The War is over: but not for the Navy

Confederate warship CSS Stonewall. Source: Naval History and Heritage Command.

It is May, 1865.

Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army the month before at Appomattox, and the Confederate western generals not long afterward. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet were being arrested as they tried to flee the country. The Union Navy presence off the southern coastline continued, mainly to enforce the peace, help slaves now completely released from their servitude, assist with rebuilding, and other mundane duties. Adm. C.K. Stribling commands the East Gulf Blockading Squadron from his home base at Key West, Florida.

Sometime in early May, the Admiral receives a dispatch from the U.S. Consul General in Havana, Cuba, which incites a panic. The Confederate ocean-going ironclad ram CSS Stonewall has docked at Havana harbor. This warship was built by France, for the Confederate Navy, which eventually took possession of her through a tortuous process. This ship was the "next generation" in blue-water warships. She was powered both by steam and sail rig, heavily armored, and armed with some of the most technologically advanced naval gunnery of the day; a 300-pdr and two 70-pdr Armstrong guns. When she left Portugal in March of 1865, the USN warships Niagara and Sacramento made weak attempts to confront her, but the USN had nothing that could go up against this formidable Confederate warship. It is rumored that she may be headed for Texas, or even perhaps Florida, to where the Confederate cabinet were fleeing, to pick them up and evacuate them to safety.

Stribling no doubt struggled with what to do. Eventually, he dispatched the USS Powhatan, with his Flag Captain aboard, and the USS Aries, followed by the USS Mahaska and Tallapoosa, to blockade the harbor of Havana. The captains of these vessels had orders to engage the Stonewall, should she try to make a run out of the harbor, and fight her to their destruction or the destruction of the Stonewall. It was a suicide mission. Without consulting his superiors, Stribling also sent two dispatches to the U.S. Consul General in Havana. One was delivered to the commanding officer of the Stonewall; an earnest and heartfelt plea to consider that the Confederacy was dead, and to surrender his warship, under terms of parole identical to those granted to Lee and his army. The second dispatch was delivered to the Captain General of the Island of Cuba (the official government representative of the Spanish Crown, who ruled the island). This missive was not as nice; it informed the Capt. General that, because of the collapse of the Confederate government and state, the Stonewall was no longer considered a legitimate ship-of-war, which enjoyed certain protections under international law. She was considered a pirate, and for Cuba to be offering protection would be aiding and abetting piracy, authorizing the U.S. Navy to take whatever actions necessary against the ship and the Island of Cuba to abet this threat.

Stibling's message got through to somebody, somehow. On 19 May, the Stonewall was surrendered to Spanish Naval authorities, and turned over to the U.S. Navy shortly thereafter. The members of the Stonewall's crew were paid off the salary owed them in Spanish gold. For reasons I have still not found out, the USN eventually sold her to the Japanese Navy.

In the last few months of the Civil War (maybe even after it "officially" ended), it is interesting that the last military vestiges of the Confederacy were her Navy. The Stonewall surrendered a month after the essential collapse of the Confederate Army. Six months later, the last Confederate warship, the raider CSS Shenandoah, hauled down her flag in England in November, 1865 and surrendered to those authorities. Maybe this is the legacy of Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen R. Mallory, who built a Navy from scratch, and whose Navy persisted until the end of the War, and even beyond.

Grave marker of C.S. Navy Secretary Mallory, in Pensacola, Florida. Photo by Tiffany Trent.

The Refugee Rangers

A Union militia soldier who may have served in the "Refugee Rangers" in Florida. Source:  Florida Dept. of State Photo Archives

In December 1863, Adm. Theodorus Bailey, commanding the E. Gulf Blockading Squadron, was approached by Mr. Enoch Daniels, a Unionist refugee living in the Charlotte Harbor area, who requested permission to assemble a volunteer company from among the other Unionist refugees in the area and at Key West. They would form a raiding party that could work in conjunction with Union military forces, attacking, capturing and/or destroying southern property and more importantly, attempting to disrupt the round-up and transport north of beef cattle to feed the southern armies. The U.S. Army would arm and equip this unit, and the Navy would transport them to embarkation points and lend them heavy gun support as long as they were within range. This endeavor was approved, and Daniels formed a company of refugees designated by the Army as the “Florida Rangers,” but Adm. Bailey liked to refer to them as the “Refugee Rangers.”

