30 April, 1862: Tuesday

Confederates - Military
Virginia
Stonewall Jackson and his troops leave Elk Run near Swift Run Gap in Virginia's Blue Ridge and heads for Staunton and what will become the major part of the famed Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

29 April, 1862: Monday

Union - Military
Mississippi - Tennessee
The army of GEneral Halleck completes its preliminary preparations for marching from Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee toward the Confederates at Corinth, Mississippi.

Halleck has over 100,000 men, Beauregard has about 2/3rd that msny.

Grant is relegated to second-in-command under Halleck. He is upset by what he considers to be a demotion.

Also in Tennessee, there is a skirmish on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, near Bethel Station.

South Carolina
There are skirmishes at Pineberry Battery, Willstown, and White Point.

Kentucky
There is a skirmish at Cumberlandd Gap.

North Carolina
There is a skirmish at Batchelder's Creek.

Louisiana
Union officers raise the US flag at the New Orleans Custom House and the city hall, over the opposition of the frustrated populace and city authorities.

Alabama
There is a skirmish at West Bridge, near Bridgeport.




Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

28 April, 1862: Monday

Military (Navy) - Confederacy
Bahamas
At Nassau, the British Oreto arrives to be outfitted officially as a Confederate raider, CSS Florida.

Military - Union
Louisiana
Surrounded and cut off from any hope of relief, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrender to Union trooops.

This completes the opening of the Mississippi to New Orleans.

Admiral Farragut threatens to bombard the city unless the United States flag is respected.

Mississippi
In northern Mississippi, Confederate forces begin to realize that Union General Halleck's vast army is about to advance on GEneral Beauregard at Corinth.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Monterey.

Alabama
There is a skirmish at Bolivar, and at Paint Rock Bridge.

Missouri
There is a skirmish at Warsaw.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

27 April, 1862: Sunday

Military - Confederacy
There is a mutiny at Fort Jackson, below New Orleans. Half of the stranded garrison departs.

Military - Union
Louisiana
Four small forts - Livingston, Quitman, Pike and Wood - protecting New Orleans surrender to Union forces.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Pea Ridge.

There is a skirmish near Pittsburg Landing. (It was named for "Pitts" Tucker who operated a tavern at the site in the years preceding the American Civil War)

Alabama
There is a skirmish at Bridgeport.

North Carolina
There is a skirmish near Haughton's Mill near Pollocksville.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

26 April, 1862: Saturday

Union - Government
President Lincoln visits the French man-of-war Gassendi at the Washington Naval Yard. The crew greets him with shouts of "Vive le Presidente."

Union - Military
North Carolina
Formal surrender ceremonies are held at Fort Macon. The Confederate garrison of 400 men become prisoners of war.

Missouri
There is a skirmish at Neosho and and a skirmish at Turnback Creek.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Atkin's Mill.

Virginia
In the Shenanfoah Valley, Union soldiers under Banks concentrate at Harrisonburg ans New Market.

Louisiana
In New Orleans, negotiations continue between Admiral Farragut and the mayor.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Booklist: A Nation Stirs, the Civil War Begins

The New York Times, Sunday Book Review: Booklist: A Nation Stirs, the Civil War Begins
Review by Debby Applegate, who is the author of “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher,” which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. She is now writing a biography of the madam Polly Adler.

On the morning of April 12, 1861, the newly formed Confederate States Army opened fire on the federal garrison of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. After 36 hours of shelling by Confederate cannons, United States Maj. Robert Anderson surrendered the battered fort to his former countrymen. The fall of Fort Sumter touched off four years of a civil war that would kill more than 620,000 soldiers and revolutionize American culture.

More prosaically, that fateful first shot unleashed a barrage of books about the War Between the States. In 1995 one bibliographer estimated that more than 50,000 had been published, exploring every aspect of the conflict on and off the battlefield. Thousands more have appeared since then.

Now, 150 years after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the journalist, travel writer and historian Adam Goodheart has let loose his own salvo in what will be a four-year firestorm of books commemorating the Civil War. Many good studies about the struggle will be published, but few will be as exhilarating as “1861: The Civil War Awakening.”

Like many of the best works of history, “1861” creates the uncanny illusion that the reader has stepped into a time machine. We are traveling, Goodheart writes in the prologue, to “a moment in our country’s history when almost everything hung in the balance.” Goodheart leads us on a journey through the frenzied, frightening months between Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 — followed with breakneck speed by the secession of the Confederate States and the outbreak of war — and July 4, 1861, when President Lincoln delivered his first message to Congress, laying out the case not only for the necessity of war, but for a more democratic vision of the United States.

The election of Lincoln and the secession crisis is, of course, familiar terrain. But Goodheart’s version is at once more panoramic and more intimate than most standard accounts, and more inspiring. This is fundamentally a history of hearts and minds, rather than of legislative bills and battles. He traces the process by which the states that did not secede evolved, in less than a year, from a deeply divided, intensely ambivalent and decidedly racist population into a genuine Union, united by the hope of creating a nation that would fulfill the promises of 1776. This is the story of the thousands of Americans who responded to the crisis, as Goodheart puts it, “not just with anger and panic but with hope and determination, people who, amid the ruins of the country they had grown up in, saw an opportunity to change history.”

So Goodheart turns the lens away from the usual stars of the story, the politicians, military officers, activists and editors who strove to direct the course of events. Instead, he explores the more obscure corners of antebellum America, introducing fascinating figures who loomed large at the time but have now been mostly forgotten.

Many of these are young men struggling to decide what manhood requires of them when the old models of patriotism, loyalty and self-interest were rapidly dissolving. In upstate Ohio, the irrepressible future president James Garfield was an idealistic state senator whose sense of Emersonian independence was increasingly affronted by the equivocation, self-censorship and unsavory compromises required to keep the slave states from seceding. In Chicago, Goodheart introduces young Elmer Ellsworth, whose boyhood dreams of glory led him to found the dashing Fire Zouaves, a military regiment composed of roughneck New York firemen but modeled on — and dressed in the exotic style of — the elite French forces in Algeria.

We glimpse the clerks and shopkeepers who organized themselves into secret political clubs called the Wide Awakes, who showed their support for candidate Lincoln by parading at night through the Northern cities in eerie silence, draped in makeshift capes of shiny black oilcloth that reflected the blaze of their flaming torches. Out in St. Louis, we visit the Forty-Eighters — reviled as the “Damned Dutch” by the Missouri secessionists — refugees from the failed revolution against the monarchs of the German Confederation, who discovered in the slaveholders “exactly what they had come here to escape: a swaggering clique of landed oligarchs, boorish aristocrats obstructing the forces of modernity and progress.”

And in the Union stronghold of Fortress Monroe outside Hampton, Va. (about as far south as Goodheart ventures), we witness the remarkable encounter between the Union general Benjamin Butler and three slaves — Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, James Townsend — whose decision to liberate themselves ignited a sudden revolution in white attitudes toward emancipation.

Goodheart, the director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College and a regular contributor to ­NYTimes.com’s Civil War blog, Disunion, combines a journalist’s eye for telling detail with the rigorous research of a good historian. But he gives his far-flung journey narrative tension and suspense by religiously following two fundamental rules of the novelist: first, make the reader care about your characters, then make the reader worry about them.

Goodheart excels at creating emotional empathy with his characters, encouraging us to experience the crisis as they did, in real time, without the benefit of historical hindsight. He lets the players speak for themselves and make the best case for their own motives and beliefs. Even more effective is his use of the technique of free indirect speech, subtly incorporating the distinctive language of the various characters into his own narration. For example: General Anderson would be “damned if he was to surrender — even worse, perform a shabby pantomime of surrender — before a rabble of whiskey-soaked militiamen and canting politicians.”

This is a particularly useful sleight of hand for the Civil War historian, who must recreate the feelings and rationalizations of a wide variety of people whose beliefs we might find incomprehensible or reprehensible — without sounding anachronistic or censorious, or seeming to endorse them. That same technique allows Goodheart to suggest the characters’ moral or intellectual blind spots, their failures of perception or their unpreparedness for the events to come. These moments are some of the most affecting in the book. They are also some of the funniest, as in Goodheart’s depiction of the boisterous Fire Zouaves arriving in drowsy, bureaucratic Washington:

“Waiting may have been the locals’ favorite pastime, but the New York firemen did not share their taste. After four days en route to the capital, cooped up on the steamer and then the train, they had expected and hoped to disembark straight into the thick of battle. (You could hardly blame them — it had been weeks since their last chance for even a good street brawl.) As they tumbled out of their train, a newspaperman had heard one Zouave ask: ‘Can you tell us where Jeff Davis is? We’re lookin’ for him.’ A comrade chimed in, ‘We’re bound to hang his scalp in the White House before we go back.’ Others squinted in perplexity, looking around for secession flags to capture but failing to discover any.”

