Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
150 years ago today a battle took place on my old stomping grounds.
Santa Rosa Island is a 40 mile long stretch of sand, never more than a mile wide at any point, and the tip of which stretches across the entrance to Pensacola Bay. At that western tip is Fort Pickens, a Union installation which unlike Fort Sumter, had not fallen to the CSA forces. Four batteries of artillery and a regiment of infantry, all under the command of Colonel Harvey Brown, garrisoned the fort.
Across the Bay was General Richard Anderson with a 1200 strong brigade of infantry. The previous night Anderson had his men ferried across the water, landing on Santa Rosa about four miles East of Fort Pickens. In the morning this force surprised the Union infantry who fell back inside the fort. Anderson then concluded that if he adopted a defensive stance, this would cause Colonel Brown to leave the forts walls and attack him in the open. This was a good plan except that when the Union troops did emerge and attack, Anderson's men were routed and eventually compelled to reboard their boats and return to Pensacola. Pickens remained defiant, as it was to do throughout the war. The Union suffered 67 casualties to Anderson's 87.
I grew up in Miami but my maternal grandparents lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida, located on the tip of the peninsula which divides a portion of Pensacola from Santa Rosa Island. We spent parts of every summer in Gulf Breeze when I was growing up and Santa Rosa Island was where we headed for early morning crabbing expeditions or days at the beach. I spent a lot of time climbing around what remains of Fort Pickens.
If asked "What was the first ironclad warship?"..many would probably say "The CSS Merrimack (Virginia)"
It wasn't. The French launched La Gloire in 1859, that was the first ironclad warship.
Okay, then The Virginia was at least the Civil War's first ironclad, right?
No.
Okay, it was at least the Confederacy's first ironclad warship...yes?
No.
That honor goes to The Manasas, originally an icebreaker ship called the Enoch Train, she was purchased in New Orleans with plans to convert her into a conventional privateer. Instead, the ship was taken to Algiers, Louisiana and made the subject of a unique experiment. The hull was cut down until its top was turtle shaped and projected only two and a half feet above the waterline, this was then covered in 1.5 inch iron sheeting. A long iron ram was fixed to her prow and a single gun was mounted that could fire only forward. When in the sea, it looked very much like a disgarded cigar floating on the water. It was ready to go by September 12th and 150 years ago today, she sallied forth for a surprise attack on the Union blockade at the Mississippi's mouth.
This was "The Battle of the Head of Passes" and it featured the Manasas along with six small gunboats as escorts, taking on two Union sloops of war and an armed schooner.
The Richmond was the Union flagship, mounting seven 9 inch smoothbore Dalgreens which could fire a single broadside which threw more weight than the entire CSS fleet. In support were the Vincennes and Preble.
The Manasas led its tiny fleet out to attack, heading for the Richmond. Three of the escorting gunboats were pushing firerafts in front of them. Presenting such a small exposed area to the surface, the Manasas went unhurt on approach depite the furious fire directed at it. The intent was to ram and it would have struck the Richmond square on except that there was a coal barge alonside the Union vessel which caused the Manasas to have to change the angle of attack and strike only a glancing blow.
The impact did more damage to the Manasas than to the Richmond. One of her two engines was torn from its mount by the crash and ceased functioning. Unable to contribute further to the attack, the Manasas fired a flare which was the signal for the gunboats to ignite the firerafts and shove them toward the Union fleet. The flare went straight up, and straight back down into the Manasas, starting a fire which was hastily doused.
Upon seeing the firerafts, and fearing his ship had been damaged more than it actually was, the commander of the Richmond, Captain John Pope, ordered his fleet to retire. While doing so, the Richmond and the Preble both ran aground on the bar at the entrance to the river. The fleets then settled down to a long range artillery exchange which did no notable damage to anyone. At ten pm, running low on coal, the Confederate fleet retired.
For all their efforts, the rebels ended the day with no change in the strategic situation, and only the capture of the coal barge as a prize. Despite this, it got reported in the New Orleans press as some sort of tremendous victory for the Southern navy..."we sent the US fleet flying!" The Manasas was hailed as a wonder weapon, and the actual facts of its relative uselessness in the fight were glossed over.
