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'NAVAL OFFICER'S NIGHTMARE' MORE ON THE CAIRO: The USS Cairo had 17 officers and 158 sailors. Some 43 percent of the crew were immigrants from countries such as England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Greece. Most of the crew had no prior naval training, according to author Elizabeth H. Joyner. Many listed their previous occupation as "none."
February 10, 2007 12:51 am
"WILLIAM WEBB EXPECTED to climb in the ring with an aging George Foreman. What he got was two Mike Tysons in their prime," Maurice Melton quipped.
This sounds like the beginning of a story about boxing, doesn't it? I like watching a good boxing match, but I like Civil War naval history even more--and that's what this column is about. I'll discuss some highlights of the fourth annual Civil War Naval Symposium held in Columbus, Ga. It was sponsored by the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus.
Melton is an associate professor of history at Albany State University in Albany, Ga. His subject, Cmdr. William A. Webb, was a brash young Confederate naval officer who promised the secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory, that if given the chance he could score a big victory over the Union vessels blockading Savannah, Ga.
Mallory gave Webb command of the powerful ironclad CSS Atlanta, along with the rest of the Savannah Squadron. Thanks to some Confederate deserters who tipped off the Yankees about the imminent raid by the Atlanta, Webb faced two powerful ironclads rather than the weak wooden ships he expected, according to Melton.
Worse still, the Atlanta quickly ran aground on June 17, 1863, as the monitors USS Wee-hawken and USS Nahant approached. "This was a naval officer's nightmare," Melton said.
Unable to bring its guns to bear on the enemy, the Atlanta was helpless as the Weehawken closed and began firing. After four hits from the Weehawken, Webb surrendered, an ignominious defeat for a man who had promised victory.
"His defeat was so complete as to erase him from the history of the war," Melton observed, and he really meant it. "There is not a word about him in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. There's not a document in the Virginia Historical Society about Webb." Apparently the keepers of Virginia's history would prefer to forget about this son of the commonwealth.
USS CAIRO HAD UNIQUE BAD LUCK
Elizabeth Hoxie Joyner, museum curator for Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Miss., discussed a Union warship with a unique, though unfortunate, distinction.
The USS Cairo was one of a class of seven ironclad gunboats built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. While patrolling the Yazoo River on Dec. 12, 1862, the Cairo was sunk by the explosion of two Confederate torpedoes (today we call them mines) over which it passed.
"The Cairo was the first armored warship sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo," according to Joyner.
Today the Cairo holds another distinction: It is the only surviving Union ironclad from the Civil War. Pieces of the USS Monitor have been recovered, including its remarkable revolving turret, but the majority of the ship still lies underwater off Cape Hatteras, N.C. The Cairo is intact.
"[The Cairo] was raised on Dec. 12, 1964, which was 102 years to the day she sank," Joyner noted. After much conservation and using some reconstructed parts to replace missing original components, the Cairo is on display under a big canopy at the Vicksburg military park. Visitors can walk onto the gun deck and peer through the gun ports.
"The USS Cairo: History and Artifacts of a Civil War Gunboat" is Joyner's recent book describing the hundreds of artifacts recovered from the Cairo. The author notes some surprising findings, especially regarding the contents of sealed food containers. "The pepper still retains its smell tobacco also," she commented. "They even found Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce."
When many people hear "Civil War" and "submarine," they think of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. That's very understandable--the Hunley has received a lot of press attention since its discovery in 1995 and its recovery from the ocean floor near Charleston, S.C., in 2000.
Something that hasn't received much attention is that the Union navy had a submarine, too--the USS Alligator. Mark Ragan, author of "Submarine Warfare in the Civil War," spoke about the Hunley and the Alligator.
The Alligator was different in several crucial respects from the better-known Hunley. The Confederate submarine attacked an enemy vessel by ramming a torpedo attached to a long spar into its side. The Alligator did its damage by allowing a diver with breathing apparatus to leave a watertight chamber while the vessel was underwater and place explosive charges under the hulls of enemy warships.
Another role for the Alligator's divers was to use explosives or other means to destroy enemy obstructions blocking the movement of Union warships into Confederate-held harbors and rivers, Ragan explained.
Initially, the Alligator was propelled by a row of oars on each side. Later the oars were removed and a hand-cranked propeller, similar to that on the Hunley, was used.
The Union navy wanted to use the Alligator to attack the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads. Construction delays prevented that. It arrived in Hampton Roads, under tow from Philadelphia, on June 23, 1862. This was the first day the U.S. Navy had a functioning submarine in a combat zone, according to Ragan.
It was too late to attack the CSS Virginia--more than three months too late. By the time the Alligator arrived, the Confederates had already destroyed the Alligator's intended prey.
On May 11, 1862, after losing the Virginia's home port at Norfolk, the Confederates could not move the ironclad past a sandbar at the mouth the James River to its new base at Richmond, and so blew it up to prevent its capture.
The next destination for the Alligator was Charleston. While under tow from Hampton Roads, the Alligator sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras on April 2, 1863--a fate eerily similar to that of the USS Monitor in the same place three months earlier.
Expeditions sponsored by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2004 and 2005 searched unsuccessfully for the Alligator. Rest assured: They are not finished looking for the U.S. Navy's first submarine!