The Zouaves’ situation turns tragic only a few weeks later, on the night of May 23, when their leader, the ebullient Ellsworth, impetuously decides to cut down a rebel flag that is flying over a Confederate sympathizer’s hotel, and is brutally killed. The young colonel was mourned as the first martyr of the war, inspiring over 200,000 men to join the Union Army. “Sumter’s fall had loosed a flood of patriotic feeling,” Goodheart observes, but “Ellsworth’s death released a tide of hatred, of enmity and counterenmity, of sectional blood lust. . . . Indeed, it was Ellsworth’s death that made Northerners ready not just to take up arms but actually to kill.”

Throughout “1861,” Goodheart shows how such small individual choices helped to decide momentous questions. A cascade of life-and-death decisions drives the book’s momentum from the beginning: Will the North elect Abraham Lincoln despite the South’s threats to secede? Once Lincoln is elected, will Congress be able to keep the South from leaving without committing the nation to slavery in perpetuity? Faced with the founding of the Confederacy, will the North let the slaveholders leave peacefully, capitulate to their demands, or embrace “the ideology of Freedom”? What will the West do, after years of being checked between Southern and Northern interests? Will the men of the North take up arms against their own people? What will happen to the slaves once war has come? Will the war become a fight to end slavery, or will it simply reunite the nation as it was?

The interplay of the intimate, the panoramic and the ironic reaches a heroic climax with these last two questions. The very day that Elmer Ellsworth died, General Butler encountered a dilemma in the form of the three fugitive slaves, who, before they escaped, had been helping build a Confederate artillery fortification across the harbor from Fortress Monroe. Butler’s course should have been clear. Legally, he was required to return the slaves to their owner. Politically, the general was bound by Lincoln’s vow that the federal government would not interfere with slavery — a position applauded by most Northerners.

But when the owner’s emissary arrived, waving a white flag of truce, to reclaim his runaway properties, Butler refused to turn them over. Since Virginia was no longer part of the United States, the wily general declared, and since the slaves had been aiding the rebel army, he was confiscating the men as “contraband of war.”

“Out of this incident seems to have grown one of the most sudden and important revolutions in popular thought which took place during the whole war,” Lincoln’s assistants John Hay and John Nicolay observed. The befuddling logic of the “contraband doctrine” had a clarifying effect on the North. Those who decried “emancipation” as an unconstitutional attack on property rights found no objection when it was called “confiscation.” The impact among blacks was even more profound. Within weeks, slaves by the hundreds were flooding into “the freedom fort” and other Union bastions — without inciting a racial bloodbath, as many whites had long feared. It was the blow that sent slavery to its deathbed.

Not everyone will be enamored of “1861.” Some will object that it concentrates too much on the white men of the North, giving short shrift to women, blacks and Southerners. Readers hoping for a conventional war story might be put off by the book’s peripatetic structure. Skeptics may look askance at Goodheart’s unabashed optimism and open admiration of the Union cause in spite of the many ways it would fall short of its most noble goals. But readers who take “1861” on its own passionate, forthright terms will find it irresistible. And for those who don’t like this Civil War book, well, just wait — there are plenty more to come.

Uinion General John Parke

John Grubb Parke (September 22, 1827 – December 16, 1900) was a United States Army engineer and a Union general in the American Civil War.

Early life
Parke was born in Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Francis G. and Sarah Parke. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1849 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. As an engineer, he determined the boundary lines between Iowa and the Little Colorado River, surveyed routes for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and was the chief surveyor of the party charged with the delineation of the boundary of the northwest United States and British North America, 1857–1861.

Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Parke was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded a brigade in the operations on the North Carolina coast in early 1862. He received a brevet promotion for the Battle of Fort Macon and was promoted to major general of volunteers on July 18, 1862.

In the Army of the Potomac, Parke served briefly as commander of 3rd Division, IX Corps. Then he served as chief of staff to Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside during the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. He assumed command of the IX Corps and was sent to the Western Theater for the Vicksburg Campaign. Parke then was Burnside's chief of staff in the Army of the Ohio in the defense of Knoxville.

Parke served as chief of staff to Burnside during the Overland Campaign, in which the latter commanded IX Corps, as well as in the beginning stages of the Siege of Petersburg. After the Battle of the Crater, Burnside was relieved of command and Parke assumed command of the IX Corps. He led it at the Battle of Globe Tavern, the Battle of Peebles' Farm, and the Battle of Boydton Plank Road.

In 1865, while Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. George G. Meade was in a conference, Parke, being senior officer, was acting commander of the army during the Battle of Fort Stedman until Meade returned to the field. He led the IX Corps through the fall of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign. In 1865 he was appointed brevet major general in the regular army in recognition of his service at Fort Stedman.

Postbellum career
After the Confederate surrender, Parke commanded IX Corps in the Department of Washington. He also briefly commanded XXII Corps. Parke was mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15, 1866. He served as an engineer, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on March 4, 1879. Parke attained the rank of colonel on March 17, 1884. He served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy from August 28, 1887, to June 24, 1889, and he retired from the Army on July 2 of that year.

Parke wrote several reports on public improvements and exploration of the west. He also served as a cartographer, publishing maps of the New Mexico Territory and California.

Parke died in Washington, D.C., leaving a wife Ellen but no children. He is buried in the churchyard of Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.

25 April, 1862: Friday

Union - Military
Louisiana
Farragut moves up the Mississippi with 11 vessels. After a brief, successful duel with Confederate guns near nglish Turn, the Union fleet anchors off the waterfront of New Orleans. The docks have been set on fire by various members of the unprotected city.

A loud and angry throng of Confederate civilians meets Farragut's officers as they come ashore to confer with Mayor John Monroe, who claims he has no authority to surrender the city.

Military commander General Mansfield Lovell also refuses to surrender, but indicates he and his forces are retiring from the city. The populace feels, "We are conquered but not subdued."

North Carolina
On the coast near Beaufort, the more than month-long siege of Fort Macon ends. Union troops under John G. Parke open a heavy fire on the fort, dismounting over half its guns. Gunboats also shell the fort from the water side. Late in the afternoon Colonel Moses J. White surrenders. Casualties were light, but yet another bastion of the South was gone.

Alabama
There is a skirmish at Tuscumbia.

New Mexico Territory
There is a skirmish at Socorro.

Missouri
There is a skirmish at Monagan Springs.

Tennessee
At Savannah, Major General C. F. Smith dies of what had been thought as a minor leg injury. An experienced soldier, Smith had been a valuable subordinate to GEneral Grant at Fort Donelson and in other operations.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

George Dewey

George Dewey (December 26, 1837 – January 16, 1917) was an admiral of the United States Navy. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. He was also the only person in the history of the United States to have attained the rank of Admiral of the Navy, the most senior rank in the United States Navy.

Family:
Dewey was born in Montpelier, Vermont, directly opposite the Vermont State House to Julius Yemans Dewey and his first wife, Mary Perrin. Julius was a physician, having received his degree from The University of Vermont. He was among the founders of the National Life Insurance Company in 1848 and a member of the Episcopal Church and was among the founders of the Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier. George was baptized and attended Sunday school there. George had two older brothers and a younger sister.

Education
Young Dewey went to school in the nearby town of Johnson. When he was fifteen years old he went to the Norwich Military School. The school, better known as Norwich University, had been founded by Alden Partridge and aimed at giving cadets a well-rounded military education. Dewey attended for two years (1852–1854). Dewey found a military role model when he read a biography of Hannibal.

Naval career
Naval AcademyDewey entered the Naval Academy in 1854. The conventional four-year course had just been introduced in 1851 and the cadet corps was quite small, averaging about one hundred Acting Midshipmen. Out of all that entered in his year, only fourteen stayed through the course. He stood fifth on the class roll at graduation. He graduated from the academy on June 18, 1858.

Midshipman
As midshipman, Dewey first took a practice cruise in the ship Saratoga and here he earned recognition as a cadet officer. As a result, he was assigned to one of the best ships of the old navy — the steam frigate USS Wabash. The Wabash under Captain Samuel Barron was the new flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. On July 22, 1858, the ship left Hampton Roads for Europe.

The Wabash reached her first port of call, Gibraltar, on August 17, 1858. She cruised in the Mediterranean, and the cadet officers visited the cities of the old world accessible to them, often taking trips inland. Dewey was assigned to keep the ship's log. The Wabash returned to the New York Navy Yard on 16 December 1859 and decommissioned there on 20 December 1859. Dewey served on two short-term cruises in 1860.

During the Civil War, the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, was engaged in the blockade of the mouths of the Mississippi River. At the end of 1861 Commander David D.Porter urged action upon the Navy Department. By that time the Confederates had formed immensely strong defenses along the river delta. The plan, which was put into operation in the spring of 1862, proposed a naval expedition, intended to reduce the fortifications near the mouth of the river, and to capture New Orleans, to be followed by an army under General Benjamin Franklin Butler which would then take possession of that city and region, after which the war vessels would proceed up the river, reduce the forts along its banks and co-operate with the gunboats already commanding the upper part of the valley, and later with the Union armies operating in Tennessee and northern Mississippi. This plan was ultimately carried out, but it required more time, cost of life and material, and combat than were anticipated; and it gave Dewey invaluable experience.

Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip
The defenses of the river consisted of two immensely strong forts, Jackson and St. Philip, on the banks nearly opposite one another and about midway between the mouth of the river and New Orleans. Farther up there was also a series of strong waterside batteries at Chalmette. In addition to this the Confederates had established a line of obstructions across the river below the forts. The defenses were such as it was supposed no naval expedition would try to attack. The attack was aided by Porter's preliminary bombardment to weaken the Confederate works. This was accomplished with mortar boats that fired a thirteen-inch shell. They were anchored under protection of the banks and forest some distance below the forts, and for many days rained upon them continual fire as to half destroy the fortifications, and overcome a large part of the Confederate garrisons. This conflict is known as the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

Capture of New Orleans
The Capture of New Orleans followed. At the end of this preliminary bombardment an attempt was made to run past the forts and the Confederate vessels gathered near them. This was begun on April 24, 1862, the fleet moving forward in three divisions, the first under command of Captain Theodorus Bailey in the Cayuga, followed closely by the Pensacola (afterward under Dewey's command), and that by the Mississippi, in which Dewey was executive lieutenant.

These big ships kept near the west bank where the current was weaker and the water deeper; but this brought them right under the muzzles of the guns of Fort St. Philip, which had been little damaged by the mortar boats. Dewey guided the Mississippi, in shallow water where he expected to run aground any moment, to a successful attack against the fortifications.

CSS Manassas
The Confederates had afloat there an iron-covered ram called Manassas — a cigar-shaped craft, almost wholly submerged but the nose was a sharp iron prow, designed to pierce the hull, beneath the water line, of an enemy's ship. She had rushed down the river had struck at everything in her way. Appearing suddenly from behind the Pensacola, when that vessel was slowing up opposite Fort St. Philip to enable her men to fire more effectively into the faces of the garrison, she had made a rush for the Mississippi; but Dewey steered his helm so as to avoid her prow and escape. Then, her upper structure pierced with his shot, but her machinery uninjured, the ram continued and nearly destroyed both the Brooklyn and Hartford before she was driven away.

Then she turned and ran up the river, in chase of Bailey's ships, which were leading the way toward New Orleans, and Farragut signaled to the Mississippi to run her down. He gave the order and the Mississippi attacked. But just as the Union vessel was to override it, it dodged the blow by a quick turn of the helm and ran ashore, where the crew deserted the stranded vessel. Commander Smith sent a boat's crew to set fire to it and when they had returned, it was scuttled with cannon-fire.

Having got past the forts, the Mississippi sailed up the river with the leading ships, until they came to the Chalmette batteries, where they destroyed their garrisons; then the ship was sent back with some others to a waiting position near the forts, to protect the landing of Butler's troops. This was Dewey's first battle in which he distinguished himself. For the remainder of that year all that Farragut's fleet attempted to do was to patrol the lower river — a dangerous duty, for the banks swarmed with sharpshooters, lying in wait among the trees. Here and there, also, an interval of quiet, would give the Confederates an opportunity to erect a concealed battery.

They had also a way of running two or three field guns up behind the natural breastworks afforded by the levee, and unexpectedly opening fire upon some ship passing near the shore, or lying at anchor.

Battle of Port Hudson:
George DeweyAt Port Hudson, Louisiana, the Confederates had been constructing and strengthening their second line of defense of the river valley, until they considered it impregnable. The national forces had been unable to prevent this but, when the spring campaign of 1863 began, it was so important for the river to be opened, that Farragut resolved to attempt to run by the Port Hudson batteries, if he could not demolish them. The whole fleet was arranged for this attempt on March 14, 1863, at midnight, when Dewey saw fiercer fighting than he ever saw again.

Port Hudson was a small town on the east bank of the Mississippi, 13 miles upriver from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at a point where the river makes the passage there a subject of anxiety to pilots even in daylight and in time of peace. In the spring of 1863 a crescentic series of powerful fortifications, having a concentric field of fire, bordered the outside of the bend. The gunners were aided at night by the illumination of the water afforded by setting fire to huge beacons and rafts of pine knots; and had the assistance of submarine torpedoes in the channel and of several armed vessels and rams which together made the attempt of an enemy's fleet to attack or run by very hazardous. Nevertheless Flag-Oflicer Farragut, with the consent of his captains, prepared to try it.

The fleet, led by the Hartford, stole up the river in midnight darkness and quiet, and were not discovered until opposite the forts. Following the flagship, came the Richmond, her guns blazing and then came the Monongahela, the Kineo and the Mississippi — the last with George Dewey as executive officer, under Melancton Smith as commander. A furious battle ensued and the battle of Port Hudson has been pronounced by officers and seamen who were engaged in it, and who were present at the passage of Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson, as the severest in the naval history of the civil war.

The Hartford got past and sailed on, but an accident to her machinery compelled the Richmond to try to turn around and escape before it was too late. She did so successfully, but when at the center of the semicircle of batteries, the Mississippi, close behind her, ran aground, and there was concentrated upon her the whole of the enemy's fire. This continued for half an hour, riddling her hull, ruining her upper works and smashing her machinery. All this time the vessel was replying with such vigor that more than two hundred and fifty shots were sent ashore in spite of the damage to the vessel. Then Captain Smith, seeing that there could be no hope of saving the ship, ordered an evacuation. The boats were then manned, the wounded were transported to the Union gunboat Genessee, which had approached to render assistance; the men were mostly landed in safety on the west bank, and a journey was made to and from the Richmond to place wounded men and officers on that vessel.

All of this time, the fire of the batteries continued, and Captain Smith and Lieutenant Dewey stayed on board and directed operations. A man was next sent to set fire to the fore storeroom, and did so; but before his blaze got well started, three of the enemy's cannon-balls came through that part of the ship and let in enough water to drown the flames.

Then other fires were started elsewhere in the cabins and hull, and the last boatload waited to see that they got well going, to prevent Confederate capture of a good ship. Then both officers escaped by boat to the Richmond, a mile below. Lightened in weight by the fire and by the removal of some three hundred men, the ship lifted from the mud and floated down the river, firing her still shotted guns and exploding one by one the shells that lay upon her decks, until she became dangerous to the Richmond and other Federal vessels near which she drifted.

Assignment to the USS Agawam
Dewey was highly complimented, not only by his immediate superiors, but by Farragut himself, who now appointed him executive officer of the Agawam — a small gunboat, which the admiral made frequent use of as a dispatch boat, and for his personal reconnoitering. This little vessel was frequently fired at, by concealed sharpshooters or temporary batteries. In July of that year these attacks brought about a small engagement at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in which Captain Abner Read, commander of the Monongahela, was killed and his executive officer severely wounded. Dewey was present, and was so conspicuous for gallantry that he was recommended for promotion on the strength of it; and meanwhile he was given temporary command of the frigate.

Assignment to the USS Colorado:
In the latter part of 1864, after some service in the James River under Commander McComb, Lieutenant Dewey was made executive officer of the first-rate wooden man-of-war Colorado, which was stationed on the North Atlantic blockading squadron under command of Commodore Henry Knox Thatcher.

Battles of Fort Fisher
The blockade was an exceedingly important part of the plan of the war. The blockade was never made so perfect that no vessels could pass through, but it became nearly so toward the close of the war, and this was a matter of international importance as well as belligerent value in stopping the Confederates from receiving the foreign supplies upon which they so largely depended.

Large numbers of blockade runners were captured or driven ashore and wrecked. The profit on a single cargo that passed either way in safety was very great, and special vessels for blockade running were built in England. The Confederate government enacted a law providing that a certain portion of every cargo thus brought into its ports must consist of arms or ammunition, otherwise vessel and all would be confiscated. This ensured a constant supply. Clothing and equipments, too, for the Confederate armies came from the same source. To pay for these things, the Confederates sent out cotton, tobacco, rice, and the naval stores produced by the North Carolina forests. Strenuous efforts were constantly made to shut off this trade and communication, which made the traders of Great Britain and other European nations practically allies of the confederacy, and such officers as Lieutenant George Dewey had shown himself to be were needed, especially in the North Atlantic division, which covered such ports as Wilmington, where blockade running flourished.

It was to close the port of Wilmington, as much as to reduce the only coast fortification left to the South, that a powerful expedition, in which the navy was to co-operate with the army, was organized against Fort Fisher, at the mouth of Cape Fear River, in the early winter of 1864 to 1865. An attack delivered at Christmas proved a failure, and the land forces were largely withdrawn for service elsewhere. This conflict is known as the First Battle of Fort Fisher (December 7–27, 1864). It was followed by the Second Battle of Fort Fisher (January 13–15, 1865).

The navy remained and in the middle of January made a second attack, assisted by some soldiers under Terry, who were reinforced by marines and sailors from the ships. This was one of the hardest fought engagements on land and sea of the civil war and it resulted in a Federal victory, in which the navy, afloat and ashore, carried off the principal honors. The Colorado, being a wooden ship, was placed in the line outside the monitors and other armored vessels but got a full share of conflict. Toward the end of the second engagement, when matters were moving the right way, Admiral Porter signaled Thatcher to close in and silence a certain part of the works. As the ship had already received considerable damage, her officers remonstrated.

