"What ship is that?" CSS Alabama Strikes, Sinks USS Hatteras

CSS Alabama continued her cruise west across the Gulf of Mexico, reaching its western edge by mid January 1863.  Captain Raphael Semmes received reports that Galveston, Texas was taken by Union forces (see "War on the Periphery.") Even though his information was several weeks out of date, he decided that he would liberate the Texas port from Yankee control. In doing so, he changed Alabama's modus operandi from commerce raiding to direct combat.  It is not clear why he decided to take such an aggressive and risky action, as Semmes did not give a detail explanation in his autobiography or official reports. He was unaware that local Texas forces already succeeded in reopening the port by chasing off local blockading forces.  He also did not know that Farragut quickly reestablished the blockade with a squadron of ships headed up by the mighty sloop-of-war USS Brooklyn.  As Alabama approached Galveston, watches spotted several warships on blockading stations. While he pondered whether to attack or not, Semmes got lucky.  The U.S. Navy sent a ship towards him.

On the Union side, watches spotted an unknown vessel several miles to the south at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Thinking it to be another blockade runner,  Commodore Bell dispatched the paddle steamer USS Hatteras under the command of Lieutenant Commander Homer C. Blake to investigate.  It was 7:00 in the evening when Hatteras reached the unknown vessel.  As was standard protocol when two ships approached each other, Blake call out "What ship is that?"

Upon hearing the reply "Her Majesty's Ship Vixen" (some heard  the name "Petrel"), Bell put a small boat in the water with a boarding party to investigate.  As soon as the small boat hit the water, one of Alabama's officers announced "We are the Confederate steamer Alabama!" and opened fire on Hatteras.  With two heavy guns, Alabama outgunned Hatteras' meager battery of 32-pounders. With the element of surprise, action was short and decisive. 

One of Alabama's guns put shots into Hatteras' hull, which caused the gunboat to take on water and sink.  Bell put up the white flag and ordered all hands to abandon ship.  Causalities from the battle were light. Two of Hatteras' firemen, both recent Irish immigrants, died when one of Alabama's shots hit the engine room.  The rest of Hatteras' company was saved by Alabama except for the sailors in the small boat that deployed right before the battle.  Seeing Hatteras defeated, those men quietly drifted away from Alabama, before rowing back to the Galveston blockade.  Brooklyn later picked up the wayward boarding team and saw the remains of Hatteras sink.  Thus, in the course of one month, the U.S. Navy lost three ships (Hatteras, Harriet Lane, and Westover) off the coast of Galveston to Confederate forces. Meanwhile, Alabama slipped away and headed towards Jamaica.

A three dimensional sonar image of the remains of
USS Hatteras (NOAA picture)

The Hatteras wreck site is currently under Federal protection and has been the subject of groundbreaking court decisions.  In Hatteras Inc. v. USS Hatteras, Federal courts ruled that salvages can not claim U.S. Navy, Confederate States Navy, or any other government ship in American waters, simply on the fact that government authorities have not made an attempt to salvage the ship.  The opinion has led Congress to pass several laws, namely the Sunken Military Craft Act, to protect government-owned ship wrecks in American waters.

NOAA has since surveyed the wreck site with three dimensional sonar, released several images of the wreck site: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/press/2013/pr011113.html#photo

African American Sailors of the Civil War Navy

February is African American History Month.  The celebration commemorates the many achievements of figures throughout the experience of the African diaspora.  It is a time to honor and reflect on the struggle faced by countless men and women over the last four hundred years.  Today, we remember those who had a voice, and others who did not.

Over the past two years, blog posts written about African American sailors included those individuals often featured in Civil War historiography.  More often than not, specific names pop up when discussing the role they played in the Union Navy.

On the website "Real African American Heroes,"  their list of notable figures includes a majority of Black Medal of Honor winners:  Robert Blake, William H. Brown, Wilson Brown, John Lawson, James Mifflin, and Joachim Pease.  The official NHHC website offers several other notable additions, including Robert Smalls, William Tilghman, and Aaron Anderson.  Although these men served "above and beyond the call of duty" during the war, they represent only a small fraction of the thousands of Black sailors who fought and died beside them.  Nearly two years into the sesquicentennial, have these familiar stories become familiar?  


Monuments are erected around the country to honor individual units, regiments, and divisions of soldiers.  Sailors of the United States Navy did not have this luxury, as their "battle flag" was universal: the Naval Jack and Ensign (United States Flag).  Any monument or statue commemorating their role is relegated to specific individuals, such as Robert Smalls in Beaufort, SC.   The story of the ship's crew will undoubtedly stay that way.  As certain ships like the Monitor and Hunley receive more attention than others today, many individuals like those listed above will likely do the same.