In late 1863, the Rangers were ready to take the offensive. On 24 December 1863, Lt. Baxter of the Gem of the Sea sent an armed boat party of 14 men in the ship’s launch and cutter, under the command of Acting Ensign J.H. Jenks, to link up with Daniels and 15 men of the Refugee Rangers at Useppa Island. The ship’s landing party also towed with them two small boats for the rangers’ use. Daniels directed the landing party to a location on the Myakka River (“Myacca” in the ORN reports) to go ashore, where they landed on 25 December. The Rangers headed inland to make trouble, while Jenks and his party of bluejackets established a defensive position on the beach to await the Rangers’ return and evacuate them. The understanding was that the Rangers’ party would be back in 7 days. On 28 December, the US Sloop Rosalie arrived at the landing site to help provide additional cover and fire support. The next day the sailors conducted additional reconnaissance in the area and relocated the USN shore camp to a location with a better defensive position.

Early the morning of 30 December, the sailors heard noises in the brush next to their camp, indicating “ . . . men were crawling toward them.” Jenks at first thought it was Daniel’s party returning to the landing site and he hailed, “Who comes there?” The reply came, “Captain Daniels and his men.” Jenks ordered them to halt and give the countersign agreed upon to confirm their identity. The response was a hail of musket and shotgun fire from what was estimated to be 40 Confederate troops. The sailors returned fire and fell back to their boats. When they were out of the line of fire, the Rosalie opened fire on the ambushing troops with her 12-pdr boat howitzer with canister and grape and additional musket fire from seamen on the deck. The firepower of the Rosalie was invaluable and no doubt saved the lives of most of the USN landing party. Jenks returned to the Gem of the Sea with one wounded seaman and to reprovision. He was able to carry off all of the weapons, camp equipage and material from their beachhead with minimal loss.

Baxter sent the ship’s boats and the Rosalie back to the landing site to await Daniel’s return. On 1 January 1864 the sailors returned to the bark with Daniels and five of his men. Six of his original 15 men had deserted after they landed on 25 December, and it is likely that at least some of them were involved in the ambush of the USN shore party on 30 December. Four men were still “at large” ashore, having become separated from Daniel’s party. These intrepid four eventually made their way over to the Peace River, found a small schooner, captured the ship and returned in it to the Gem of the Sea.

Historian George Buker believes that the E. Gulf Squadron's close ties with local Unionists, including the formation of the Refugee Rangers (who eventually became the Second Florida Cavalry, US), and their initiative to organize an infantry regiment of escaped slaves as the Second Florida USCT, represent a signature achievement which is not recognized today by many Civil War scholars.

Skirmish between Confederate cavalry and Union raiding party, possibly a group of the Refugee Rangers. Source:  Florida Dept. of State Photo Archive.

The Hillsborough River Raid

Unadilla-Class gunboat USS Tahoma.  Source:  Naval History and Heritage Command via the Florida State Archives

 

The Hillsborough River drains into Hillsborough Bay, a northeastern "arm" of Tampa Bay on the west central Gulf coast of Florida. In the fall of 1863, Lt. Commander A. A. Semmes (cousin of the famed Confederate raider captain  Raphael Semmes) of the USS Tahoma received intelligence that the Confederate steamer Scottish Chief and sloop Kate Dale were moored up the Hillsborough River, loaded with cotton and ready to run the blockade. Joined by the side wheel steam gunboat USS Adela (itself a captured and converted blockade runner), he dispatched six boats on 16 October with a landing force of 100 sailors and marines, plus officers and guides, under the command of his Executive Officer, Acting Master Thomas R. Harris.

Illustration of the side-wheel steam gunboat USS Adela by one of it's crew.  Source:  Naval History and Heritage Command.