But Dewey, who, had now acquired marked tactical ability, was quick to see the advantage to be gained by the move and the work was taken in fifteen minutes. The New York Times, commenting upon this part of the action, spoke of it as 'the most beautiful duel of the war.' When Admiral Porter came to congratulate Commodore Thatcher the latter said generously : 'You must thank Lieutenant Dewey, sir. It was his move.' Nevertheless Thatcher was promoted to be a rear-admiral and tried to take Dewey with him as his fleet captain when he went to supersede Farragut at Mobile Bay. This was not permitted, but Dewey was promoted to lieutenant-commander.

Post-war life:
After the end of the Civil War Lieutenant-Commander Dewey remained in active service, and was sent to the European station as executive officer of the Kearsarge — the famous old ship that had sunk the privateer Alabama.

Marriage
After a year of this, he was assigned to duty in the navy yard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there met the woman who became his wife. His wife was Susan "Susie" Boardman Goodwin (1844 - 1872), daughter of New Hampshire's war governor, a Democrat who fitted out troops for the war at his own expense. They were married on 24 October 1867. They had a single son, George Goodwin Dewey (December 23, 1872 - February 10, 1963). Susie died on December 28, 1872, five days after giving birth. Susan was a daughter of Ichabod Goodwin, Governor of New Hampshire and his wife Sarah Parker Rice.

Peacetime assignments
Dewey's next tour of duty was in 1867 and 1868 as executive officer of the Colorado — the same vessel in which he had won his honors at Fort Fisher, and now the flagship of the European Squadron. The admiral in command of the ship and squadron was Goldsborough, and one of Dewey's companions was John Crittenden Watson — the same man, who, as rear-admiral, relieved Admiral Dewey of his duties at Manila, when he wished to return to the United States in the summer of 1899."

Some tranquil years followed the end of Dewey's cruise in the Colorado. For two years, from 1868 to 1870, he was an instructor at the Naval Academy. The next year he did special surveying work in the steamer Narragansett, and in 1872 was given command of that vessel, and spent nearly four years in her, engaged in the service of the Pacific Coast Survey."

Lighthouse Board
This entitled him to a period of rest ashore; and he was ordered to Washington, and made lighthouse inspector in 1880, and subsequently secretary of the lighthouse board, a service in which he took great interest. Meanwhile he had been promoted to the grade of commander. This residence in Washington as a bureau officer of high rank gave him an extensive acquaintance, and he became one of the most popular men in the capital. He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the leading social club of Washington.

Assignment to the USS Dolphin
In 1882, this leave of absence in Washington came to an end by his being sent to the Asiatic station in command of the Juniata, where he studied the situation with care and acquired information of immense importance ten years later.

The rank of captain was reached in 1884, and he was ordered home and given command of the Dolphin — one of the first four of the original white squadron, which formed the basis of the new and modern navy of the United States. The Dolphin was intended as a dispatch boat, and was often used as the president's yacht.

In 1885, Captain Dewey undertook another tour of sea service, and for three years was in command of the Pensacola, familiar to him in the New Orleans battles, now flagship of the European squadron."

Asiatic Squadron
Admiral George Dewey during the Spanish-American warReturning to Washington in 1893 he resumed the life of a bureau officer, being attached to the lighthouse board, and remained there until 1896. when he was commissioned commodore, and transferred to the board of inspection and survey.

Dewey felt, in 1897, that his health was suffering in the climate and inaction of Washington, and applied for sea duty. It was granted to him, and he was assigned to the command of the Asiatic station. He felt certain, as did so many others at Washington that year, that war with Spain was imminent although few had thought of the Philippines as a field of serious war.

The Commodore hoisted his pennant at Hong Kong in December, 1897, and immediately began preparations for wartime service. As early as January 1898 the Navy Department began to send him instructions, as it was doing to other commanders under the administration of Secretary of Navy John D. Long and Assistant Secretary of Navy Theodore Roosevelt. Dewey was ordered in January to retain all enlisted men whose terms had expired; and a month later was told to keep the Olympia, instead of sending her back to San Francisco. He was instructed to assemble all his squadron at Hong Kong, and to fill all the bunkers with coal.

At the same time the cruiser Baltimore was dispatched to him from the United States, via Hawaii; and at Honolulu was met by the steamer Mohican from San Francisco, which transferred to her a shipload of ammunition, sent far in advance of its possible use.

Dewey's ships were scattered up and down the Asiatic coast; but by the end of March the whole squadron, except the antiquated wooden Monocacy, had been gathered in the port of Hong Kong, their coal and stores replenished. Then came a period of waiting, the commodore was constantly making ready. First he sent the fleet paymaster over to the consignees of the English steamship Nanshan, and bought her as she was, with 3,300 tons of coal on board. Then he bought the Zafiro, a steamship of the Manila-Hong Kong line, just as she was, with all her fuel and provisions, and on her was placed all the spare ammunition, so that she became the magazine of the fleet.

On April 18, the McCulloch came in and joined the squadron. She was a revenue cutter but she was as good as a gunboat, being built of steel, having 1,500 tons displacement, and carrying four 4-inch guns and a crew of one hundred and thirty men. On the 21st, when General Woodford was leaving Madrid, and Señor Luís Polo de Bernabé was slipping out of Washington, the Baltimore appeared, a powerful addition to the fleet, and bringing also her load of ammunition, so that she was doubly welcome.

As the news now daily published in Hong Kong made war seem certain, all the white vessels were repainted war-gray, and the last possible preparations made when the cable brought word of the declaration of war, to date from April 22nd and also of England's declaration of neutrality. Word was therefore sent to the American commander by the Governor of Hong Kong that his vessels could no longer be harbored there. That was no hardship, for they were as completely outfitted as they cared to be, and only a few miles away were the Chinese waters of Mirs Bay, where nobody would or could interfere with their anchorage. Thither Dewey took his ships on April 25, leaving the McCulloch to bring last dispatches; and the next day she joined the fleet in a hurry, taking to the commander the following fateful message from the Government of the United States:

'Dewey, Asiatic Squadron: "War has commenced between the United States and Spain. Proceed at once to Philippine Islands. Commence operations at once, particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture vessels or destroy. Use utmost endeavors. Long."

This was on the 26th. At 2:00 p.m. the next day, April 27, Dewey's squadron was leaving Mirs Bay for the Philippine Islands, in search of another squadron of warships as large and as new and as well-armed as itself, to seek the first naval encounter of modern ships and with modern ordnance.

Spanish-American War
Battle of Manila Bay
Detail of a painting in the Vermont State House depicting Dewey on the USS Olympia during the Battle of Manila BayOn April 27, 1898, he sailed out from China with orders to attack the Spanish at Manila Bay. He stopped at the mouth of the bay late the night of April 30, and the following morning he gave the order to attack at first light, by saying the now famous words "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Within 6 hours, on May 1, he had sunk or captured the entire Spanish Pacific fleet under Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón and silenced the shore batteries at Manila, with the loss of only one life on the American side. Dewey aided General Wesley Merritt in taking formal possession of Manila on August 13, 1898. In the early stages of the war the Americans were greatly aided by the Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who had been attacking the Spanish by land as Dewey was attacking them by sea.

Dewey and Aguinaldo at first enjoyed a cordial relationship, and Dewey wrote that the Filipinos were “intelligent” and well "capable of self-government"; however the McKinley administration soon decided otherwise, and by the start of 1899, Dewey had to threaten to shell Aguinaldo's forces to allow American troops to land in Manila.

Hero
The totality of Dewey's victory brought the world to a sharp awareness of the United States as a naval power. Returning to the United States in 1899, he received a hero's welcome. New York City's September 1899 welcome home celebration for Dewey was a two-day parade served more to promote the potential of American colonialism in Asia than to honor Dewey's heroism in the Philippines. Newspapers transformed Dewey into the epitome of American superiority by highlighting his leadership capabilities and accentuating the strength and masculinity of his features. Dewey's swift easy victory encouraged the William McKinley administration in its decision to place the Philippines under American control.

Dewey returned to America to a hero's welcome, and by act of Congress was made Admiral of the Navy in 1899. A special military decoration, the Battle of Manila Bay Medal (commonly called the Dewey Medal), was struck in his honor of his achievement at Manila Bay and awarded to every officer, sailor and Marine present at the battle.

The U.S. Congress awarded the title of Admiral of the Navy to Dewey in 1903. In 1900 he was named president of the newly established General Board of the Navy Department, which set basic policy. He served in this post until his death in Washington, January 16, 1917. He is interred in the Bethlehem Chapel, on the crypt level, at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC.

Dewey was energetic, competent and vain. He wore spiffy clothes and a glorious handlebar mustache; thanks to inherited wealth he lived in style. He often went horseback riding with Roosevelt in Washington's Rock Creek Park and he was a fellow member of Washington's prestigious Metropolitan Club.

