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Browsing named entities in James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers (ed. Clement Anselm Evans).

Found 4,000 total hits in 1,141 results.

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1861 AD (search for this): chapter 4
apital, and upon the other their principal naval depot. The events of the first year, however, which took place in and about the Roads, had little to do with the outside blockade, and properly form an episode by themselves, which has its beginning and end in the loss and the recovery of Norfolk. The loss of the Norfolk Yard at the outbreak of the war has been ah lady alluded to. This Yard had always been extensively used as a depot for arms and munitions of all kinds; and in the spring of 1861 it contained a very large supply. The ordinary work was going on actively; and there was nothing to be seen on the spot to indicate that a crisis was at hand. The vessels at the Yard comprised an old ship-of-the-line, the Pennsylvania, which was used as a receiving ship; five large sailing-vessels, laid up in ordinary; the sailing-sloops Germantown and Plymouth; and the brig Dolphin. The last three were ready for sea. The steam-frigate Merrimac, whose importance was greater than that of a
1841 AD (search for this): chapter 4
f of the North Atlantic blockading squadron, who was engaged at this time in the expedition against Roanoke Island, the senior officer present in Hampton Roads was Captain John Marston of the Roanoke. The force consisted of the Roanoke and the Minnesota, lying near Fortress Monroe, and two sailing-vessels, the Congress and the Cumberland, at anchor off Newport News. All were admirable vessels of their class. The Congress was a fifty-gun frigate, and though rebuilt, or rather built anew, in 1841, represented the type of 1812. The Cumberland was a sloop-of-war of twenty-four guns. The Roanoke and the Minnesota were screw-frigates of forty guns. These vessels have been already referred to. They were the pride of the navy, and before the war had been regarded as the highest and most perfect type of the men-of-war of the period. Yet it required but the experience of a single afternoon in Hampton Roads, in the month of March, 1862, to show that all of them were antiquated, displaced,
September (search for this): chapter 4
sed to have occupied the river. Tattnall thereupon concluded to destroy his ship; and, setting her on fire, he landed his officers and men and escaped by way of Suffolk. At five o'clock on the morning of the 11th the Merrimac blew up. Possession of Norfolk being now resumed, active operations came to an end, and the blockading station at Hampton Roads ceased to be the scene of conflict. The Monitor, after remaining all summer in the James River, was sent to Washington for repairs in September, and two months later returned to Hampton Roads. The career of the Monitor was now nearly over. On the afternoon of the 29th of December, she set out for Beaufort, N. C., in tow of the Rhode Island. Admiral Lee had left the time of departure at the discretion of Bankhead, the commander of the Monitor; and the latter chose a clear pleasant day, when a light wind was blowing from the southwest, and everything promised fair weather. The passage to Beaufort was about as long as that from
October (search for this): chapter 4
as made August 3. The ironclad board was convened on the 8th of the same month. Its report was made September 16; and the contract for the Monitor was not completed until October 4. To this delay may be directly traced the action of the 8th of March, and the destruction of the Congress and the Cumberland. The hull of the Monitor was built at the Continental Iron Works, at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, from Ericsson's plans and under his supervision. The vessel was begun in the latter part of October. The mechanics worked in three gangs, each for the space of eight hours, so that the work, when finally undertaken, went on without interruption night and day. The construction of the vessel was pushed forward so rapidly that on the 30th of January, 1862, not quite four months after the signing of the contract, the Monitor was launched. The new structure consisted of a small iron hull, upon which rested a large raft, surmounted by a revolving turret. The hull was one hundred and twent
1812 AD (search for this): chapter 4
ding squadron, who was engaged at this time in the expedition against Roanoke Island, the senior officer present in Hampton Roads was Captain John Marston of the Roanoke. The force consisted of the Roanoke and the Minnesota, lying near Fortress Monroe, and two sailing-vessels, the Congress and the Cumberland, at anchor off Newport News. All were admirable vessels of their class. The Congress was a fifty-gun frigate, and though rebuilt, or rather built anew, in 1841, represented the type of 1812. The Cumberland was a sloop-of-war of twenty-four guns. The Roanoke and the Minnesota were screw-frigates of forty guns. These vessels have been already referred to. They were the pride of the navy, and before the war had been regarded as the highest and most perfect type of the men-of-war of the period. Yet it required but the experience of a single afternoon in Hampton Roads, in the month of March, 1862, to show that all of them were antiquated, displaced, superseded, and that a new era