Putting ashore near Ballast Point, the landing party made their way by land up the Hillsborough River. They at first tried to bring with them a small boat to cross the river, but eventually had to leave the boat in a hiding place, due to the difficulty of transporting it. Master Harris later wrote in his after action report:

“After this we moved along very rapidly under the direction of our excellent guides, and reached the banks of the Hillsboro (sic) River about 4 a.m. October 17, having marched about 14 miles. Having stationed lookouts, the party lay down till daylight. Shortly after daylight we discovered the steamer and sloop on the opposite side of the river about 9 miles above us. The force was immediately moved to a point opposite of where they lay and those on board ordered to send a boat to us. When the boat reached [us] I sent Acting Ensigns Randall and Balch, with a suitable number of men, on board of the vessels, where they made prisoners of all except two, who escaped on the Tampa side. Hauling the vessels over, I fired both effectually.”

The landing party returned to the beach area where they came ashore, and boats were dispatched from the gunboats to retrieve them. The Confederate forces had by now been alerted to the presence of the naval landing party, and sent troops to pursue them. An intense firefight ensued between the navy men and southern troops, a mix of infantry and dismounted cavalry. Union casualties were three killed, six wounded, and four taken prisoner.

Ship's boat crewed by USN sailors landing marines at the Hillsborough River Raid re-enactment in 2010.  Source:  USS Ft. Henry web site.

Assault on New Smyrna, Florida, July 1863

As the war progressed, and the U.S. Navy blockade along the SE Atlantic Coast tightened around many of the main ports of entry in northeast Florida (Fernandina, Jacksonville and St. Augustine), blockade runners began to make use of more remote entry points in Florida to the south along the coast. Mosquito Inlet (now Ponce de Leon Inlet), along the Florida coast north of Cape Canaveral, became an important entrance point for runners. The inlet and Mosquito Lagoon were deep enough to accommodate larger steamers and schooners. The community of New Smyrna was located south of the Inlet along the Mosquito Lagoon. Runners would enter the inlet and dock at New Smyrna, or hide along the mangrove shoreline of the lagoon and offload their cargo. Wagons would transport the cargo overland to the St. Johns River, where it would be loaded on river steamers for transport to other offload points fortransfer to railroad stations and further distribution. George Buker indicates that this was known as “running the inner blockade.” Mosquito Inlet was the dividing point between the operating sectors of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (to the north) and the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (to the south), so ships of both squadrons participated in actions in this region.

The Mosquito Inlet continued to be a thorn in the side of the Union blockaders. On 28 July 1863 a squadron of U.S. Navy gunboats, under the command of Lt. Commander Earl English, arrived off New Smyrna; USS Sagamore (Unadilla-Class gunboat), Para (mortar schooner), Beauregard (schooner), and Oleander (steamer). The Oleander took Beauregard in tow and they hove to inside the inlet and commenced shelling the town from offshore. English dispatched a large landing party of bluejackets and marines in ships boats into the harbor. They captured one sloop loaded with cotton, a schooner without cargo, and caused the Confederates to set fire to other sloops in the harbor, some loaded with cotton. The southerners also burned the large quantities of cotton stockpiled on shore. The landing party then went ashore, headed into the town, and destroyed and burned numerous structures (shops and homes).

Steamer at a dock near New Smyrna, Florida, after the war. This gives an idea of what a blockade runner offloading supplies may have looked like. Source:  Florida State Archives.

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Union Navy Expedition up the Peace River, Florida

Print showing a sloop of the configuration of the USS Rosalie. Source:  Library of Congress on-line image library.

The coast of southwest Florida, from the Keys to Tampa Bay, was practically uninhabited through much of the Civil War, almost the very definition of “remote.” Small fishing villages appear to have existed at Ft. Myers and Punta Gorda, along with a few hardy souls living in camps on some of the old Calusa Indian shell middens scattered throughout Pine Island Sound and the Ten Thousand Islands region to the south. The coast was part of the patrol sector of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The major water body in this region was the estuarine bay Charlotte Harbor. Two rivers, the Peace and Myakka, drained into this bay from the state’s interior. Just south of the entrance to the bay, the Caloosahatchee River emptied into San Carlos Bay. Because of its remoteness, the region proved irresistible to blockade runners and did see some activity.

