The Loss of USS Monitor/Rhode Island's Rescue, December 31, 1862

On the evening of January 3, 1863, Acting Rear Admiral Sydney Phillips Lee, commanding officer of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, di...

Preparing for Vicksburg: The Importance of Controlling the Yazoo River

In the latter days of 1862, Admiral David Porter, General William Sherman, and their respective subordinates produced a mountain of paperwor...

USS Cairo Strikes a Torpedo: December 12, 1862

Sketch by Rear Admiral Henry Walke of Cairo hitting the mine.  The image is incorrect in the  respect that the mine exploded on Cairo's ...

CSS Alabama Searches for California Gold, December 1862

In late November 1862, Raphael Semmes ordered CSS Alabama  to steam southwest toward Cuba.  He was purposely looking to intercept steamships...

Ambush on the St. Johns River

The dock and hotel at Magnolia Springs, Florida, probably after the Civil War. Source: Florida Dept. of State photo archives: In his report ...

The Confederate War Department Buys a Giraffe, November 1862

Blockade Runner Giraffe/Robert E. Lee In the Fall 1862, Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon and Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance Josiah...

Cushing's Raid on Jacksonville, North Carolina

As  written in previous posts , the U.S. Navy waged an intriguing form of strategic warfare with targeted raids against salt works in Florid...

USS Monitor 150th Anniversary Experience at the Mariners' Museum

Auctioned “Experience” Inside USS Monitor ’s Revolving Gun Turret to Highlight 150 th Anniversary of Ironclad’s Demise,  Support Ongoing Con...

Chasing After CSS Nashville: November 19, 1862

 A Northern newspaper cartoon mocking the U.S. Navy's inability to capture CSS Nashville.  CSS Nashville was the Confederate State g...

CSS Alabama Migrates South For the Winter, November 1862

While raiding Gulf Stream merchant traffic near Nova Scotia, Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes was well aware that the weather could turn n...

USS Passaic-Bringing a Bigger Gun to the Fight

  USS Passaic testing her XV-inch Dahlgren towards the Palisades. When asked by a Congressional panel investigating the outcome of the B...

Counter-Insurgency Operations on the Upper Mississippi, October 1862

Confederate partisan activity was not limited to Louisiana.  Wherever there was a Union incursion into the Mississippi River, Confederate pa...

Battle of St. Johns Bluff Living History Weekend Recap

Since 2007, the Ft. Caroline National Monument in Jacksonville has hosted a Civil War Living History event to commemorate the actions of Uni...

U.S. Naval Cowboys on the Mississippi-October 1862

In 19th century American history, the long range cattle drive is one of the great icons of the era.  One such drive of 1,500 head of cattle ...

Playing With Fire off the Cuban Coast, October 1862

A route frequently used by Anglo-Confederate blockade runners went from Matamoros, Mexico to Havana, Cuba, ending at Mobile, Alabama.  The s...

Alabama's Gulf Stream Raid, October 3-15, 1862

Alabama burning the ship Brilliante and her $93,000 worth of grain off the coast of Nova Scotia When CSS Alabama and her captain Raphel Se...

War on the Periphery-U.S. Naval Forces Capture Galveston, Texas

The port of Galveston, Texas represented the far western edge of Civil War Naval activity.  Before the war, the port did brisk business in t...