Scott Boyd is a freelance writer living in Spotsylvania County. Send e-mail to his attention to gwoolf@freelance star.com.
Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
Online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/F...2102007/257328
February 10, 2007 12:51 am
"WILLIAM WEBB EXPECTED to climb in the ring with an aging George Foreman. What he got was two Mike Tysons in their prime," Maurice Melton quipped.
This sounds like the beginning of a story about boxing, doesn't it? I like watching a good boxing match, but I like Civil War naval history even more--and that's what this column is about. I'll discuss some highlights of the fourth annual Civil War Naval Symposium held in Columbus, Ga. It was sponsored by the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus.
Melton is an associate professor of history at Albany State University in Albany, Ga. His subject, Cmdr. William A. Webb, was a brash young Confederate naval officer who promised the secretary of the navy, Stephen Mallory, that if given the chance he could score a big victory over the Union vessels blockading Savannah, Ga.
Mallory gave Webb command of the powerful ironclad CSS Atlanta, along with the rest of the Savannah Squadron. Thanks to some Confederate deserters who tipped off the Yankees about the imminent raid by the Atlanta, Webb faced two powerful ironclads rather than the weak wooden ships he expected, according to Melton.
Worse still, the Atlanta quickly ran aground on June 17, 1863, as the monitors USS Wee-hawken and USS Nahant approached. "This was a naval officer's nightmare," Melton said.
Unable to bring its guns to bear on the enemy, the Atlanta was helpless as the Weehawken closed and began firing. After four hits from the Weehawken, Webb surrendered, an ignominious defeat for a man who had promised victory.
"His defeat was so complete as to erase him from the history of the war," Melton observed, and he really meant it. "There is not a word about him in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. There's not a document in the Virginia Historical Society about Webb." Apparently the keepers of Virginia's history would prefer to forget about this son of the commonwealth.
USS CAIRO HAD UNIQUE BAD LUCK
Elizabeth Hoxie Joyner, museum curator for Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Miss., discussed a Union warship with a unique, though unfortunate, distinction.
The USS Cairo was one of a class of seven ironclad gunboats built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. While patrolling the Yazoo River on Dec. 12, 1862, the Cairo was sunk by the explosion of two Confederate torpedoes (today we call them mines) over which it passed.
"The Cairo was the first armored warship sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo," according to Joyner.
Today the Cairo holds another distinction: It is the only surviving Union ironclad from the Civil War. Pieces of the USS Monitor have been recovered, including its remarkable revolving turret, but the majority of the ship still lies underwater off Cape Hatteras, N.C. The Cairo is intact.
"[The Cairo] was raised on Dec. 12, 1964, which was 102 years to the day she sank," Joyner noted. After much conservation and using some reconstructed parts to replace missing original components, the Cairo is on display under a big canopy at the Vicksburg military park. Visitors can walk onto the gun deck and peer through the gun ports.
"The USS Cairo: History and Artifacts of a Civil War Gunboat" is Joyner's recent book describing the hundreds of artifacts recovered from the Cairo. The author notes some surprising findings, especially regarding the contents of sealed food containers. "The pepper still retains its smell tobacco also," she commented. "They even found Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce."
When many people hear "Civil War" and "submarine," they think of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. That's very understandable--the Hunley has received a lot of press attention since its discovery in 1995 and its recovery from the ocean floor near Charleston, S.C., in 2000.
Something that hasn't received much attention is that the Union navy had a submarine, too--the USS Alligator. Mark Ragan, author of "Submarine Warfare in the Civil War," spoke about the Hunley and the Alligator.
The Alligator was different in several crucial respects from the better-known Hunley. The Confederate submarine attacked an enemy vessel by ramming a torpedo attached to a long spar into its side. The Alligator did its damage by allowing a diver with breathing apparatus to leave a watertight chamber while the vessel was underwater and place explosive charges under the hulls of enemy warships.
Another role for the Alligator's divers was to use explosives or other means to destroy enemy obstructions blocking the movement of Union warships into Confederate-held harbors and rivers, Ragan explained.
Initially, the Alligator was propelled by a row of oars on each side. Later the oars were removed and a hand-cranked propeller, similar to that on the Hunley, was used.
The Union navy wanted to use the Alligator to attack the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads. Construction delays prevented that. It arrived in Hampton Roads, under tow from Philadelphia, on June 23, 1862. This was the first day the U.S. Navy had a functioning submarine in a combat zone, according to Ragan.
It was too late to attack the CSS Virginia--more than three months too late. By the time the Alligator arrived, the Confederates had already destroyed the Alligator's intended prey.
On May 11, 1862, after losing the Virginia's home port at Norfolk, the Confederates could not move the ironclad past a sandbar at the mouth the James River to its new base at Richmond, and so blew it up to prevent its capture.
The next destination for the Alligator was Charleston. While under tow from Hampton Roads, the Alligator sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras on April 2, 1863--a fate eerily similar to that of the USS Monitor in the same place three months earlier.
Expeditions sponsored by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2004 and 2005 searched unsuccessfully for the Alligator. Rest assured: They are not finished looking for the U.S. Navy's first submarine!
Scott Boyd is a freelance writer living in Spotsylvania County. Send e-mail to his attention to gwoolf@freelance star.com.
Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
Online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/F...2102007/257328
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