"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 rec...

Counter Offensive at Galveston and the Capture of Harriet Lane

 USN map of the 1863 action at Galveston Confederate offensives took a sharp increase in 1863.  On the western side of the Confederacy...

CSS Florida Escapes Out of Mobile Bay

CSS Florida during the height of her career. Image source: US Navy History and Heritage Command After being partially outfitted in the Baha...

Defensive preparations at Mobile Bay

Water batteries on Mobile Bay. Source: State of Alabama photo archives. In prior posts, I introduced you to the port of Mobile, Alabama and ...

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...

Mobile in the Confederacy

Images of Mobile, Alabama. From Harper's Weekly: After New Orleans, Mobile was the most important port on the Gulf coast for the Confed...

Ship Island-The Unsinkable Tender

To borrow a modern U.S. Navy term, each of the U.S.N's blockading squadrons needed a "forward deployed" base near the war zone...