On 6 July 1863, Acting Master W. R. Browne from the bark USS Restless took on board two white refugees from the area. They told him that two Confederate blockade runners had attempted a run out that morning. Browne sent out a party of 36 men in the bark’s two cutters, under the command of Acting Ensigns Eason and Russel and Acting Master’s Mate Browne, guided by the two refugees. Their objective was to find the sloop USS Rosalie, with orders for her commander Acting Ensign Charles P. Clark, and then with the Rosalie attempt to locate the runners. The Rosalie was supposed to be stationed in Pine Island Sound. Rosalie in this case was not the larger "sloop-of-war" such as the USS Cumberland; she was a shallow-draft, single-masted sailing ship. She was actually a captured blockade runner and highly useful in the shallow inshore waters of southwest Florida. She was armed with a 12-pdr Dahlgren boat howitzer.

The boats from the Restless did not find the sloop in this location, and so they headed up the Peace River to the small settlement of Punta Gorda. The next morning, they sighted the Rosalie about 5 miles upriver. Upon pulling up to the sloop, they were told by Ensign Clark that he had moved the sloop to the mouth of the river. About 9 AM the morning of the sixth, he saw a sloop and a schooner making a run up the river (probably they had been on their way down when they sighted the Union gunboat and “turned tail”). He set off in pursuit, but it was his misfortune to ground the sloop on a sand bar in the river. The Confederate runners continued upstream, no doubt having a better knowledge of the river channel. By the time the Restless’ boats had reached the Rosalie, Clark had succeeded in freeing her from the bar. The boats and the sloop continued upriver, until shoal water would not allow the sloop to proceed further on the evening of the seventh.

Clark anchored for the night, at this time about 45 miles upriver. The next morning, 8 July, Clark left the sloop in charge of Acting Master's Mate Browne, took command of the two Restless boats, and pushed further upriver to Horse Creek, where they found the two runners unmanned. They were the Bahamian schooner Ann and an un-named sloop, both loaded with cotton. The naval expedition took possession of the two runners and their cargo and made their way back down to the Rosalie, then back out the bay to rejoin the Restless the afternoon of 9 July. For their actions, Adm. Bailey issued a letter of commendation to Acting Master Browne and the crew of the Restless, and promoted Clark from Acting Ensign to Acting Master.

An 1868 Navigation Map of the Charlotte Harbor entrance is at:  http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/tiled/zoomifypreview.html?zoomifyImagePath=CP1121C

Marine Sgt. Christopher Nugent – Medal of Honor Recipient

We haven’t written much about the U.S. Marines on this blog. They certainly were an important part of the U.S. Navy in the Civil War. The Marines had been in existence since the Revolutionary War. Initially they mirrored the role of the Royal Marines in the British Navy; helping to defend the ship from enemy boarding parties, and providing shipboard security and suppressing mutiny. These two roles continued into the Civil War, but the Marines by now were beginning the transition into an amphibious landing force that could project power ashore. They were involved in numerous shore expeditionary actions, along with Navy seamen, in all of the blockading squadrons during the war.

The USS Ft. Henry, patrolling the Florida gulf coast between Tampa Bay and St. Marks, had a small detachment of U.S. Marines assigned to the ship’s complement. In early June 1863, ship’s boats from the Fort Henry captured the sloop Emma off Seahorse Key. Having need of an extra boat, Lt. Commander McCauley decided to keep the sloop instead of sending it to Key West as a prize. Marine Orderly Sgt. Christopher Nugent had the sloop repaired and fitted out to transport his marines, and on 15 June 1863, Sgt. Nugent and six marines from the Fort Henry’s guard undertook an expedition up the Crystal River. About six miles upriver, Nugent spotted a log breastworks. Landing with a party of four marines, Nugent and his men drove away the 11 Confederates manning the small fortification. Nugent was hit, but not injured, by a shot from the officer commanding the militia as they retreated. He ordered his marines to hold their fire due to the presence of a woman in the midst of the enemy troops as they retreated. The marines carried off the small arms found in the works and destroyed the other material found there which they could not remove.

After receiving McCauley’s report of these actions, Adm. Bailey of the East Gulf Squadron wrote to Sec. Welles:

“I would respectfully suggest whether the conduct of Orderly Sergeant Nugent does not bring him within that class of men who should receive the medal of honor authorized by Congress to be given to ‘such petty officers, seamen, and marines as shall most distinguish themselves by gallantry in action,’ etc.”

