American Civil War

I stopped by the National Civil War Naval Museum in Port Columbus, Georgia and took some pictures.

Immediately on entering, I found myself overlooking a gallery displaying various flags and artifacts.

I started to explore the museum. A cannon was one of the first exhibits I found up close.

As I made my way around it, I stumbled across what I later learned was the highlight of the museum- the remains of the CSS Jackson, a massive Confederate ironclad.

There was a replica of the CSS Albemarle.

The replica Albemarle was "docked" at a small replica period dock.

Outside of that area, I was in the main gallery I had overlooked when I first came in. On one side there was a partial replica of the USS Monitor, showing off the turret.

The other side on ground level contained various artifacts on display.

There was a full size replica of the USS Hartford.

There was a series of boards on the Battle Of Columbus.

Flags and explanations were on display.

Numerous paintings were displaying naval forces of the war in the same gallery as the remains of the USS Hunchback.

Description and print.

Description: Civil War print of Ulysses S. Grant on his famous black horse, "Cincinnati” in the wilderness amid smoke and fire on May 7, 1864 by artist Mort Kunstler.

On To Richmond is the official print for the 1991 Class of the U.S. Army War College.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10449455

Known as the "Bayou St. John submarine", this vessel was discovered when the Bayou St. John, in New Orleans was dredged by the US Government in 1878. For years, the vessel was thought to be the Confederate submarine Pioneer, but research in the 20th century showed it was of a different design. There is no surviving documentation from the Civil War about the construction of this submarine. It was presumably scuttled by the Confederacy during the Civil War when the Union capture of New Orleans was immanent.

It is being displayed in New Orleans in this picture, with what appears to be a local policeman in the photo.

Wikipedia page.

James J. Andrews worked as a house painter and singing coach in Kentucky before the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war he worked as a merchant to trade goods between Union and Confederate controlled areas, as a well as working as an undercover agent providing intelligence for the Union.

In 1862, he proposed a plan to steal a train from Confederate controlled Atlanta, Georgia. He took a small band of men into Georgia to meet with a train engineer inside the Confederacy who had told Andrews that he was willing to defect. However, when Andrews arrived, the engineer had been forced out of Atlanta for work, and the raid was called off. Aside from Andrews, the other members of the original raiding party did not volunteer further.

However Andrews still supported the idea of a raid to both steal a train, and importantly destroy railways behind the train in order to disrupt Confederate supply lines. He proposed an idea to Union Major General Ormsby M. Mitchel to steal a train the was moving between Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee and destroy the tracks behind him.

The plan was approved, and Andrews recruited a group that would bear his namesake: The Andrews Raiders. He recruited the men known later as the Andrews Raiders. The band included the civilian William Hunter Campbell and 22 volunteer Union soldiers from three Ohio regiments: the 2nd, 21st, and 33rd Ohio Infantry.

The men traveled in small groups and wore civilian clothes to travel into Georgia, with a pre-planned meeting on April 10th in Marietta, George. All but two of the men made it to the rendezvous point on time.The group prepared to steal a train as it stopped to refuel at Big Shanty, a location just north of Atlanta. On April 12th the Andrews raiders boarded a stopped passenger train at Big Shanty, quickly disconnected the passenger cars from the locomotive engine, and began steaming north on the track.

The crew of the stolen train, lead by the conductor William Allen Fuller, pursued but had no way to keep up with the train and it pulled away from them. Andrews cut the telegraph line along the track, which isolated the small track side stations that he would encounter from communication with the south, and they would receive no word about the stolen train. When he arrived at the stations he would claim his train was transporting a special supply of ammunition needed by the Confederate military, on the orders of Confederate General Beauregard. The lies worked, but Andrews eventually still ended up stopped in Kingston as southbound moving trains evacuating from Chattanooga were being priority on the Confederate railway.

During this time the Fuller had continued to pursue in a handcar, and then another train which he had commandeered.

As the evacuating southbound trains finally cleared out, Andrews pulled his train past Kingston,damaged a section of track behind him, and continued north. Fuller arrived at the damaged section of track, abandoned his commandeered train and pursued on foot until he reached another Confederate train which he commandeered and continued to chase Andrews with. Fuller's second train made close pursuit of Andrews, and while Andrews attempted to further damage telegraph lines, Fuller was able to Chattanooga, warning of the stolen train. The chase continued until Andrews' train rain out of fuel just 18 miles from the city. The raiders abandoned the train and scattered, but within two weeks all had be caught by Confederate forces.

The Confederacy tried and convicted Andrews and seven other raiders as spies, and executed them by hanging in Atlanta. The remaining raiders attempted an escape. Eight were able to evade Confederate forces and return to Union lines, six were recaptured and held as prisoners until the following year when they would be returned back to the Union in a POW exchange.

The soldiers who had participated were the first to receive the US Medal Of Honor, a recently created award. As a civilian Andrews was ineligible and did not post-posthumously receive the award.

In 1954 a plaque in Atlanta was erected in his honor.

Wikipedia on Great Train Chase.

Wikipedia on James J. Andrews.

Irvin McDowell is a name not widely remembered outside of history circles, but he made a significant impact during the Civil War.

McDowell was first commissioned into the United States Army in 1838 as a 2nd Lieutenant posted to the 1st US Artillery. By 1861 he had become an experienced logistics officer, but had limited combat command experience. He was promoted by three ranks to become a one star general, a promotion largely influenced by his personal relationship with the Secretary of Treasury. Two weeks later he was given command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia and pressured by Washington DC to launch an attack against the nascent Confederate military forces camped in Northern Virginia. Despite McDowell knowing that many of the troops under his command had just recently been recruited and had limited training, he moved to begin offensive operations against Confederate forces.

