April 1861

4.17.1

SUPPORT

USS Powhatan (Lt D. D. Porter) covers the landing of 600 soldiers to garrison Ft Pickens in Pensacola harbor. This quick action denied the Confederates the use of the best harbor in the Gulf of Mexico for the entire war.

4.20.1

OTHER

Federal forces abandon Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA, burning the facility to deny its use to the Confederates. USS Pennsylvania, Germantown, Raritan, Columbia, and Dolphin are burned to the waterline and USS Delaware, Columbus, Plymouth, and Merrimack burned and sunk. USS Cumberland, Pawnee, and tug Yankee escape. The Yard provided the Confederates with a drydock and a large number of guns—which soon appeared in the batteries and fortifications along the coast and rivers.

4.20.1a

OTHER

USS Constitution  (Lt George Rodgers) is towed from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD into Chesapeake Bay to prevent her capture by the rebels. Four days later, carrying midshipmen from the Academy, she heads for Newport, RI. This will be the home of the Academy throughout the war. She arrives on May 9.

4.21.1

OTHER

Steamers Baltimore, Mount Vernon , Philadelphia. and Powhatan are seized off Washington, D.C. and armed for the defence of the capital. Confederate Navy officers erect batteries across the river at Aquia Creek--terminal point of railroad connection with Richmond.

May 1861

5.10.1

OTHER

USS Niagara  (Capt. William W. McKean) blockades Charleston, SC.

5.18.1

OTHER

Confederate President Jefferson Davis commissions schooner Savannah (Capt. Thomas H. Baker) as the first privateer ("a private armed vessel in the service of the Confederate States on the high seas against the United States of America, their ships, vessels, goods, and effects, and those of their citizens during the pendency of the war now existing”)

5.19.1

BOMBARD

Rebel batteries at Sewall’s Point, VA are engaged by USS Monticello  (Capt. Henry Eagle) and USS Thomas Freeborn  (Cdr Ward).

5.24.1

EXPED

Cdr Rowan (USS Pawnee)  leads an amphibious expedition from the Washington Navy Yard and occupies Alexandria, VA under cover of USS Thomas Freeborn, Anacostia , and Resolute . Navy Lt R. B. Lowry, in charge of the landing party, raised the U.S. flag over the Customs House. This is the first landing of Federal troops in Virginia.

5.26.1

OTHER

USS Brooklyn  (Cdr Charles H. Poor) blockades New Orleans and mouth of Mississippi River.

5.26.1a

OTHER

USS Powhatan  (Lt D. D. Porter) blockades Mobile, AL.

5.27.1

OTHER

USS Union  (Cdr John R. Goldsborough) blockades Savannah, GA.

5.29.1

(29-1)

BOMBARD

The Confederate batteries at Aquia Creek engage the ships of the new Potomac Flotilla: USS Thomas Freeborn (Cdr Ward), USS Anacostia (Lt Napoleon Collins), and USS Resolute (Act’g Master William Budd); They are joined on the evening of May 31 by USS Pawnee (Cdr Rowan).

June 1861

6.8.1

OTHER

USS Mississippi (Flag Officer Mervine) blockades Key West, FL

July 1861

7.7.1

OTHER

USS Resolute (Act’g Master William Budd) picks up two floating torpedoes (mines) in the Potomac River. This is the earliest known use of torpedoes by the Confederates—which will account for 53 Union vessels by the end of the war. (Map approximate)

7.21.1

SHIP2SHIP

First ship-to-ship combat of the war takes place in Oregon Inlet, NC as USS Albatross (Cdr Prentiss) engages CSS Beaufort (Lt R. C. Duvall). Albatross’s heavier guns force Beaufort to withdraw.

7.21.1a

OTHER

U.S. Marines commanded by Major Reynolds take part in the First Battle of Bull Run: The Confederates also had a naval battery at Manassas.

August 1861

8.3.1

OTHER

John LaMountain makes the first ascent in a balloon from Union  ship Fanny at Hampton Roads to observe Confederate batteries on Sewell’s Point, VA ..

8.18.1

SINKING

Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis  (Capt. Coxetter) founders on the bar trying to enter St. Augustine, FL, ending a most successful cruise.

8.28.1

EXPED

Cdr Dahlgren , Commandant of Washington Navy Yard , sends 400 seamen to Alexandria, VA to help defend Ft Ellsworth.

8.29.1

JOINT

Hatteras Inlet was secured as Forts Hatteras and Clark surrendered unconditionally to Flag Officer Silas Stringham’s warships and Gen’l Ben Butler’s troops. This combined amphibious operation—the first of the war—was conducted at the behest of the Navy to close Pamlico Sound to blockade runners and commerce raiders, and involved USS Minnesota , Monticello , Pawnee , Susquehanna, Cumberland, Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane , US tug Fanny, and two transports carrying the 900 troops. Thus the first Union victory of the war was a naval one—much needed after the battlefield reverses of the previous four months.