Presidential candidate
Dewey on the cover of an 1899 souvenir calenderAfter Dewey's return from the Spanish-American War, many suggested he run for President on the Democratic ticket in 1900. However, his candidacy was plagued by public relations missteps. Newspapers started attacking him as naïve after he was quoted as saying the job of president would be easy since the chief executive was merely following orders in executing the laws enacted by Congress and that he would "execute the laws of Congress as faithfully as I have always executed the orders of my superiors." Shortly thereafter he admitted to never having voted in a presidential election. He drew yet more criticism when he offhandedly told a newspaper reporter that "Our next war will be with Germany."

Dewey also angered some Protestants by marrying Catholic Mildred McLean Hazen (the widow of General William Babcock Hazen and daughter of Washington McLean, the owner of The Washington Post) in November 1899 and giving her the house that the nation had given him following the war.

Dewey withdrew from the race in mid-May 1900 and endorsed William McKinley.

Union Admiral David Farragut

David Glasgow Farragut (July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" by U.S. Navy tradition. [The torpedoes in question were not the torpedoes we think of today. They were mines in the water.]

Early life and naval careerFarragut was born in 1801 to Elizabeth Shine (b. 1765 - d. 1808), of North Carolina Scots-Irish descent, and her husband George Farragut, a native of Minorca Spain, at Lowe's Ferry on the Holston (now Tennessee) River. It was a few miles southeast of Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee. His father operated the ferry and also served as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia.

Born Jorge Farragut, his father became a Spanish merchant captain from Minorca, son of Antoni Farragut and Joana Mesquida. He had joined the American Revolutionary cause after arriving in America in 1766, when he changed his first name to George. The Farraguts moved west to Tennessee after George finished serving in the American Revolution.

David's birth name was James. After his mother's death, he agreed to living with and being adopted in 1808 by David Porter, a naval officer whose father had been friends with his father. In 1812 James adopted the name David in honor of his adoptive father, with whom he went to sea late in 1810. David Farragut grew up in a naval family, as the adoptive brother of future Civil War admiral David Dixon Porter and commodore William D. Porter).

Through the influence of his adoptive father, at the age of nine, Farragut was commissioned a midshipman in the United States Navy on December 17, 1810. He went to sea with Porter and served under him during the War of 1812. A prize master by the age of 12, Farragut was promoted to lieutenant in 1822, commander in 1844 and captain in 1855.

Farragut was wounded and captured during the cruise of the Essex by HMS Phoebe in Valparaiso Bay, Chile on March 28, 1814.

Marriage and family
After the death of his first wife, Farragut married Virginia Loyall, with whom he had one surviving son, named Loyall Farragut.

Mare Island
In 1853, Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin selected Commander David G. Farragut to create Mare Island Naval Shipyard. In August 1854, Farragut was called to Washington from his post as Assistant Inspector of Ordnance at Norfolk, Virginia. President Franklin Pierce congratulated Farragut on his naval career and the task he was to undertake. September 16, 1854, Commander Farragut commissioned the Mare Island Naval Yard at Vallejo, California. Mare Island became the port for ship repair on the West Coast. Captain Farragut left command of Mare Island, July 16, 1858. Farragut returned to a hero’s welcome at Mare Island, August 11, 1859.

Civil War
Adm. David G. Farragut, c. 1863Though living in Norfolk, Virginia, prior to the Civil War, Farragut made it clear to all who knew him that he regarded secession as treason. Just before the war's outbreak, Farragut moved with his Southern-born wife to Hastings-on-Hudson, a small town just outside New York City.

He offered his services to the Union but was initially given just a seat on the Naval Retirement Board. Offered a command by his foster brother David Dixon Porter for a special assignment, he hesitated upon learning the target might be Norfolk. As he had friends and relatives living there, he was relieved to learn the target was New Orleans. The Navy had some doubts about Farragut's loyalty to the Union because of his southern birth as well as that of his wife. Porter argued on his behalf and Farragut accepted for the major role of freeing New Orleans from Confederate control.

In April 1862, Farragut commanded the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with his flagship the USS Hartford. After a heavy bombardment, Farragut ran past the Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip, and the Chalmette batteries to take the city and port of New Orleans on April 29, a decisive event in the war. Congress honored him by creating the rank of rear admiral on July 16, 1862, a rank never before used in the U.S. Navy. Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term "flag officer", to distinguish the rank from the traditions of the European navies. Later that year Farragut passed the batteries defending Vicksburg, Mississippi but had no success there. A makeshift Confederate ironclad forced his flotilla of 38 ships to withdraw in July 1862.

While an aggressive commander, Farragut was not always cooperative. At the Siege of Port Hudson the plan was that Farragut's flotilla would pass by the guns of the Confederate stronghold with the help of a diversionary land attack by the Army of the Gulf, commanded by General Nathaniel Banks, to commence at 8:00 am on March 15, 1863. Farragut unilaterally decided to move the timetable up to 9:00 pm on March 14, and initiated his run past the guns before Union ground forces were in position. By doing so, the uncoordinated attack allowed the Confederates to concentrate on Farragut's flotilla and inflict heavy damage on his warships.

Farragut's battle group was forced to retreat with only two ships able to pass the heavy cannon of the Confederate bastion. After surviving the gauntlet, Farragut played no further part in the battle for Port Hudson, and General Banks was left to continue the siege without advantage of naval support. The Union Army made two major attacks on the fort, and both were repulsed with heavy losses. Farragut's flotilla was splintered, yet was able to blockade the mouth of the Red River with the two remaining warships; he could not efficiently patrol the section of the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. Farragut's decision proved costly to the Union Navy and the Union Army, which suffered its highest casualty rate of the Civil War at Port Hudson.

Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, leaving Port Hudson as the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. General Banks accepted the surrender of the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson on July 9, 1863, ending the longest siege in US military history. Control of the Mississippi River was the centerpiece of Union strategy to win the war, and with the surrender of Port Hudson the Confederacy was now severed in two.

On August 5, 1864, Farragut won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Mobile was then the Confederacy's last major port open on the Gulf of Mexico. The bay was heavily mined (tethered naval mines were known as torpedoes at the time). Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When the monitor USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank, the others began to pull back.

Farragut could see the ships pulling back from his high perch, where he was lashed to the rigging of his flagship, the USS Hartford. "What's the trouble?", he shouted through a trumpet from the flagship to the USS Brooklyn. "Torpedoes!" was shouted back. "Damn the torpedoes!" said Farragut, "Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" The bulk of the fleet succeeded in entering the bay. Farragut triumphed over the opposition of heavy batteries in Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

On December 21, 1864, Lincoln promoted Farragut to vice admiral. After the war he was promoted to admiral on July 25, 1866. His last active service was in command of the European Squadron from 1867 to 1868, with the screw frigate USS Franklin as his flagship. Farragut remained on active duty for life, an honor accorded to only six other US naval officers.

Death
Farragut died at the age of sixty-nine in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a heart attack while on vacation in the late summer of 1870. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, in the Bronx borough of New York.

24 April, 1862: Thursday

Union - Military
Louisiana
At 2 am, Admiral Farragut's fleet, on the Mississippi River below New Orleans, consisting of wooden frigates and gunboats, begin their attempt to sail to New Orleans.

By 3 am the entire fleet is underway. The first division of eight ships get through the Confederate barrier without discovery. But at 3.40 the moon rises, and Forts Jackson and St. Philip open fire. The second group of none ships, including Farragut's Hartford, come under heavy fire.

The lesson was soon learned - ships could, generally, although at a cost, get past fixed fortifications.

Once upstream, Farragut's fleet faced more fighting against the Confederate gunboats, including the ram Manassas. The ram struck both USS Mississippi and Brooklyn to no avail.

The North lost only Varuna and 37 men killed, 149 wounded. For the Confederacy, 8 vessels were lost, with only 2 escaping.

Farragut advanced on New Orleans.

The Battle of New Orleans was one of the most decisive of the war and a new hero had been found. "Like Grant, Farragut always went ahead," wrote young officer GEorge Dewey.

Alabama
There is a skirmish at Tuscumbia.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Shelbyville Road

Mississippi
There is a skirmish on the Corinth Road.


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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

23 April, 1862: Wednesday

Union - Military
Louisiana
Admiral Farragut, his fleet below the forts on the Mississippi, decides that because the mortar bombardment has not reduced the forts, and because land operations were not advisable because of the low-lying, swampy, waterway-cut nature of the geography, he would attempt to bypass the forts and head for New Orleans itself, on the morrow.

North Carolina.
Union naval forces successfully block the Chesapeake and Albermarle CAnal, shutting off an important small-boat waterway.

Alabama
There is a skirmish at Brridgeport.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

22 April, 1862: Tuesday

Union - Military
Virginia
Addition Union reinforcements swell McClellan's already mighty ranks near Yorktown as the seige against Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates continues.

Confederates - Military
Texas
In Aransas Bay, daring Confederate raiders capture several Union launches.


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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

21 April, 1862: Monday

Confederacy - Government
The regular Confederate Congress adjourns after declaring certain classes of persons exempt from military conscription. President Davis is concerned over the two-program attack of McClellan and McDowell toward Richmond.

Confederacy - Military
Arkansas
There is a skirmish at Pocahontas, Arjansas.

Louisiana
The Confederate forts on the Mississippi continue to be shelled by mortars.