On the same day as the clash at the Mississippi mouth was taking place, to the NE another high seas drama was indulging in its opening act. This was to be a far more consequential dynamic than the ineffectual attack by the Manasas.
Built as a coastal packet in New York in 1852, it was first called The Carolina and made regular runs from Charleston to Cuba and back It later had its name changed to The Gordon when converted into a privateer by South Carolina after the war erupted. As The Gordon, it experienced some success, capturing an Union brig and a Union schooner when it ventured out of Charleston on raids.
But now the Confederates wished to make her into a phantom ship, one which would attract the least notice for an extremely critical mission. Her name was changed to The Theodora to confuse the Federals. She was lightened to the maximum degree so that she rode high in the water and could cross the Charleston bar and reach open sea at times that Union ships in pursuit could not.
At the beginning of October, the Confederates began the practice of sending the Theodora out to catch the attention of the Union blockaders, and then turning about and easily outdistancing them back to port when they attempted pursuit. The idea was to get the Union blockading fleet used to the idea that the Theodora was only interested in tormenting them with this cat and mouse game, that they could not catch the Theodora and that there was no sense in trying. All these preparation were because.....
President Davis had settled on John Slidell and James Mason as the CSA's commissioners to Britain and France, tasked with trying to gain European martial backing for their cause, or at least recognition of the Confederacy as a new nation by the European powers. They were going to ship out on the Theodora which hopefully could run the blockade and take the commissioners to Cuba where they were scheduled to embark on The British registered The Trent which would safely transport them to their destinations.
At one am, 150 years ago today, Theodora took her VIP passengers aboard and slipped out of Charleston Harbor. Spotted by the Union blockading ships, no pursuit was mounted because they were expecting the same thing...that as soon as they started after her, she would turn and outrun them back into the harbor...and the Union captains were tired of that useless game.
They were then left embarrassed when the Theodora just kept right on going past them, turned South into the Atlantic and raced off down the coastline. She got away without a fuss.
Union Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles had been anticipating that the Confederacy would soon be trying to smuggle their European bound diplomats past the blockade. When he received reports that the CSS Nashville had run past the Charleston patrols on the night of the 11th, Welles felt that this must be it. He telgraphed Fleet Commander S. F. Du Pont in New York, passed on the information about the Nashville, and asked if some fleet steamer couldn't be sent in pursuit. Du Pont responded immediately, dispatching three of his fastest gunboats to try and hunt down the Nashville.
This was precisely what the Confederates had hoped would happen when they sent the Nashville out on the 11th, while actually sending Mason and Slidell aboard the Theodora on the 12th. The Union was investing its energies pursuing a ship they believed was headed for France or England, while the real deal was aboard another ship headed for Cuba and a rendevous with a British ship. Once under the Union Jack, they could not be touched by the US Navy.
The Union Navy had accomplished a minor miracle in rapid fleet building since the outbreak of the war. They now had so many ships on blockading station that they were divided into two sections, one of which was responsible for the North and South Carolina coasts and was named the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer Du Pont.
General Burnside's expedition had secured a base for the refit and resupply of the ships on duty off North Carolina, and the same sort of base was needed for the vessels which guarded South Carolina. To that end the war department planned a strike against Port Royal. The shipping was assembled, a commander for the 13,000 troops which were to be sent was named, General Thomas West Sherman..no relation to William. General Sherman decided to divide his force into three brigades and named three generals to command them. A target date of October 1st was established.
That day came and went because there was still one shortage not addressed.....no troops. The War Department had planned on detaching two divisions from General McClellan's Army of the Potomac to serve as the land element in the attack, but when it came time to provide them, McClellan declined, explaining that he needed every man he had available to fend off the imagined impending attack by the imaginary 150,000 Confederates across the Potomac River.