September 1861

9.6.1

JOINT

Gunboats USS Tyler  (Cdr J. Rodgers) and USS Lexington. (Cdr Stembel) spearhead Gen’l Grants seizure of strategic Paducah and Smithland, KY, at the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland  Rivers. This operation prevented Confederate movement into the state and saved Kentucky for the Union.

9.10.1

SUPPORT

USS Conestoga  (Lt S. L. Phelps) and USS Lexington (Cdr Stembel) cover the advance of Federal troops at Lucas Bend, MO, silencing a Confederate battery and damaging the rebel gunboat CSS Yankee.

9.14.1

EXPED

Sailors and Marines from USS Colorado row into Pensacola harbor under cover of darkness, board and burn Confederate privateering schooner Judah, and spike guns at Pensacola Navy Yard .

9.16.1

(16-17)

EXPED

Fortifications and guns in a fortification on Beacon Island are destroyed by a landing party from USS Pawnee (Cdr Rowan), closing Ocracoke Inlet, NC.

9.17.1

EXPED

Landing party from USS Massachusetts occupies Ship Island, MS after its evacuation by Confederate forces. Ship Island becomes the staging area for Union troops operating below New Orleans.

October 1861

10.1.1

CAPTURE

Confederate naval forces under flag Officer William F. Lynch, CSN, capture steamer Fanny in Pamlico Sound with Union  troops on board. This was the first Southern naval victory in the sounds, and garnered two large rifled guns as well as a large quantity of army stores. (Map approximate)

10.9.1

SHIP2SHIP

First documented attempt to sink an enemy ship with a submarine in the Civil War. The target was the USS Minnesota  in Hampton Roads. The submarine became fouled in grappling hanging from the jib boom (which its occupants thought was the anchor cable). The vessel escaped. A 12 October newspaper report based upon testimony from a Confederate deserter claims the submarine employed an India rubber suction plate to attach to its target and plant a timed bomb.

10.12.1

SHIP2SHIP

Confederate metal-sheathed ram CSS Manassas (Commodore Hollins) in company with armed steamer Ivy and James L. Day, attacks USS Richmond, Vincennes, Water Witch, Nightingale , and Preble near Head of Passes, Mississippi  River. In this offensive and spirited action by the small Confederate force, Manassas rammed Richmond, forced her and Vincennes aground under heavy fire before withdrawing.

10.14.1

OTHER

Lt A. Murray of USS Louisiana accepts the oath of allegiance to the United States from the citizens of Chincoteague Island, VA, who present a petition claiming their "abhorrence of the secession heresy."

Fall 1861

Fall 61

SINKING

William Cheney’s submarine—either the model reported on by Mrs. Baker or a larger version—is sunk in the James River while attempting to attack Union  vessels. Navy pickets patrolling the river spotted the camouflaged float and sliced the rubber hose to the craft.

November 1861

11.4.1

OTHER

Fearing further attacks by Confederate “infernal machines,” Capt. William Smith of the USS Congress in Hampton Roads, devises the first anti-submarine nets of chains suspended from spars lashed in a frame around his vessel. (Map approximate)

11.7.1

JOINT

After leaving Ft Monroe on 29 October, Flag Officer Du Pont’s 77-ship expedition (the largest US fleet ever assembled to this date) captures Port Royal Sound, SC. Navy gunners poured an accurate and withering fire into defending Fts Walker and Beauregard, forcing the defenders to withdraw. A small Confederate naval squadron under Commodore Tatnall could not resist the mighty fleet, but ferried rebel troops to the mainland. Marines and sailors landed to occupy the forts until 16,000 soldiers under Brigadier Gen’l Thomas Sherman land. Port Royal was halfway between Charleston and Savannah, and became a valuable supply point for Federal vessels.

11.7.1

SUPPORT

USS Tyler (Cdr Walke) and USS Lexington  (Cdr Stembel) hold back Confederate troops and allow the evacuation of Union forces under Gen’l U.S. Grant following the Battle of Belmont, MO. The gunboats engaged rebel batteries and supported the Federal army during the engagement, and covered their retreat when rebel reinforcements arrived.

11.8.1

OTHER

A serious international incident is sparked when Capt. Wilkes (USS San Jacinto) stops British mail steamer Trent and removes Confederate Commissioners Mason and Slidell.

11.9.1

EXPED

Flag Officer Du Pont's gunboats take possession of Beaufort, SC , cutting communications along the Broad River between Charleston and Savannah.

11.12.1

OTHER

Blockade runner Fingal--the first ship to run the blockade solely on Confederate government account --enters Savannah laden with military supplies. Fingal brought in the supplies that allow the Confederacy to fight the Second Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.

11.24.1

EXPED

Landing party sent from USS Flag (Cdr J. Rodgers) USS Augusta, Pocahontas , Seneca, and Savan­nah take possession of Tybee Island in Savannah Harbor.

December 1861

11.10.1

EXPED

Lt James W. A. Nicholson (USS Isaac Smith) lands and occupies abandoned Confederate Ft Drayton on Otter Island in the Ashpeoo River, SC. Nicholson later turned the fort over to the Army.

11.12.1