North Carolina
Union troops continue to lay seige to the city.


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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

20 April, 1862: Sunday

Union - Government
Virginia
General McDowell meets President Lincoln at Aquia Creek near Fredericksburg and accompanies the President and Secretaries Stanton and Chase back to WAshington.

Union - Military
Louisiana
During the night, troops from the USS Itasca and Pinoila tackled the troublesome river obstructions near Fort Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi in a daring operation. Although explosives failed to work, the Union troops did manage to weaken and force a break in the barricade of old hulks andchains that blockaded the Mississippi.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Union Navy: David Dixon Porter

David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the US Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.

He began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 under his father, Commodore David Porter, on the frigate John Adams. For the remainder of his life, he was associated with the sea. Porter served in the Mexican War in the attack on the fort at Vera Cruz. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Florida, for the Union; its execution disrupted the effort to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter, leading to its fall. Porter commanded an independent flotilla of mortar boats at the capture of New Orleans.

Later, he was advanced to the rank of (acting) rear admiral in command of the Mississippi River Squadron, which cooperated with the army under Major General Ulysses S. Grant in the Vicksburg campaign. After the fall of Vicksburg, he led the naval forces in the difficult Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Late in 1864, Porter was transferred from the interior to the Atlantic coast, where he led the Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher, the final significant naval action of the war.

Porter worked to raise the standards of the US Navy in the position of superintendent of the Naval Academy when it was restored to Annapolis. He initiated reforms in the curriculum to increase professionalism. In the early days of President Grant's administration, Porter was de facto Secretary of the Navy. When his adoptive brother David G. Farragut was advanced from rank of vice-admiral to admiral, Porter took his previous position; likewise, when Farragut retired, Porter became the second man to hold the newly created rank of admiral. He gathered a corps of like-minded officers devoted to naval reform.

Porter's administration of the Navy Department aroused powerful opposition by some in Congress, who forced the Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie to resign. His replacement, George Robeson, curtailed Porter's power and eased him into semi-retirement.

David Dixon Porter was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on June 8, 1813, a son of David Porter and Evalina (Anderson) Porter. The family had strong naval traditions; the elder Porter's father, also named David, had been captain of a Massachusetts vessel in the American Revolutionary War, as had his uncle Samuel. In the next generation, David Porter and his brother John entered the fledgling United States Navy and served with distinction during the War of 1812. David Porter was named to the rank of commodore.

The younger David was one of 10 children, including six boys. His youngest brother Thomas died of yellow fever at the age of ten, contracted when traveling with his father for the Mexican Navy. The surviving five sons all became officers, four in the US Navy:

William David Dixon, became the second man promoted to rank of admiral.
Hambleton, died of yellow fever while a passed midshipman.
Henry Ogden Theodoric, became an officer in the US Army; he was killed at Matamoros in the Mexican-American War.

His uncle John Porter and his wife did not have as many children, but their son Fitz John Porter was a major general in the US Army at the time of the Civil War. Another son, Bolton Porter, was lost with his ship USS Levant in 1861. His aunt Anne married their cousin Alexander Porter. Their son David Henry Porter became a captain in the Mexican Navy during its struggle for independence. The naval tradition continued into later generations of the family's descendants.

In addition to rearing their own children, his parents David and Emalina Porter adopted James Glasgow Farragut as a boy. His mother died in 1808 when he was seven, and his father George Farragut, a US naval officer in the American Revolution who was friends with David Porter Sr., was unable to care for all his children. Commodore David Porter offered to adopt asJames, to which the boy and George agreed. In 1811, James started serving a midshipman under Porter in the US Navy, and changed his first name to David. He had a distinguished career as David G. Farragut, serving as the first man to attain the new rank of admiral, instituted by the US Congress after the American Civil War.

Time of training
In the Mexican NavyAfter a reprimand for an 1824 incident, Commodore David Porter decided to resign from the navy rather than submit. He accepted an offer from the government of Mexico to become their General of Marine – in effect, the commander of their navy.

He took with him a nephew, David Henry Porter, and his sons, David Dixon and Thomas. The two boys were made midshipmen. Thomas died of yellow fever soon after arriving in Mexico; he was 10. David Dixon, age 12, was not affected by the disease. He was able to serve on the frigate Libertad, where he saw little action, and on the captured merchantman Esmeralda for a raid on Spanish shipping in Cuban waters.

In 1828, David Dixon accompanied his cousin, David Henry Porter, captain of the brig Guerrero, in another raid. Guerrero, mounting 22 guns, was one of the finest vessels in the small Mexican Navy. Off the coast of Cuba on February 10, 1828, she encountered a flotilla of about fifty schooners, convoyed by Spanish brigs Marte and Amalia. Captain Porter elected to attack, and soon forced the flotilla to seek refuge in the harbor at Mariel, 30 miles (48 km) west of Havana. The Spanish 64-gun frigate Lealtad put to sea.

Guerrero was able to break off the action and escape, but overnight Captain Porter decided to circle back and attack the vessels at Mariel. Intercepted by Lealtad, he could not escape. In the battle, Captain Porter was killed, together with many of his crew; the young midshipman Porter was slightly wounded. He was among the survivors who surrendered and were imprisoned in Havana until they could be exchanged. Commodore Porter chose not to risk his son again, and sent him back to the United States by way of New Orleans.

Peacetime navy
David Dixon Porter obtained an official appointment as midshipman in the US Navy through his grandfather, US Congressman William Anderson. The appointment was dated February 2, 1829, when he was sixteen years of age; this was somewhat older than most midshipmen, who tended to be taken in as boys. Due to his relative maturity and experience, greater than that of most naval lieutenants, Porter tended to be cocky and challenge some of his superiors, leading to conflict. Except for intervention by Commodore James Biddle, who acted favorably because Porter's father was a hero, his warrant as a midshipman would not have been renewed.

Porter's last duty as a midshipman was on frigate USS United States, flagship of Commodore Daniel Patterson, from June 1832 until October 1834. Patterson's family accompanied him, including his daughter, George Ann ("Georgy"). The two young people renewed their acquaintance and became engaged. After Porter returned home, he completed the examination for passed midshipman, and soon after was assigned to duty in the Coast Survey. There, his pay was such that he could save enough to marry.

Marriage and family:
Porter and Georgy Patterson were married on March 10, 1839. Of their four sons, three had military careers, and their two surviving daughters married men who had military service or were active officers.

Major David Essex Porter served in the army during the Civil War, but resigned after two years in the peacetime army.

Captain Theodoric Porter made his career in the navy.

Lieutenant Colonel Carlile Patterson Porter was an officer in the US Marine Corps; his son, David Dixon Porter II, also served in the Marines, rising to the rank of major general and earning the Medal of Honor.

One of their two surviving daughters, Elizabeth, married Leavitt Curtis Logan, who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral.

Their other surviving daughter, Elena, married Charles H. Campbell, a former army officer who had left the service before their marriage.

Richard Bache Porter was the only child to have no relation to the military services.

Advance to officer
In March 1841, Porter was promoted in rank to lieutenant, and in April of the next year he was detached from the Coast Survey. He had a brief tour of duty in the Mediterranean, and then he was assigned to the US Navy's Hydrographic Office.

Mission to Santo Domingo
In 1846, the era of peace was coming to a close. The United States had annexed the Republic of Texas, and the islands of the Caribbean seemed to be likely targets for further expansion. The Republic of Santo Domingo (the present-day Dominican Republic) had broken off from the Republic of Haiti in 1844, and the United States State Department needed to determine the new nation's social, political, and economic stability.

The suitability of the Bay of Samana for US Navy operations was also of interest. To find out, Secretary of State James Buchanan asked Porter to undertake a private investigation. He accepted the assignment, and on March 15, 1846, he left home. He arrived in Santo Domingo after some unexpected delays and spent two weeks mapping the coastline. On May 19, he began a trek through the interior that left him without communication for a month. On June 19, he emerged from the jungle, bitten by insects, but with the information that the State Department wanted. He then discovered that while he was away the United States had gone to war with Mexico.

Mexican War
Mexico did not have a real navy, so naval personnel had little opportunity for distinction. Porter served as first lieutenant of the sidewheel gunboat USS Spitfire under Commander Josiah Tattnall.

Spitfire was at Vera Cruz when General Winfield Scott led the amphibious assault on the city, which was shielded by a series of forts and the ancient Castle of San Juan de Ulloa. Porter had spent many hours exploring the castle when he had been a midshipman in the Mexican Navy, so he was familiar with both its strengths and its weaknesses. He submitted a plan to attack it to Captain Tattnall. Taking eight oarsmen and the ship's gig, he sounded out a channel on the night of March 22–23, 1847, using the experience he had gained with the Coast Survey. The next morning, Spitfire and other vessels taking part in the bombardment followed the channel that Porter had laid out and took up positions inside the harbor, where they were able to pound the forts and castle. Doing so meant, however, that they had to run by the forts, which was contrary to the orders of Commodore Matthew C. Perry.