On 16 April 1864, Marine Sgt. Nugent was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Crystal River (now known as the “Congressional Medal of Honor”). Today is the 150^th Anniversary of his actions which earned this award. An article profiling Sgt. Nugent and his actions, written by my Ft. Henry shipmate Dave Ekardt, is on the Navy and Marine Living History "Webzine" at: http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862USMC_MoH.htm

Playing With Fire off the Cuban Coast, October 1862

A route frequently used by Anglo-Confederate blockade runners went from Matamoros, Mexico to Havana, Cuba, ending at Mobile, Alabama.  The ships would pick up Texas cotton in Matamoros shipped across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. They would then steam east towards the Cuban coast, hug the coastline as close as possible, and then enter the friendly, Spanish-controlled port of Havana.  From Havana, the ships would pick up guns, ammunition, and other manufactured goods and make a run towards Mobile.

Commander Charles S. Hunter oversaw the converted merchant steamer USS Montgomery, which patrolled off the coast of Havana.  One ship in particular Hunter was on the look out for was the blockade runner General Rusk (sometimes referred to as Blanche).  The ship already navigated the Matamoros-Havana-Mobile run six times. 

On the seventh attempt, one of Montgomery's watches spotted her trying to enter Havana with 569 bales of cotton (retail price of $142,000 on the English market).   Unfortunately, General Rusk's captain misread his charts and ran aground.  The captain, believing that since he was in Spanish waters and flying a Spanish flag, thought he was safe.  He was not. 

Hunter was under the impression he had Admiral Farragut's personal endorsement to get this particular blockade runner by any means necessary.  U.S. Navy sailors from two of Montgomery's small boats formally captured General Rusk.  During the boarding master's interrogation of General Rusk's captain, the ship mysteriously caught on fire, forcing everyone off the boat.  Though he did not capture the ship, Hunter thought himself a hero for finally eliminating the elusive blockade runner. 

USS Montgomery, a converted steam merchant ship and
vessel of Commander Charles S. Hunter.

A week later,  watches spotted the blockade runner Caroline in the Gulf of Mexico.  Montgomery fired seventeen shots and struck Caroline twice, who stopped running after being hit. This capture was a bit more clear cut as the ship was carrying French muskets and ammunition.  She was also caring thirty-two five-gallon demijohns of Cuban rum.  Hunter felt "it was his moral duty" to get rid of the rum immediately.  He had his company open up all the bottles and pour the alcohol out.   

Caroline's master objected to being seized, stating he was, like General Rusk, a Spanish ship bounded for Matamoros.  Montgomery's boarding officer is to have replied, "I do not take you for running the blockade, but for your damned poor navigation. Any man bound for Matamoros from Havana and coming within twelve miles of Mobile light has no business to have a steamer."

Blockade runner Caroline, later USS Arizona

For the next several months, Hunter thought himself a "master hunter" of blockade runners, capturing one more and was waiting to chase CSS Florida.  That was until he received a court-marital summons.  While Hunter was crowing, the Spanish government threatened to declare war over Hunter's violation of its territorial waters by capturing and burning General Rusk.  Secretary of State Seward was forced to issue a formal apology and pay reparations of over $300,000.  While the court-martial board cleared him of charges military misconduct (for burning the ship), it found him guilty of violating neutral waters and removed him from service. 

Hunter's brother officers, including Farragut, believed Hunter was getting a raw deal and fought to have him reinstated.  But the  civilian authorises rejected their arguments.  Sixty years later, Admiral Albert Gleaves wrote a passionate defense of Hunter in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute.  Gleaves concluded, "do what is right, even when you know its wrong."

Salt Works Raid at Cedar Key

Drawing of USS Ellen, a converted New York ferryboat; USS Somerset would likely have looked similar. Note that ship is firing on a target on shore, which the Somerset could have done with one of its IX inch Dahlgren smoothbores mounted in pivot fore and aft (as opposed to the 32 pdrs mounted in broadside):