Thomas persisted, McClellan continued to resist. Thomas took it up with the War Department which asked McClellan to cooperate. He refused. Thomas kept bumping the problem up the line and it finally reached the attention of President Lincoln. 150 years ago today he wrote to General Sherman and the answer was...no soap. President Lincoln had given his word to general McClellan that he would not reduce the size of his army via detachments, and the President decided that he had to keep his word, even though he was dismayed that McClellan wasn't using his troops for anything save drill and parades.
Sherman was going to have to wait until troops could be supplied from some other source. They eventually were, but it would not be until October 28th that the expedition was ready to set sail.
The prelude to a Union disaster got underway 150 years ago today.
General Nathaniel Shanks, the same man who had opened the ball at Bull Run when he turned to face the Union flanking movement, was now stationed at Leesburg, Virginia. Without consulting his commander, P.G.T. Beauregard, Evans decided to shift his troops to what he considered a more defensible position, but one which left Leesburg more open to attack. When Beauregard learned of the movement, he ordered Shanks to immediately return to his original position.
When Shanks was moving out, this was reported to General McClellan and he decided to investigate. He sent General Charles Pomeroy Stone to conduct a small demonstration to see if the Leesburg defenses were still fully manned. Stone obliged with a general shelling of all suspected Confederate positions, but got no reaction from Shanks. So then Stone had a column of 100 troops cross the Potomac to the Virginia side to see if that would flush out the defenders. Shanks continued to ignore the probe and soon enough the troops turned round and recrossed.
That evening a 20 man Union scouting patrol recrosssed the river and about a mile inland, encountered what their commanding officer, Captain Chase Philbrick took to be a row of rebel tents. He returned to his own lines and reported the presence of the enemy camp.
Stone decided to send a 300 man force across in the morning to surprise and capture this camp.
There was no camp. Philbrick had actually just seen a line of trees. This mistake set the stage for Union tragedy the next day.
The second battle of consequence fought in the Eastern theater took place 150 years ago today.
In the morning the 300 man force crossed the river once more and moved into position to attack the Confederate camp which Captain Philbrick had sighted the night before. They soon discovered that there was no camp, and sent a messenger back requesting instructions. General Stone, angered at getting no result from his raiding party, decided to turn the frustrated attack into a general "Go Fish" expedition. He dispatched the rest of the 15th Massachussetts, another 350 men, to join the group across the river and make a general movement toward Leesburg to see what sort of reaction they got.
Shortly after they moved out, Senator Edwin Dickinson Baker, serving as a Colonel under Stone while retaining his seat in the US Senate, turned up and asked Stone what was happening. Upon learning of the mornings mistake and further probes, Baker asked permission to go join the Massachussetts regiment. Baker was a close personal friend of President Lincoln's and Stone sent him across the river with orders to take command and evaluate the situation.
As Baker set out, he was met by a messenger who reported that skirmishing had broken out between the Massachussetts men and what appeared to be a growing number of Confererates. Baker, without having any information on what transportation was available, ordered another regiment across the river, the 20th Massachussetts which had a young lieutenant among their ranks named Oliver Wendell Homes. It developed that there were only a handful of boats available for this unit and they consumed nearly the entire day ferrying a few men across the river at a time. Making matters worse, their landing site was Ball's Bluff which featured a steeply rising cliff not far from the riverbank.
Meanwhile, the 17th Mississippi regiment had arrived, engaged the 350 man raiding force, and when they decided to withdraw, the rebel troops were able to turn and concentrate on Baker's force which was still trying to get everyone across the river. When Baker finally led his men up the bluff they found themselves hemmed in and under attack. For 90 minutes Baker looked for some means to break out of the encirclement. At about 4:30 pm, Baker was shot and killed. His force held on until sundown when a second Confederate regiment arrived and began driving them back toward the river. Union soldiers went tumbling down the cliff toward the river and fought with one another trying to get into one of the few boats. Others jumped into the river and drowned or were shot while trying to swin back. Those trapped in the narrow space between the river and the cliff were easy targets for the Confederates who collected on the bluff's edge and had a Turkey Shoot.