Perry sent signals ordering the vessels to break off the bombardment and return, but Tattnall ordered his men not to look at the commodore's signals. Not until a special messenger came with explicit orders to retire did Maffitt cease firing. Perry appreciated the audacity shown by his subordinates, but did not approve of the way they had disregarded his orders. Henceforth, he kept Spitfire by his side.

In June, Perry mounted an expedition to capture the interior town of Tabasco. Porter on his own led a charge of 68 sailors to capture the fort defending the city. Perry rewarded him for his initiative by making him captain of Spitfire. It was his first command. It brought him no advantages, however, as the naval part of the war was essentially over.

Civilian service
In Washington again following the war, Porter had little chance for professional improvement and none for advancement. In order to gain experience in handling steamships, he took leave of absence from the Navy to command civilian ships. He insisted that his crews submit to the methods of military discipline; his employers were noncommittal about his methods, but they were impressed by the results. They asked him to stay in Australia, but his health and the health of his eldest daughter Georgianne persuaded him to return. Back in the United States, he moved his family from Washington to New York in hope that the climate would benefit his daughter, but she died shortly after the move. His second daughter, Evalina ("Nina") also died in the interwar period.

Once again on active duty, he commanded the storeship USS Supply in a venture to bring camels to the United States. The project was promoted by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who thought that the desert animals could be useful for the cavalry in the arid Southwest. Supply made two successful trips before Secretary Davis left office and the experiment was discontinued.

In 1859, he received an attractive offer from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to be captain of a ship then under construction. The offer would be effective when she was complete. He would have accepted, but he was delayed in his departure. Before he could leave, war had broken out again.

Civil War
The seceded states laid claim to the national forts within their boundaries, but they did not make good their claim to Fort Sumter in South Carolina and Forts Pickens, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson in Florida. They soon made it clear that they would use force if necessary to gain possession of Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. President Abraham Lincoln resolved not to cede them without a fight. Secretary of State William H. Seward, Captain Montgomery C. Meigs of the US Army, and Porter devised a plan for the relief of Fort Pickens. The principal element of their plan required use of the steam frigate USS Powhatan, which would be commanded by Porter and would carry reinforcements to the fort from New York. Because no one was above suspicion in those days, the plan had to be implemented in complete secrecy; not even Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was to be advised.

Welles was in the meantime preparing an expedition for the relief of the garrison at Fort Sumter. As he was unaware that Powhatan would not be available, he included it in his plans. When the other vessels assigned to the effort showed up, the South Carolina troops at Charleston began to bombard Fort Sumter, and the Civil War was on. The relief expedition could only wait outside the harbor. The expedition had little chance to be successful in any case; without the support of the guns on Powhatan, it was completely impotent. The only contribution made by the expedition was to carry the soldiers who had defended Fort Sumter back to the North following their surrender and parole.

Lincoln did not punish Seward for his part in the incident, so Welles felt that he had no choice but to forgive Porter, whose culpability was less. Later, he reasoned that it had at least a redeeming feature in that Porter, whose loyalty had been suspect, was henceforth firmly attached to the Union. As he wrote:

"In detaching the Powhatan from the Sumter expedition and giving the command to Porter, Mr. Seward extricated that officer from Secession influences, and committed him at once, and decisively, to the Union cause."

Mortar fleet at New Orleans and Vicksburg
In late 1861, the Navy Department began to develop plans to open the Mississippi River. The first move would be to capture New Orleans, Louisiana. For this Porter, by this time advanced to rank of commander, was given the responsibility of organizing a flotilla of some twenty mortar boats that would participate in the reduction of the forts defending the city from the south. The flotilla was a semi-autonomous part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, which was to be commanded by Porter's adoptive brother Captain David G. Farragut.

The bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip began on April 18, 1862. Porter had opined that two days of concentrated fire would be enough to reduce the forts, but after five days they seemed as strong as ever. The mortars were beginning to run low on ammunition. Farragut, who put little reliance on the mortars anyway, made the decision to bypass the forts on the night of April 24. The fleet successfully ran past the forts; the mortars were left behind, but they bombarded the forts during the passage in order to distract the enemy gunners. Once the fleet was above the forts, nothing significant stood between them and New Orleans; Farragut demanded the surrender of the city, and it fell to his fleet on April 29. The forts were still between him and Porter's mortar fleet, but when the latter again began to pummel Fort Jackson, its garrison mutinied and forced its surrender. Fort St. Philip had to follow suit. Surrender of the two forts was accepted by Commander Porter on April 28.

Following orders from the Navy Department, Farragut took his fleet upstream to capture other strongpoints on the river, with the aim of complete possession of the Mississippi. At Vicksburg, Mississippi he found that the bluffs were too high to be reached by the guns of his fleet, so he ordered Porter to bring his mortar flotilla up. The mortars suppressed the Rebel artillery well enough that Farragut's ships could pass the batteries at Vicksburg and link up with a Union flotilla coming down from the north. The city could not be taken, however, without active participation by the army, which did not happen. On July 8, the bombardment ceased when Porter was ordered to Hampton Roads to assist in Major General George B. McClellan's Peninsula campaign. A few days later, Farragut followed, and the first attempt to take Vicksburg was over.

Acting rear admiral:
David Dixon Porter & George Gordon MeadeIn the summer of 1862, shortly after Porter left Vicksburg, the US Navy was extensively modified; among the features of the revised organization were a set of officer ranks from ensign to rear admiral that paralleled the ranks in the Army. Among the new ranks created were those of commodore and rear admiral.

According to the organization charts, the persons in command of the blockading squadrons were to be rear admirals. Another part of the reorganization transferred the Western gunboat flotilla from the army to the navy, and retitled it the Mississippi River Squadron. The change of title implied that it was formally equivalent to the other squadrons, so its commanding officer would likewise be a rear admiral. The problem was that the commandant of the gunboat flotilla, Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, had not shown the initiative that the Navy Department wanted, so he had to be removed. He was made rear admiral, but he was recalled to Washington to serve as chief of the Bureau of Navigation.

Most of the men who could have replaced Davis were either less suitable or were unavailable because of other assignments, so finally Secretary Welles decided to appoint Porter to the position. He did this despite some doubt. As he wrote in his Diary:

Relieved Davis and appointed D. D. Porter to the Western Flotilla, which is hereafter to be recognized as a squadron. Porter is but a Commander. He has, however, stirring and positive qualities, is fertile in resources, has great energy, excessive and sometimes not over-scrupulous ambition, is impressed with and boastful of his own powers, given to exaggeration in relation to himself, —a Porter infirmity, —is not generous to older and superior living officers, whom he is too ready to traduce, but is kind and patronizing to favorites who are juniors, and generally to official inferiors. Is given to cliquism but is brave and daring like all his family... It is a question, with his mixture of good and bad traits, how he will succeed.

Thus Commander Porter became Acting Rear Admiral Porter without going through the intermediate ranks of captain and commodore. He left Washington for his new command on October 9 and arrived in Cairo, Illinois on October 15.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton considered Porter "a gas bag ... blowing his own trumpet and stealing credit which belongs to others." Historian John D. Winters, in his The Civil War in Louisiana, describes Porter as having "possessed the qualities of abundant energy, recklessness, resourcefulness, and fighting spirit needed for the trying role ahead. Porter was assigned the task of aiding General John A. McClernand in opening the upper Mississippi. The choice of McClernand, a volunteer political general, pleased Porter because he felt that all West Point men were 'too self-sufficient, pedantic, and unpractical.'"

Winters also writes that Porter "revealed a weakness he was to display many times: he belittled a superior officer [Charles H. Poor]. He often heaped undue praise upon a subordinate, but rarely could find much to admire in a superior."

The Army was showing renewed interest in opening the Mississippi River at just this time, and Porter met two men who would have great influence on the campaign. First was Major General William T. Sherman, a man of similar temperament to his own, with whom he immediately formed a particularly strong friendship. The other was Major General McClernand, whom he just as quickly came to dislike. Later they would be joined by Major General Ulysses S. Grant; Grant and Porter became friends and worked together quite well, but it was on a more strictly professional level than his relation with Sherman.

Close cooperation between the Army and Navy was vital to the success of the siege of Vicksburg. The most prominent contribution to the campaign was the passage of the batteries at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf by a major part of the Mississippi River Squadron. Grant had asked merely for a few gunboats to shield his troops, but Porter persuaded him to use more than half of his fleet. After nightfall on April 16, 1863, the fleet moved past the batteries. Only one vessel was lost in the ensuing firefight. Six nights later, a similar run past the batteries gave Grant the transports he needed for crossing the river.

Now south of Vicksburg, Grant at first tried to attack the Rebels through Grand Gulf, and requested Porter to eliminate the batteries there before his troops would be sent across. On April 29, the gunboats spent most of the day bombarding two Confederate forts. They succeeded in silencing the lower of the two, but the upper fort remained. Grant called off the assault and moved downstream to Bruinsburg, where he was able to cross the river unopposed.

Although the fleet made no major offensive contributions to the campaign after Grand Gulf, it remained important in its secondary role of keeping the blockade against the city. When Vicksburg was besieged, the encirclement was made complete by the Navy's control of the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. When it finally fell on July 4, Grant was unstinting in his praise of the assistance he had received from Porter and his men.

