How to catch a train with a gunboat

During the occupation of Fernandina, Florida, in early March 1862, one the weirdest events of the Civil War involving a US Navy ship transpired, perhaps the only occurrence of an incident like this in the history of the US Navy.

As the USS Ottawa, Lt. Thomas H. Stevens commanding, approached Fernandina, they discovered a train departing the town with Confederate troops and refugees, one of whom was rumored to be former Florida US Sen. David Levy Yulee. As the track ran along the Amelia River for a distance, the Ottawa went steaming up the river after the train, firing at it in the pursuit, which went for 2 miles. Stevens fired on the train because he believed that it was only carrying military personnel. One shell struck the last car on the train, killing two young men sitting on the pile of material stacked on the car. The car was detached and the train made its getaway.

The illustration above is an old map of the region showing Ft. Clinch (at the northern tip of Amelia Island), old Fernandina and the route of the cross-Florida railroad out of the town. The illustration below is a current aerial photo with some of the same features labeled and the possible route of the Ottawa as she chased the departing train. Upper illustration is from the Florida Dept. of State and the current aerial photo, below, is from the St. Johns River Water Management District.


A detailed account of the Ottawa escapade is on the USS Ft. Henry website at: http://www.ussforthenry.com/USSFHpdf/LastTrainFromFernandina.pdf

Union occupation of Ft. Clinch, Fernandina, Florida

Ft. Clinch, at the northern tip of Amelia Island, after recapture by Union forces:

While attention focused, then and now, on the impending battle of the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, things were really getting going in the Florida theatre of operations at this time. The Port of Fernandina, Florida, was important due to its ability to handle all but the largest US Navy ships in the entrance channel, its rail connections, and it’s proximity to the Bahamas (English territory and a key waypoint for blockade running). For a period of time (December 1861 to February 1862), the Union Navy was more occupied with shutting down the Port of Savannah, Georgia. Eventually however, interest in taking Fernandina resumed and a detachment from the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron headed toward the coast of Florida.

On 3 March 1862, US Navy and Marine forces arrived off the mouth of the St. Marys River (the Atlantic coast border between Georgia and Florida) and occupied Ft. Clinch, controlling the river mouth and the Port of Fernandina. Ft. Clinch, along with some well-constructed batteries in earthworks, was found abandoned, with a variety of artillery pieces in fine condition, along with powder and shot. The next day, the nearby town of Fernandina was occupied by Union forces. Ft. Clinch was turned over to US Army troops a day or so later. Flag Officer DuPont of the South Atlantic Squadron reported:

“. . . I learned from a contraband who had been picked up at sea by Commander Lanier, and from the neighboring residents on Cumberland Island, that the (Confederates) had abandoned in haste the whole of the defenses of Fernandina and were even at that moment retreating from Amelia Island . . . . . on receiving this intelligence I detached the gunboats and armed steamers of light draft from the main line and, placing them under the command of Commander P. Drayton, of the steam sloop Pawnee, I ordered him to push through the sound with the utmost speed, to save public and private property from threatened destruction . . .”

“Immediately on his entering the harbor, Commander Drayton sent Lieutenant White, of the Ottawa, to hoist the flag on Fort Clinch, the first of the national forts on which the ensign of the Union has resumed its (place).”

“We captured Port Royal, but Fernandina and Fort Clinch have been given to us.”


A detailed account of the occupation of Ft. Clinch and Fernandina is in a paper by Chuck Veit on the Navy and Marine Living History web site at: http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862Fernandina.htm . Illustration source – Florida Dept. of State on-line photo archive.

Civil War TECH Special Edition Issue Now Available

Get all three copies of the CWN Publications for FREE at the CWN Conference in Newport News

It is finally here!  Print copies of the Civil War Technology Special Edition have arrived hot off the press at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  For those members of HRNHF, we will be sending these out to you as soon as possible. 

Not a member of the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation?  Want to be one?  Go to the website HERE and receive copies of The Daybook, including the special editions, right to your doorstep.  This is but one of many benefits of membership.  

There are still two other ways to get copies of the CWN SE Technology Issue.  You can download high quality .pdf's of both Civil War Navy Special Editions at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum website HERE, or click under the "Publications" tab on this blog.  The second?  Come to the front desk of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum and pick one up yourself while supplies last!  Stop by the Hampton Roads Naval Museum booth at the upcoming Civil War Navy Conference in Newport News and get all three CWN 150 publications.  We will also have our LEGO ironclad ships on display for guests to see.

Navy Nurses in the Civil War

USS Red Rover on the Mississippi River

The Civil War was a time of many "firsts" for the Navy.  Now that it is the first day of Women's history month, it would seem poignant to talk about the historic first contributions of females in the Navy.  Like African Americans, these minority members of sea service exemplified the three tenets of the U.S. Navy: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. 

Although nurses were not recruited in high numbers during this time period (especially for the Navy), effective clinicians would eventually become integral to the health and stability of any military.  It is no surprise then that disease, not combat, was the greatest killer of the American Civil War. 

Mother Mary Ann Bickerdyke

According to Susan H. Godson, the influx of nurses in the United States (Union) military grew early on as a result of  "the growing carnage on the battlefields."  Efforts were increased from newly created organizations like the Women's Central Association of Relief and the U.S. Sanitary Commission.  When fighting began on Virginia's peninsula in the spring of 1862, steamboats were converted into floating hospitals to transport the evacuated wounded.  The U.S. Sanitary commission paid for the staffing of these ships with surgeons, dressers, and now male and female nurses.  Female nurses "prepared food, stocked shelves, and made the inform as comfortable as possible."   One of the more famous eastern transporters, the City of Memphis, was led by Mother Mary Ann Bickerdyke, perhaps the most famous nurse of the war. 

USS Red Rover

In the West, ships did not have the luxury of swift transport to a shore hospital, so floating hospitals like the Red Rover were commissioned.  Commissioned on 26 December 1862, the Red Rover served with the Mississippi River Squadron for the remainder of the war.  The medical personnel included four nuns of the Sisters of the Holy Cross as well as five black women - Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell, Betsy Young, and Dennis Downs, who assisted the nuns.  These women were the very first women to serve on a U.S. Navy ship, and the predecessors to the Navy Nurse Corps of the 19th century. 

Source: 
Godson, Susan H.  Serving Proudly: A History of Women in the U.S. Navy.  Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2001.