ECW Archives
-
Recent Posts
Search by Post Categories
Subscribe BY RSS
Email Subscription
Category Archives: Navies
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
3 Comments
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
Seven “Persons of Importance”
In the early morning hours of May 17, 1865, off the far southwestern cape of mainland Florida, pickets stationed there by Union General John Newton intercepted a small vessel bound for Cuba. That promontory, jutting out into the Gulf of … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Leadership--Confederate, Leadership--Federal, Navies, Politics
Tagged 2nd Florida Cavalry USA, Cape Sable, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Everglades National Park, Florida, Gideon Welles, John Breckenridge, John Newton, Judah P. Benjamin, Thomas A Harris, US Navy
8 Comments
Jacob Zeilin, USMC
The American Battlefield Trust Conference this year was to have featured a tour of mine about the Marine Battalion at the First Battle of Manassas. It has been postponed until 2021. In the meantime, I wanted to share some of … Continue reading
The Marines at First Manassas
The American Battlefield Trust Conference this year was to have featured a tour of mine about the Marine Battalion at the First Battle of Manassas. It has been postponed until 2021. In the meantime, I wanted to share some of … Continue reading
The Unlikely Sultana Monument
April 27 marks the anniversary of the explosion of the riverboat Sultana, which blew up on this date in 1865 near Memphis, TN. Overloaded with more than 2,100 passengers—most of them paroled Union prisoners—she went down when three of her … Continue reading
Ending The War: The Darkest Day
“The darkest day of my life,” wrote Lieutenant William Whittle in his journal entry for August 2, 1865. “The past is gone for naught—the future is dark as the blackest night. Oh! God protect and comfort us I pray.” The … Continue reading
The Emergency Ironclads
In late summer 1861, the United States Navy initiated a crash program to build their first ironclad warships, leading directly to the titanic clash between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack) in Hampton Roads on March … Continue reading
Posted in Navies
Tagged Civil War Strategy, CSS Virginia, Gideon Welles, International affairs, ironclads, naval strategy, USS Monitor
6 Comments
Question of the Week: 3/9-3/15/2020
If you could’ve had the opportunity to serve in a Civil War ironclad, would you have volunteered? Why or why not?
