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Category Archives: Navies
Home Libraries: A Salty Civil War Library
Back in the 90’s, Judi and I loved cruising beautiful Virginia country byways and rural towns always seeking that musty little used-book store. She headed for the garden section and I, of course, made a beeline for the Civil War … Continue reading
Question of the Week: 9/7-9/13/20
Great answers for last week’s question with a Federal focus…today we ask the question again with a Southern angle. What’s your favorite Confederate ship? Any craft that steams or sails, blue or brown water, qualifies in the loose designation of … Continue reading
What Doomed the Crew of the HL Hunley?
On February 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley became the first combat submarine to sink a warship when she snuck up on and rammed her spar torpedo into the hull of the screw sloop-of-war USS Housatonic outside Charleston … Continue reading
Question of the Week: 8/31-9/6/20
What’s your favorite Union ship? Any craft that steams or sails, blue or brown water, qualifies in the loose designation of “ship” for the question. (Save your Confederate answers for next week!)
My Hunt for the C.S.S. Alabama
Among my first introductions to the American Civil War was Robert Paul Jordan’s 1969 book The Civil War. It was a volume in a series of National Geographic Society illustrated books. Most were about regions, but there were the odd … Continue reading
What’s In a (Confederate) Name?
Visitors to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis are engulfed in history. The magnificent grounds on the Severn River (known officially as “the yard”) abound in monuments, plaques, halls, and displays memorializing the nation’s naval heritage. Names of heroes … Continue reading
Maine at War: June 2020
Here’s what our friend Brian Swartz was up to in June at his blog, Maine at War: June 3, 2020: Harper’s Ferry scenes for locked-down Civil War buffs With many states requiring visitors to self-quarantine, Civil War fans are unable … Continue reading
A Most Peculiar Target of Naval Gunnery
ECW welcomes Neil Chatelain The USS Rhode Island was operating in the Caribbean Sea on July 30, 1863, part of Acting Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes’ West India Squadron, having just completed a convoy of the Panama steamer Ocean Queen through … Continue reading
Posted in Navies
Tagged CSS Alabama, CSS Sumter, Raphael Semmes, Stephen Trenchard, USS Rhode Island, USS Vanderbilt
1 Comment
A Most Curious Battle: Memphis, June 6, 1862
In the early morning hours, hundreds of Memphis citizens assembled high on the bluffs to observe the battle. But there were no surging ranks of blue and gray in the valley below, just the Big Muddy rolling broad and inexorable … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Emerging Civil War, Navies, Western Theater
Tagged Battle of Memphis, Charles Ellet Jr., Charles H. Davis, City-Class Ironclads, Confederate River Defense Fleet, Eads gunboats, ironclads, James B. Eads, Mississippi campaign, Mississippi Marine Brigade, Mississippi River Squadron, Mississippi Valley Campaigns, Pook Turtles, Samuel Pook, Unites States Ram Fleet, USS Benton, USS Cairo, USS Carondelet, USS Louisville, USS St. Louis, Western Gunboat Flotilla
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19th Century Asymmetrical Warfare: Privateering, the Savannah, and the Enchantress Affair
ECW welcomes back guest author Leon Reed. As early as his inaugural address, Confederate President Jefferson Davis warned the United States, and other shippers of the world, that he intended to authorize privateers, the traditional means of naval warfare engaged … Continue reading