McClellan (search for this): chapter 4
below; and the Merrimac took her position between Sewall's Point and Newport News, out of range of the guns of the fort. Goldsborough, impressed with the importance of keeping the Merrimac in check, in order that she might not interfere with McClellan's operations, and in accordance with the wishes of the Department, was inclined to take no unnecessary risk, and to do nothing that would precipitate a conflict. He had no intention of taking the offensive, or of engaging, except under the mo lighten her. After working half the night, and stripping the ship so that she was unfit for action, the pilots, apparently not wishing to go out, declared that it would be impossible to take her up as far as Jamestown Flats, the point to which McClellan's army was supposed to have occupied the river. Tattnall thereupon concluded to destroy his ship; and, setting her on fire, he landed his officers and men and escaped by way of Suffolk. At five o'clock on the morning of the 11th the Merrimac
February 19th (search for this): chapter 4
by gearing with the turret-engine, was so defective that the turret was equally slow in starting, and, once started, in coming to a stop; and there was hardly time to point the guns before the muzzles had swept by their target. But considering the time in which she was built, the wonder is not that she was imperfect, but that she was in anywise ready; and it was well for the country that she did not wait another day to complete her preparations. The first trial of the Monitor was made February 19, on the day that she was delivered at the Navy Yard. She was put in commission on the 25th, when a second trial took place; but her steering gear was not in working order, and she did not go out of the East River. At a third trial, a week later, she steamed-down to Sandy Hook, and tried her guns. The mechanics were still at work upon her; indeed, the vessel was hardly completed when she left New York, though the workmen were busy during the night before she sailed. Finally, at 11 o'cl
R. E. Lee (search for this): chapter 4
h the Merrimac blew up. Possession of Norfolk being now resumed, active operations came to an end, and the blockading station at Hampton Roads ceased to be the scene of conflict. The Monitor, after remaining all summer in the James River, was sent to Washington for repairs in September, and two months later returned to Hampton Roads. The career of the Monitor was now nearly over. On the afternoon of the 29th of December, she set out for Beaufort, N. C., in tow of the Rhode Island. Admiral Lee had left the time of departure at the discretion of Bankhead, the commander of the Monitor; and the latter chose a clear pleasant day, when a light wind was blowing from the southwest, and everything promised fair weather. The passage to Beaufort was about as long as that from New York to Hampton Roads. The Monitor was accompanied by the Passaic, which was in tow of the State of Georgia. All went well until the morning Of the second day, when the ships began to feel a swell from the so
Dahlgren (search for this): chapter 4
ree hundred of them being new Dahlgren guns of various calibres. Besides the guns, machinery, steel plates, castings, construction materials, and ordnance and equipment stores in vast quantities came into the possession of the Confederates; and severe as the loss of so much material would have been by itself to the Federal Government, it was rendered tenfold greater by supplying the necessities of the enemy. The latter immediately set about utilizing their new acquisition. The captured Dahlgren guns were distributed throughout the country, and many were the occasions when the Government had cause to regret the irreparable disaster which had supplied the enemy so cheaply with a priceless armament of first-class modern ordnance. The Germantown and Plymouth were raised and restored, but the Confederates had neither time nor money to waste in equipping them for sea. The Merrimac was also raised, and though her upper works were destroyed, her hull and boilers, and the heavy and costly
8th (search for this): chapter 4
essels could bring against her. Moreover, her sister ships, the Roanoke and Minnesota, lay below near the fort. A careful lookout was kept up, however; the ships were anchored with springs on their cables, and half the watch slept at quarters. On the 6th of March, the frigate St. Lawrence came in, a vessel in all respects similar to the Congress. But so far from increasing the force to be opposed to the Merrimac, she only added another to the list of probable victims. On Saturday, the 8th, a little before one o'clock in the afternoon, while the Monitor was still outside the Capes, the Merrimac finally came out from Norfolk. She was under the command of Franklin Buchanan, whose ability and energy had won him a high place in the esteem of his brother-officers in the navy before the war. She was accompanied by two gunboats, the Beaufort and Raleigh, of one gun each. Turning directly into the channel by which she could reach Newport News, the Merrimac approached the two vessels
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