Of the 1720 Union soldiers who crossed the river with Baker, about 1000 were lost to death, wounds or capture. The Confederates, with an equal sized force, lost only 155.
It was not a major gain for the Confederacy nor a serious loss of any sort to the Union in terms of the strategic situation, but it was a spectacular public relations disaster for McClellan's army and the Lincoln administration, particularly because Baker had been lost, the only time in our history that a sitting member of Congress has been killed in a battle. Lt. Homes was seriously wounded, but recovered and returned to the war.
General Fremont was as well a connected political general as political generals get. He had been getting word from friends back in Washington that the Lincoln administration had exhausted their patience with him, and the arrival of the uninvited "Second in command" General Hunter, Lincoln's spy, had rammed the message home to Fremont that his days in command were waning.
To try and avoid the fate he saw overtaking him, Fremont had finally taken the field with a 40,000 man army, more than enough to rout General Sterling Price's 12,000 state guardsmen. However, apart from moving out and reoccupying Springfield, forcing Price had to retreat to Lexington, the Pathfinder remained unaggressive. There was a small scale cavalry clash between the two forces 150 years ago today, but other than that the two armies sat.
Fremont was actually already ashcanned. Lincoln had made up his mind the day before and sent word for General Hunter to relieve Fremont of his command and have him report back to Washington.
Via his excellent network of friends back in Washington, Fremont managed to learn that the relief order had been sent before Hunter even received it. Fremont decided that the thing to do now was to make himself very hard for war department messengers to find. This childish "Can't find me, can't fire me" approach was actually self destructive. What Fremont didn't know was that Lincoln's orders included the caveat that if at the time the orders arrived, Fremont was engaging the enemy, or preparing to engage the enemy, the replacement was to be delayed for several days.
In short, had Fremont been aggressive, had he actively gone after Price's army and chased it out of the state, he would not have been replaced while doing so. And of course if he had done so, he would be a hero and then Lincoln would have to rethink replacing him. Fremont had it within his power to save himself, but he instead opted for petulence.
Last edited by Grandstander; 10-24-2011 at 08:09 PM..
A month after their original planned departure date, a delay caused by General McClellan's refusal to reduce his army by providing the troops, a 12,000 man force commanded by general Thomas Sherman had been assembled from other places, and it was loaded onto Flag Officer Du Pont's supporting ships. 150 years ago today they departed Hampton Roads, their destination Port Royal, South Carolina. The plan was to capture Port Royal which was located near the Georgia border, and use it as a staging point for an assault on Fort Pulaski just across the border in Georgia.
This was the same Fort Pulaski which when assaulted by a Confederate force during the pre Sumter days of Georgia's secession, was heroically wrested from the single Union soldier who was there discussing a repairs contract with a caretaker.
President Lincoln was not having an easy time of it with his three generals in the positions of highest responsibility. Out west, the maverick General Fremont was still playing hide and seek with the officers who were trying to deliver the orders relieving him of command. In the East the president was was distressed by General McClellan's inactivity and passive philosophy about ending the rebellion.
Compounding the Eastern problem had been the serial feuding taking place between McClellan and army commander in chief, Winfield Scott. McClellan the subordinate, had been bypassing or ignoring Scott whenever he felt that the elderly general was interfering. McClellan, whenever he suspected that his comments would get reported back to the president, dropped hints that it was time to put the 75 year old, 300 plus pounds Scott, out to pasture and replace him with the Young Napoleon.
150 years ago today, recognizing the reality of the situation, Scott decided to solve the problem for Lincoln by voluntarily retiring, he submitted his request to resign from the army.
This was an unhappy ending to what had been a great career. Scott had been one of the few heroes of the land fighting in the 1812 war, and had conducted a brilliant and spectacular campaign against three times his numbers in his conquest of Mexico City. Although it had been ridiculed in the press when Scott first advanced his idea for the "Anaconda Plan", this program of a strong Union blockade of the coasts along with a joint Army/Navy conquest of the Mississippi River, turned out to be the program the Union did indeed follow.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