This offensive would become the First Battle Of Bull Run, which would become a Union disaster. McDowell had a complex plan of attack which required fast maneuvering by his forces to succeed in cutting off the numerically inferior Confederates near Manassas Junction. However McDowell’s forces moved too slowly and Confederate reinforcements arrived, giving them an equally sized force. McDowell changed his plan of attack, shifting the Confederate flank he intended to hit. During the battle on the 21st of July, McDowell’s forces lost control of the situation and by the end of the day were forced into a retreat which turned into a panicked rout. In what was expected to be an easy victory, McDowell had commanded over a defeat which shocked many in Washington DC.

Following the defeat, McDowell was removed from Army command and became a division commander, then shortly after a Corps commander in the reorganized structure of the Union army. He was promoted to a two star general in 1862.

He commanded III Corps of the Army Of Virginia during the Second Battle Of Bull Run, which would become a Union disaster. McDowell and his troops spent the majority of the three day battle out of position due to a lack of clear orders by the Army commander. On the second day McDowell along with another Union officer Fitz John Porter received a written order that has become known as the “Joint Order” which vaguely suggested actions, but gave no clear and explicit commands. Because of the vagueness of the Joint Order, both men failed to position their forces in the way envisioned by the Army commander. On the third day, the Union and Confederate forces engaged in intense and protracted combat, with McDowell continuously making mistakes on where to position his forces and contributing to a Union loss of 14, 000 casualties compared to the Confederate 8,000.

After the battle, McDowell testified in a court martial against Fitz John Porter that alleged that Porter had disobeyed the command of the Joint Order. McDowell was not similarly charged. In 1879, when a board of review commissioned by President Rutherford B. Hayes issued its report recommending a pardon for Fitz John Porter, it attributed much of the loss of the Second Battle of Bull Run to McDowell. In the report, he was depicted as indecisive, uncommunicative, and inept.

After the Civil War, McDowell commanded numerous Army Departments until retiring in 1882. Following his retirement from the army, General McDowell exercised his fondness for landscape gardening, serving as Park Commissioner of San Francisco, California until his death from heart attack on May 4, 1885.

OP picture found here.

Wikipedia, from which I referenced and copypasted portions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10294182

CSS Virginia was the first, but not last, steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. It was constructed from the original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack. CSS Virginia famously took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's ironclad, the USS Monitor, in March 1862. The battle is significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.

The origin of the CSS Virginia begins during the US military evacuation from Gosport Navy Yard in 1861. The steam frigate USS Merrimack was burned to the waterline and sunk to prevent the ship’s capture, however once Confederate forces took control of the area, they were able to raise the ship and discover that the lower hull and steam engine were intact.

Off of this foundation, the Confederacy built the CSS Virginia as an ironclad with a casemate design. A casemate design used the main deck housing the entire gun battery in fixed gunports. The ship had 14 gunports. As armament four muzzle-loading single-banded Brooke rifles, six smoothbore 9-inch Dahlgren guns, two 7-inch pivot guns,and two 6.4-inch cannons, and two 12 pound howitzers were arrayed throughout the ship in both gunports and deck mounts. In addition the CSS Virginia was fitted with with a ram. As a downside to the massive armor and armament build onto the ship, the original steam engines were put under great strain making the ship slow and unmaneuverable.

The CSS Virginia took part in the two day long Battle of Hampton Roads begining on March 8, 1862. On the first day it sank two Union ships and ran a third one aground.

One the second day, the Union ironclad, the USS Monitor, engaged it in a battle for hours, but neither ship was able to significantly damage the other. At the end of the day, both ships withdrew with neither having gained a clear victory. This was the only time they was engage in combat with each other. The Union continued to blockade Norfolk, containing the Confederate ships while not engaging them.

On May 10th Union land forces advanced and took Norfolk, blocking off the CSS Virginia’s river access. Since the ironclad was not suitable for ocean sailing, there was nowhere for it to go, and on May 11th the ship was scuttled.

The ship is known by many names. It is often referred to by its original designation as the “Merrimack” even in its Confederate ironclad form. Northern papers and Union troops during the Civil War nicknamed it “The Rebel Monster” as well. Pre-1900 historians frequently misspelled the name as "Merrimac”, and the misspelling has also become widely.

Wikipedia, generously used as reference source.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10294467

The USS Monitor was an ironclad warship used by the Union Navy during the US Civil War. It was a radical design that sat low on the waterline to present a very small target, and had a revolving turret rather than a broadside battery. The turret traversed with steam power, being about to make a full rotation in just under 23 seconds. During the Battle of Hampton Roads the turret was fitted with a pair of 11-inch guns.

It was rushed to take part in the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads to oppose the Confederate ironclad that the CSA called the CCS Virginia that had been wrecking havoc on wooden Union ships. The USS Monitor engaged the Confederate ironclad for hours in the first ever battle of ironclad ships. In the end neither ship gained a decisive advantage before withdrawing.

The USS Monitor continued to help the union blockade Norfolk until the Confederacy was forced to scuttle its own ironclad as Union land forces closed off Norfolk and the river beyond it. The USS Monitor then sailed to support the Union army in the Battle Of Drewry’s Bluff. After that it moved to participate in the Union blockade of North Carolina, but floundered during a storm and sank.

Wikipedia, used generously as reference.