In an initial post, I noted that a major task of the men and ships of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron was the location and destruction of Confederate salt works along the Florida Gulf coast. During the latter part of 1862, USS Tahoma (a 90-day gunboat) and USS Somerset (a converted New York ferryboat) patrolled the waters around Cedar Key, Florida. After receiving intelligence from escaped slaves that Confederate troops in the area had been withdrawn, and knowing of the existence and location of a sizable salt works on Depot Key, Lt. Cdr. Earl English brought his ship the Somerset close inshore on 4 October 1862 and began shelling the facility with the ship’s big guns. On seeing a white flag hoisted, he dispatched two ship’s boats under the command of Acting Master Dennison, his XO. When they landed, they approached a house over which the white flag flew with “several women”, which made the bluejackets hold their fire. Suddenly, Confederate troops in concealment opened fire on the landing party, wounding several sailors (two were subsequently described by the ship’s surgeon as “dangerously wounded”, four as “severely wounded” and two more as “slightly wounded”). The landing party returned fire “. . . killing and wounding several” of the defenders. Prior to withdrawing, the landing party “. . . destroyed several barrels of salt, a number of boats; captured one launch and a large flat.” and also apparently destroyed some of the salt works boilers (quotes from Lt. Cdr. English and Ship’s Surgeon reports in the “Official Records of the Navies”).

The Tahoma arrived on the scene later that day (Cdr. J.C. Howell, captain), and on 6 October, a large landing party (8 boats and about 111 men), armed with two Dahlgren boat howitzers, went ashore to the works. After deploying the howitzers and firing shell, shrapnel and canister into the works, driving off the Confederate defenders, the landing party spread out and began their destructive work. Cdr. Howell reported that a total of 50 to 60 salt boilers were destroyed (estimated by Lt. Cdr. English to produce 150 bushels of salt a day working around the clock), and all structures at the site were burned to the ground in retaliation for the ambush attack on the landing party on 4 October. As the USN forces withdrew to their ships, a train carrying Confederate reinforcements arrived at Cedar Key and the gray troops deployed and fired on the landing party with muskets, but by then the USN boats were out of range. No seamen or marines were killed or injured in this larger expedition.

Cdr. Howell sharply punctuated his after-action report to the East Gulf Squadron command by noting that “The rebels here needed a lesson and they have had it.” Officers of both ships were highly complementary of the conduct of their men during these raids. After reading the officers’ reports of this mission in the “Official Records”, it struck me that we don’t think of sailors dying in the war or being wounded tragically, like we so often do the CW soldiers. Yet reports like these, along with accounts of the engagements of Union Navy ships with Confederate forts and ships, such as on the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay, bring home vividly the fact that sailors were exposed to perils and death, and that many did die in combat during the war.

USS Tahoma:

CSS Florida's Mad Dash into Mobile

To say Confederate Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt had a tough decision to make would be an understatement.  After the Florida's release from a British admiralty court in Nassau, Maffit's executive officer reported their vessel lacked the proper equipment to fire the main guns.   After being denied the equipment in Havana, Cuba, Maffitt decided the only thing to do was to run the blockade and make port in Mobile, Alabama.  Adding to Maffitt's difficulties was yellow fever.  The dreaded tropical disease had incapacitated or killed half of his company, including Maffitt.  This decision caused Florida's executive officer, Lieutenant John Stribling, to question his captain's wisdom.  He commented to Maffitt, "Sir, in this attempt we cannot avoid passing close to the blockade-squadron, the result of which will be our certain destruction."

George Prebble after the war

Maffitt acknowledged the risks, but felt he had no choice.  Watching the approaches to Mobile were the steam sloop-of-war USS Oneida (commanded by Commander George H. Prebble), the "90-day gunboat" USS Winona, and the fast sailing schooner USS Rachel Seaman. 

With a British flag raised, Florida approached the blockading squadron at high speed.  Florida and Oneida passed within 90 yards of each other before Prebble realized the ruse.  Oneida opened fire at Florida, but missed.  Winona joined in and put an XI-inch shot into Florida's boiler room, decapitating one of the fireman and injuring several others.   Florida continued steaming.  The two U.S. Navy ships switched over to shrapnel shot in an attempt to take out Florida's sails.  The shrapnel injured several more of Florida's sailors, but failed to stop the cruiser from making it to the safety of Fort Morgan. 

Maffitt was safe.  Prebble, however was not. Upon hearing about the incident via Farragut and Welles, President Lincoln personally ordered Prebble to be removed from command and dismissed from the Navy.  Welles wrote a letter informing Prebble of his dismissal.  Being what communications were in 1862, Prebble learned about his firing in a newspaper article. 