For his contribution to the victory, Porter's appointment as "acting" rear admiral was made permanent, dated from July 4.

Red River Expedition:
After the opening of the Mississippi, the political general Nathaniel P. Banks, who was in charge of army forces in Louisiana, brought pressure on the Lincoln administration to mount a campaign across Louisiana and into Texas along the line of the Red River. The ostensible purpose was to extend Union control into Texas, but Banks was influenced by numerous speculators to convert the campaign into little more than a raid to seize cotton. Admiral Porter was not in favor; he thought that the next objective of his fleet should be to capture Mobile, but he received direct orders from Washington to cooperate with Banks.

After considerable delays caused by Banks's attention to political rather than military matters, the Red River expedition got under way in early March 1864. From the start, navigation of the river presented as great a problem for Porter and his fleet as did the Confederate army that opposed them. The army under Banks and the navy under Porter did little to cooperate, and instead often became rivals in a race to seize cotton.

The Rebel opposition under Major General Richard Taylorsucceeded in keeping them apart by defeating Banks at a small place known as Pleasant Hills, following which Banks gave up the expedition. From that time on, Porter's primary task was to extricate his fleet. The task was made difficult by falling water levels in the river, but he ultimately got most out, with the help of heroic efforts by some of the soldiers who stayed to protect the fleet.

Capture of Fort Fisher
Porter & staff, December 1864By late summer 1864, Wilmington, North Carolina was the only port open for running the blockade, and the Navy Department began to plan to close it. Its major defense was Fort Fisher, a massive structure at the New Inlet to the Cape Fear River.

Secretary Welles believed that the head of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee, was inadequate for the task, so he at first assigned Rear Admiral Farragut to be Lee's replacement. Farragut was too ill to serve, however, so Welles then decided to switch Lee with Porter: Lee would command the Mississippi River Squadron, and Porter would come east and prepare for the attack on Fort Fisher.

The planned attack on Fort Fisher required the cooperation of the army, and the troops were taken from the Army of the James. It was expected that Brigadier General Godfrey Weitzel would command, but Major General Benjamin F. Butler, the commandant of the Army of the James, exercised one of the prerogatives of his position to install himself as leader of the expedition. Butler proposed that the fort could be flattened by exploding a ship filled with gunpowder near it, and Porter accepted the idea; if successful, the scheme would avoid a protracted siege or its alternative, a frontal assault.

Accordingly, the old steamer USS Louisiana was packed with powder and blown up in the early morning of December 24, 1864. It had, however, no discernible effect on the fort. Butler brought part of his troops ashore, but he was already convinced that it was hopeless, so he removed his force before making an all-out assault.

Porter, enraged by Butler's timorousness, went to U. S. Grant and demanded that Butler be removed. Grant agreed, and placed Major General Alfred H. Terry in charge of a second assault on the fort. The second assault began on January 13, 1865, with unopposed landings and bombardment of the fort by the fleet. Porter imposed new methods of bombardment this time: each ship was assigned a specific target, with intent to destroy the enemy's guns rather than to knock down the walls. They were also to continue firing after the men ashore started their assault; the ships would shift their aim to points ahead of the advancing troops.

The bombardment continued for two more days, while Terry got his men into position. On the 15th, frontal assaults on opposite faces by Terry's soldiers on the land side and 2000 sailors and marines on the beach vanquished the fort. This was the last significant naval operation of the war.

Postwar
Naval academy
The US Navy was rapidly downsized at the end of the war, and Porter, like most of his contemporaries, had no more ships to command. Some feared that at sea he might provoke a foreign war, particularly with Great Britain, because of what he saw as their support for the Confederacy. To make use of his undeniable talents, Secretary Welles appointed him superintendent of the Naval Academy in 1865. The academy at that time did little to prepare men for the duties that were expected of them. Porter resolved to change that; he determined to make the Academy the rival of the Military Academy at West Point.

The curriculum was revised to reflect the reality of naval life, organized sports were encouraged, discipline was enforced, and even social graces were taught. An honor system was installed, "to send honorable men from this institution into the Navy." To be sure that his reforms would remain in place after his departure, he brought to the faculty a group of like-minded men, mostly young officers who had distinguished themselves in the war.

Presidency of U. S. Grant
When Porter's friend Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1869, he appointed Philadelphia businessman Adolph E. Borie as Secretary of the Navy. Borie had no knowledge of the navy and little desire to learn, so he leaned on Porter for advice that the latter was quite willing to give. In a short time, Borie came to defer to him even on trivial routine matters. Porter used his influence with the secretary to push through several policies to shape the navy as he wanted it; in the process, he made a new set of enemies who either were harmed by his actions or merely resented his blunt methods. Borie was strongly criticized for his failure to control his subordinate, and after three months he resigned. The new secretary, George Robeson, promptly curtailed Porter's powers.

Final years
In 1866, the ranks of admiral and vice admiral were created in the US Navy. Naval hero David G. Farragut, his adoptive brother, was named as the nation's first admiral, and Porter became vice admiral at the same time. In 1871, Farragut died, and it was expected that Porter would be promoted to fill the vacancy.

Eventually, he did become the second admiral, but it was after much controversy that was provoked by his many enemies. Among them were several very powerful politicians, including some of the political generals he had contended with in the war. Despite the prestige of the high rank, Porter's eclipse in influence continued. For the last twenty years of his life, he had little to do with the operations of the navy.

Porter turned to writing, producing some histories that are of doubtful reliability but provide insights into his own beliefs and character. He also wrote some fiction that has not withstood the test of time. After twenty years of semi-retirement, his health began to give way. In the summer of 1890, he suffered a heart attack; he survived but was clearly in decline. He died at the age of 77 on the morning of February 13, 1891.

19 April 1862: Saturday

Union - Military
Louisiana
David Dixon Porter's mortars continue to pound the forts.

Virginia
McClellan's troops continue to apply pressure at Yorktown.

South Carolina
There is a skirmish at Edisto Island.

Arkansas
There is a skirmish at Talbot's FErry.

________
Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

18 April, 1862: Friday

Union - Military
Louisiana
The Federal fleet begins its bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, on the Mississippi below New Orleans.

Admiral Farragut had little belief in DAvid Dixon Porter's mortars, but had allowed them to try to reduce the forts. The bombardment will continue for 6 days.

Virginia
GEneral Irvin McDowell, marching overland toward McClellan from WAshington, occupied Falmouth near fredericksburg. But he was still between Washington and the Confederate army, despite McClellan's entreaties that McDowell be sent to the Peninsula, where the huge Federal army was doing little to win the siege of Yorktown.

Confederate Military
Virginia
In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson leaves Harrisonburg for Elk Run Valley and Conrad's Store, where the Confederate forces will remain until the end of April, leaving the valley to Bank's troops.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Lincoln's Wrath, by Jeffrey Manber and Neil Dahlstrom

Lincoln's Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a Prresident's Mission to Destroy the Press, by Jeffrey Manber and Neil Dahlstrom
Sourcebooks, 2005
307 pages plusappendices, Bibliography, Notes and Index. 8 pages of glossy b&w photos
Library: 342.7308 MAN

Description
In the blistering summer of 1861, the North was ablaze. At night, thuggish mobs entered newspaper offices, burning papers and tossing printing presses out of windows. In broad daylight, army units attacked their fellow townsmen, threatening the lives of publishers and their families. In Baltimore, a prison housed governors, members of Congress, mayors and editors. All who faced this wrath shared one thing: they had publically opposed President Lincoln and the dawning Civil War.

Lincoln's Wrath tells the incredible story of the overlooked chapter of the Civil War, when the government pressured and physically shut down any Northern newspaper that voiced opposition to the war. The effect was a complete dismantling of the free press.

In the midst stood publisher John Hodgson, an angry bigot so hated that a local newspaper gleefully reported his defeat in a barfight. He was also firmly against Lincoln and the war-an opinion he expressed loudly through his opposition newspaper.

When his press was destroyed, first by a mob, then by US Marshals, Hodgson decided to take on the entire United States in a dramatic courtroom valley. Through the course of the trial, one impending question loomed: How far did the conspiracy against the press go? Was it the work of local thugs or state officials? Or did the orders come from the Executive Mansion in Washington from President Lincoln himself? To discover this answer Hodgson would risk imprisonment or worse-and the answer would determine the future of free speech in the United States.

Table of Contents
Introduction
I. Fire in the North
1. The Newspaper President
2. That Tory Hodgson
3. Publishing and Politics
4. The First Battleground
5. The Loyal Opposition
6. Summer of Rage
7. The Jeffersonian is Mobbed
8. Suffering for Liberties

II. A True Acccount of the United States of America vs the Jeffersonian Newspaper
9. The Cost of Their Convictions
10. "Have we a government?"
11. The Government Conspiracy
12. Hodgson vs the United States of America
13. Mere TRespassers
14. Repercussions

Epilogue
Appendix A: The full text of Judge Lowrie's Charge to the Jury
About the Authors
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index