitors, the Lehigh and others of this class were used on and off right up to the Spanish-American War as the following Pictures illustrate.  Photo credit: US Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC.

Tracy & Mike

Battle damage the Lehigh sustained during it's duty in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina in 1863.  We still have no perfect explanation as to what projectile caused that 'shaving brush' shaped indentation on the Lehigh's turret.  An experimental Confederate 'Stafford Bolt' perhaps?




The Lehigh in service during the Span-Am War in 1898 near Boston, Mass.




Oh my.........can you say "Man the pumps!"  On his way south to Charleston in 1863, the Lehigh's Captain wrote in the ship's log that he thought they were going to join the original Monitor on the bottom in about the same stretch of ocean, as "solid water" as high as the turret top washed over the deck for about an hour during a storm.

[dan610324]

must have been something similar to what you can see to the far left in this picture

[seacoastartillery]

  Dan, in the United States, we would call that item 'Bar Shot', used in the 17th and 18th centuries to take down rigging, spars and masts of enemy ships.  These were obsolete by the 1820s.  We don't know for sure what caused that peculiar shaped dent in the turret's wrought iron armor.  Some possibilities are pictured below.  They are from the Jack Bell book, Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance. 

Tracy and Mike


The  CS Ratchet Head Bolt  is our most likely suspect to have caused the Monitor Lehigh's turret dent.




A less likely, although aptly shaped projectile, was some sort of experimental equivalent to the 100 pound Stafford Bolt shown here.  Monitors armed with 8" Parrott Rifles were required to carry a few of these armor penetrating rounds which did quite well in tests.  None were fired in anger that we know of.  Confederate States Casemate Armored Ironclads were simply too rare to allow direct confrontation.  When CSN Ironclads did occasionally meet Federal Monitors, they were crushed and holed by 440 pound Dahlgren cored shot projectiles as in the case of the CSN Atlanta and the Monitor Weekawken backed up by the Monitor Nahant which met at 200 yards range in Wassau Sound south of Georgia's Fort McAllister.



What do you think caused it?

[GGaskill]

Well, the image of the hit seems to show a band in the middle of the larger dent and the Stafford certainly has a band about the forward end.