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Tag Archives: ironclads
“Praise the Lord and Admiral Porter”: Running the Vicksburg Batteries
“We still live,” wrote Lieutenant Elias Smith of the USS Lafayette. “The whole gunboat fleet passed the Vicksburg batteries on Thursday night [April 16, 1863], without receiving material damage. All praise to the Lord and Admiral Porter.” As far as … Continue reading
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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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
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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?
Around We Go: In the Monitor Turret
Lieutenant Samuel D. Greene, USN, had a problem. He was encased within a dim, claustrophobic, metal drum—20 feet in diameter—behind eight layers of bolted and riveted 1-inch-thick iron plates in charge of two immense 11-inch Dahlgren shell guns, each 13 … Continue reading
The Mississippi River Squadron and the “Great Artery of America” (Part 2)
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Kristen M. Pawlak Part 1 can be found here. As the first of the major naval battles to secure the Mississippi River from 1862 until 1863, Fort Henry also marked a turning point … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, Navies
Tagged Battle of Memphis, Confederate River Defense Fleet, David Porter, ironclads, John C. Pemberton, Kristen Pawlak, Mississippi River, Mississippi River Squadron, run the batteries, transport troops, Ulysses S. Grant, Vicksburg, Vicksburg Campaign, Western Gunboat Flotilla
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The Mississippi River Squadron and the “Great Artery of America” (Part 1)
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Kristen M. Pawlak On June 10, 1862, mere months before the Army of the Tennessee launched its initial operations against the Confederate fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi, newly-promoted Major General William T. Sherman penned … Continue reading
Down the Yazoo with the Ironclad CSS Arkansas
Running downriver with the surging Mississippi in the CSS Arkansas on July 15, 1862, Captain Isaac N. Brown peered through the morning mist and saw: “A forest of masts and smoke-stacks—ships, rams, iron-clads, and other gun-boats on the left side, … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Emerging Civil War, Navies, Western Theater
Tagged CSS Arkansas, ironclads, Issac Brown, USS Carondelet, USS Queen of the West, USS Tyler, Vicksburg, Yazoo River
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Civil War in Paradise
In mid-January I spent a long weekend in Key West. I enjoyed the food, music, and atmosphere of a truly great town, and also saw some of the place’s interesting historic sites. What really surprised me was the Civil War … Continue reading
Posted in Antebellum South, Battlefields & Historic Places, Leadership--Confederate, Leadership--Federal, Monuments, Navies, Ties to the War, Western Theater
Tagged Army of the Cumberland, Asa Tift, British Empire, Confederate Navy, East Gulf Blockading Squadron, Ernest Hemingway, Florida, George G. Meade, George Gordon Meade, ironclads, John Brannan, key west, Key West Lighthouse, Stephen Mallory, Trent Affair, Union Blockade, Union Navy, USS San Jacinto
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Past and Present: The CSS Georgia
The ironclad warship was developed during the American Civil War. With its ability to withstand enemy fire, it quickly replaced the wooden ships of wars past. The CSS Georgia, built in 1862, was one such vessel. From its initial design … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Civil War Events, Civilian, Emerging Civil War, Material Culture, Memory, Navies, Preservation
Tagged Alvin N. Miller, CSS Georgia, DOD, Fort Jackson, Georgia, ironclads, Ladies Gunboat Association, Lt. General William J. Hardee, Savannah, underwater archaeology, US Army Corps of Engineers, William T. Sherman
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