Prebble was furious and fought the charges.  Coming from one of the U.S. Navy's most famous families (he was the nephew of Commodore Edward Prebble), he had major political clout to work with.  For the next six months, he sought to be reinstated.

St. Andrews Bay Salt Works Raid Event 21-22 April 2012

Salt works kettle/boiler display:

Salt works historic marker:

During the Civil War, St. Andrews Bay, Florida, was an immensely important area of salt production for the Confederacy along the Florida Gulf Coast. The second annual living history event commemorating Union Navy raids on Confederate salt works in St. Andrews Bay was held this weekend (21-22 April). The event is put together by the City of Panama City, the Panama City Historical Society, and the Steam Sloop Pawnee Marine Guard (a member organization of the CWN150 Blog). Participating organizations include the Port Columbus National Museum of Civil War Naval History, the USS Fort Henry Living History Association (both member organizations of the CWN150), and the USN Sea Cadet Corps. The event recalls and informs about the importance of salt making to the Confederacy and the Union efforts to disrupt these efforts during the Civil War.

Day 1 (Saturday, 21 April) began fair and cloudy and progressively degenerated into waves of strong rain squalls pushing onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. The day was scrubbed, with some activities in the morning, but no beach landing and assault in the afternoon due to the weather and safety concerns (lightning and strong winds).

Day 2 (Sunday, 22 April) dawned breezy and cloudy, but the sun was out in force by mid-morning. We had a complete day today, doing living history stuff in the morning, and in the afternoon a beach landing of marines and sailors on the Port Columbus Museum’s steam launch. The landing included pyrotechnics planted in the beach (to simulate bombardment from Union gunboats offshore); as we were about to hit the beach they went off, drenching the landing party with sand, detritus and water. Our objective was to destroy a Confederate salt works and withdraw back to our ship. After landing, the marines advanced and set up a defensive perimeter against Confederate home guard. On orders from our landing party officer, I advanced, protected by a contingent of seamen armed with pistol/cutlass and musket, set charges against the main salt works, and after orders from the landing party CO to ignite, we withdrew to the beach and watched the works blow.

I’ll be doing some posts on actions against salt works at St. Andrews Bay later this year as we hit the 150th Anniversary of these events.

US Navy steam launch landing marines and sailors to assault salt works last year (2011). Photo by Paige Creel:

Salt Works Raids

Destruction of a salt works by the US Bark Kingfisher on the Florida Coast. Source: Fla. Dept. of State on-line photo archive.


As the Civil War progressed, salt became one of the most vital commodities for the Confederacy. Salt was the primary means of preserving meat at that time, along with many other critical uses. By the end of 1861, the CSA recognized that it required a reliable supply of salt, as the tightening US Navy blockade was beginning to severely cut off imports from Europe. Every year, the states making up the Confederacy required 6 million bushels of salt, over half of which was imported. Before the war, salt sold for 50 cents a bushel (sack) off the ships at New Orleans; it sold for $25 per bushel in Savannah in January 1862. By October of that year, it was selling for $140 per bushel in Atlanta. Production of salt became so important that if you worked in a salt works, it meant an exemption from conscription into the Confederate Army.

While some salt was produced along the coasts of many of the southern states, its remote coastline made Florida the ideal place for this enterprise. Salt production was particularly prolific along Florida’s Gulf coast, and a large number of Confederate salt works were established, where sources of saltwater and wood (for stoking fires) were abundant. It eventually became a major task of the Union Navy blockaders to locate and destroy these works, much of this responsibility falling to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, responsible for most of the Florida Gulf coast. As runner after runner was captured and its cargo examined, the USN blockaders almost always found salt in the cargoes. This led the Squadron command to realize that crippling the supply of salt, both brought in by runners and produced locally, would be a major strategic blow to the Confederacy.

The "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies" contains a wealth of reports on raids on Gulf Coast salt works during the war. I will be posting updates on significant raids on the appropriate CWN 150 dates as we hit those in the coming years. Stay tuned !!

A good overall summary of the Union raids on salt works is by my USS Ft. Henry shipmate Marine Sgt. Dave Ekardt on the Naval and Marine Living History web site at: http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862saltraids.htm