Many of the images used to show Black sailors of the Civil War have also become repetitive.  Think about the collection of images describing Black sailors in the war.  A select few will stand likely out in your mind:  Siah Carter on the deck of the USS Monitor; crews on the decks of the Hunchback and Miami; "Kroomen" aboard the Sacramento.  The list goes on.  These images, frequently used in on book covers and program announcements, are branded in the minds of Civil War enthusiasts today.  

Other problems deal with depiction.  How can you actively depict a sailor when  no image exists?  The posters produced by the Navy in the 1970s are drawn from whatever scant accounts of the individual survived the war.  Some are better than others, while others show a poor depiction of the individual or their actions.  This is clearly shown in Medal of Honor winner Joachim Pease's poster shown below.

How can you depict the story of the African American sailor if no written documentation exists?  Besides the specific sailors listed above, one must take the story of the collective over the individual.  In many cases, it all comes back to the amount of documentation present in the historic record.  

Unfortunately, much of that documentation does not exist.  Much of their memory is preserved today in commentary or correspondence between flag officers and government officials.  The Federal Writers project did not come around to capture oral histories until the New Deal era, when many of these sailors were already deceased.  There is no time machine to go back and take more pictures or record oral histories of crew members.  It is simply not there.  We must go by what we have.  

Perhaps that is the beauty of history; taking the mass of photographs and accounts that survived the war and turning it into a narrative of history and heritage.  This is an ongoing project for CWN 150 staff and historians everywhere.  It is more important than ever to keep the memory alive of these men who fought one hundred and fifty years ago.

Share your thoughts with the CWN 150 staff here on the blog or on Twitter: @civilwarnavy.  Let us know what you would like for us to highlight this month on the CWN 150 blog.

Confederate ambush and capture of the USS Isaac Smith

One hundred and fifty years ago this afternoon, Acting Lieutenant Francis S. Conover skippered the USS Isaac Smith up the Stono River outside Charleston, South Carolina.  The Smith was among the many vessels acquired by the Navy early in the war to work inside the shallow waterways.  Her armament included a 30-pdr Parrott rifle and eight 8-inch Dahlgren guns - rather formidable for 450 ton vessel.  Conover's mission entailed what had become a routine survey of the river, while looking for any new Confederate activity.  Little did Conover know, the Confederates had been very active along the Stono.

In late January, General P.G.T. Beauregard approved a plan forwarded by Brigadier General Roswell Ripley to setup an ambush of Federal gunboats operating on the Stono.  Ripley would wait until the gunboat passed up the channel.  Then using concealed batteries Ripley's men would open up a cross fire to surprise and disable the Federal ship.  Beauregard allocated five rifled 24-pdr guns from the district's siege train.  On John's Island, Major J. Welsman Brown, from the 2nd South Carolina Artillery, commanded two rifled guns.  On the opposite bank, Captain John Gary, 15th South Carolina Heavy Artillery directed three guns near Thomas Grimball's plantation.  So as the Smith made its way around the bends of the Stono, it fell into a trap.


In his report of the action, Conover wrote:

About 3 p.m. of that day I got underway form my usual anchorage in Stono Inlet, with orders from Lieutenant-Commander [George] Bacon, of the USS Commodore McDonough, to proceed up Stono River for the purpose of reconnoitering, as we were constantly in the habit of doing.  A little after 4 I anchored opposite what was known as Tom Grimball's plantation, about 4½ miles from the inlet, and although the signal quartermaster was at the masthead as usual, as well as one or two of the officers, nothing suspicious was seen in any direction.  

From his perspective Gary observed:

Between the hours of 3 and 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th ultimo the gunboat Isaac Smith made her appearance and anchored off Mr. Thomas Grimball's, some 500 yards distant from my batteries.  After waiting some twenty minutes and the Abolitionists showing no disposition to land I ordered my batteries to open fire, which they did in handsome style and apparently with great precision.

 On the receiving end, Conover reacted:

While at anchor, and at 4:25 p.m., a battery upon James Island, of three 24-pounder rifled guns, some 600 yards distant, and masked by a thick clump of trees, opened upon us.  I immediately got underway and cleared for action, and in less than two minutes after the first gun was fired at us we were replying.  At the same time, however, other batteries upon John's Island, on the opposite side of the river and below us, delivered their fire.  I saw immediately that we were trapped, and that my only course was to get the vessels below the battery if possible, and fight them with a more even chance of success.  For upward of a mile, on account of a bend in the river, we were obliged to receive the raking fire of between twenty and thirty guns without being able to reply, except occasionally with our pivot.  As soon as our broadside could be brought to bear, we opened upon the enemy with shell and grape, at from 200 to 400 yards distant.  At one time I had hopes of getting by without any serious loss, but a shot in our steam chimney effectually stopped the engine, and with no wind, little tide, and boats riddled with shot, we were left entirely at the mercy of the enemy.

The USS Isaac Smith under fire

 
As the Smith drifted downriver, Brown's guns were about to enter the melee:

In a short time a furious cannonade began up the river, but with what effect I could not see, as the trees obscured the view.  Soon, however, the boat rounded the point into sight, evidently crippled, but keeping up a running fight with the shore batteries above my position on each side of the river.  I was about to order my guns to open upon her when I perceived that she had a white flag flying, in token of her surrender.

Brown held his fire, and prepared a party to receive the surrender.  At nearly the same instant, the McDonough appeared steaming upriver towards the fight.  After exchanging fire with Brown's battery, Commander Bacon saw no opportunity to save the Smith and retired.  Conover reported eight killed and seventeen wounded, including himself.  The Confederates suffered one man mortally wounded.

 The loss of the Smith proved an embarrassment to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and Rear Admiral Samuel DuPont.  (And even more embarrassment awaited the Federals the next day in the waters around Charleston.)  The Confederates recovered the Smith and towed her upriver to Fort Pemberton.  Under new owners, the Smith became the CSS Stono.  After service in the Charleston squadron, the Stono was outfitted as a blockade runner with a load of cotton. While attempting a run in June 1863, she wrecked off Sullivan's Island, near Fort Moultrie.  Confederates later burned the wreck when abandoning Charleston at the end of the war.

The site of the ambush and capture of the Smith is near the present day Charleston Executive Airport, along the Stono River.

(Sources for this article include ORN, Series I, Volume 13, pages 560-5 and OR, Series I, Volume 14, Serial 20, pages 199-204.)

Ironclads on the Georgia Coast - Monitor vs. Fort I

USS Montauk (left) laid up in 1902. The proud warship would be scrapped a couple years later. Image source: Naval History and Heritage Command

This is the first in a series of posts I would like to offer on actions by US and CS ironclads on the Georgia coast in 1863. In early 1863, Adm. Du Pont of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron was preparing for a massive invasion of Charleston Harbor, using a combination of ironclad and wooden warships. The US Navy was sending him the new Passaic Class monitors and he wanted to test one of them out, simultaneously trying to get rid of a “thorn in his side” - the Confederate ship CSS Nashville/Rattlesnake taking refuge up the Ogeechee River.

Ft. McAllister was a large Confederate earthen fortification mounting 8 heavy guns and guarding the mouth of the Ogeechee River, Georgia (south of Savannah) and an important railroad crossing upstream. The fort also guarded the upstream mooring site of the Nashville, which intelligence said was being converted from a blockade runner back into a commerce raider (to be renamed CSS Rattlesnake) that would attempt to escape through the blockade and prey on Union shipping in the S. Atlantic and Caribbean. On 24 January 1863 Du Pont sent the USS Montauk, under the command of Capt. John Worden (now recovered from the wounds he received commanding USS Monitor at the first battle of ironclads), to head up Ossabaw Sound into the Ogeechee to probe Ft. McAllister and destroy the Nashville. The turreted ironclad was accompanied by three wooden gunboats (USS Seneca, Wissahickon, and Dawn), and the mortar schooner C. P. Williams to provide additional gunfire support. Heavy fog on 25 and 26 January impeded the expedition’s progress. The evening of the 26th, the Union flotilla anchored in the river downstream and out of range of the fort. That night Lt. Commander John Davis took two boats and reconnoitered the area upstream under cover of darkness; the bluejackets destroyed artillery range marks placed by the fort’s gunners, and marked the locations of obstructions, some of which were armed with torpedoes.

The morning of 27 January, Worden took the Montauk in and hove to about 1,600 yards off the fort (short of the series of obstructions at a spot marked by Davis the night before). The other gunboats followed him and anchored several hundred yards further away. Confederate battery and monitor both opened fire about 7:35 AM, and pounded away at one another for almost 4 hours. The Montauk ran out of ammunition a little after 11 AM. Hits to the monitor (13 or 14) did little to no damage, but likewise the shellfire from the USN gunboats did minimal damage to the heavy earthen and sand walls of the fortification; they simply absorbed the energy and concussions of the shells, even those from the big XV inch Dahlgren on the Montauk. Another critical weakness was the length of time it took to load and fire the huge XI and XV inch Dahlgren guns of the Montauk (roughly 7 min. between shots). The fire from the other gunboats also resulted in little damage to the fort.

Four days later, on the morning of 1 February, Worden took the Montauk in again. Accompanied by the same flotilla of gunboats as the 27 January attack, Worden anchored near the fort and opened fire. Once again, confederate fort and navy gunboats dueled for most of the morning. About 12:30 the gunboats withdrew. The only significant casualty for the Confederates was the loss of the fort’s commander, Maj. John B. Gallie, who was killed by a shell from the Montauk.

Ft. McAllister after capture by Union forces in mid-December 1864. Ogeechee River (and USN gunboats?) in the background. Image source: Library of Congress photo archives.