The Leeds Iron Foundry in New Orleans-- Part 1: Those Steel Cotton Bale Presses

From Waymarking  "Leeds Iron Foundry - New Orleans.

The Leeds Foundry produced arms for the Confederacy, manufactured two ships for the Confederate Navy, and continued as headquarters and producer of arms for ant-Federal forces after the war.  Charles Leeds, the owner, was elected mayor in 1874.

**********************

The Leeds Foundry was the second largest foundry in the South and besides being the  world's largest maker of steel cotton bale presses.

(A cotton bale press is a building or machinery in which cotton bales are compressed into smaller bulk for shipment.  A press for baling cotton bales.  This is a very important process when it comes to shipping cotton.)

Up to 400 employees were employed in casting, forging and finishing for the manufacturing of ornamental cast iron and sugar and cotton equipment.

--Old Secesh

15 Years and 5545 Posts Later, Still Here

Most people will tell you that having one blog is one too many.  Well, I have considerably more than  that.  Unfortunately, I am interested in way too many things.  That is why I have eight blogs.  Having just one blog would be a walk in the park.

My first post in this Civil War blog was November 1, 2007.  This grew out of my Cooter's History Thing blog which covers all things history.  So many of my posts to it were about the Civil War, I figured to spin this one off.  In 2012, I spun my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog off this, again because so many posts were about that aspect of the war.

My main emphasis on the war is navy and Fort Fisher, anyway.

My signoff name of Old Secesh comes from the northern putdown of Confederates, calling them "Secesh" or "Sesh".  The Confederacy seceded from the Union.  I adopted that as my name.

So, 5545 posts as of this one and we still haven't won the war and I believe we are definitely going to lose the Second Civil War going on right now.

I am, however, interested in all aspects of the war, not just Confederate.  Of course, I am interested in all aspects of anything to do with history.

Spending Way Too Much Time on These Doggone Blogs.  --Old Seceh

MCCWRT Meeting Tuesday, May 14: "Hi Tech Rebs and Their Infernal Machines"

This Tuesday, may 14, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will be having their monthly meeting at the Woodstock, Illinois, Library on 414 Judd Street at 7 pm.

This month's presentation will be "Damn the Torpedoes:  Hi Tech Rebs and Their Infernal Machines" by Bruce Allardice.

Of course, that would cover torpedoes and submarines among other things, right up this navy  guy's alley.

Everyone Welcome.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Trivia, Things I Learned-- Part 1: What Was Different About the Confederate States Naval Academy?

These were just some of the things I learned from the December 22, 2018, McHenry County Civil War Round Table Trivia discussion group meeting.

**  Frank C. ought not be allowed to e-mail in his questions.

**  We'll have to do it again next year.  Lots of discussions ensued.  We were even more on target than usual.

**  The Confederate Navy wore white uniforms during the summer months.

**  The Confederate Navy's Academy was unique in that all learning was done on a ship (the CSS Patrick Henry) and at times the ship was engaged with the enemy.

**  Four Union generals ran unsuccessfully for president over the years.  We all knew, of curse, McClelland.  But also Hancock, Fremont and Butler.

--Old SeGuess

John Yates Beall, Confederate Guerrilla-- Part 1: Plan to Liberate Confederates Held on Johnson's Island

From  Find-A-Grave

JOHN YATES BEALL  (1835-1865)  Buried in Zion Episcopal Cemetery in Charles Town, West Virginia.

Even though I have written a lot about him in my Civil War Navy blog, I will write what Find-A-Grave had to say about him.

Civil War Confederate guerrilla.

After receiving a law degree from the University of Virginia, he existed as a farmer in Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia)  until the outbreak of the Civil War.  He enlisted in Company G, 2nd Virginia Infantry after the fall of Fort Sumter and was wounded at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run).

Upon recovery, he went west and later moved to Canada.  While in Canada, he developed a plan to liberate the Confederate prisoners (officers) held at Johnson's Island in Lake Erie.

He returned South and tried to obtain approval from Confederate authorities.  Commissioned  as an acting master in the Confederate Navy, he was never assigned a ship.

And He Was Just Beginning.  --Old Secesh

Fort Crawford (Va.)-- Part 2: Evacuated With McClellan's Approach and the Stolen Commission

From various sources.

Confederates under Gen. John B. Magruder fortified the James River shore to deter Union ships from proceeding upriver and attacking Richmond.

In 1861 they built Fort Crawford on Mulberry Island and it was abandoned a year later as Union Gen. McClellan and his 125,000 troops approached.

One of the families on the island were the Greens.  Their son Bennett Green had become a surgeon in the Confederate Navy.  Homes left abandoned by Southerners on the island were ransacked by Union troops.  One man found Bennett's commission and took it as a souvenir, but years later returned it to the Green family.

--Old Secesh

The Confederacy Under Attack-- Part 126: What Teddy Roosevelt Had to Say About Confederate Soldiers

I came across this while researching Irvine Bulloch in my Civil War Navy blog.  Irvine Bulloch served on the Confederate raiders Alabama and Shenandoah and was the brother of "Mittie" Bulloch, the mother of Theodore Roosevelt and paternal grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Irvine and "Mittie" were raised on a plantation in Roswell, Georgia and in 1905, Theodore Roosevelt visited the town and spoke.

"Men and women, don'y you think I have the ancestral right to claim a proud kinship with those who showed their devotion to duty as they saw the duty, whether they wore grey or whether they wore blue?

"All Americans who are worthy of the name feel an equal pride in the valor of those who fought on one side or the other, provided only that each did with all their strength and soul and mind his duty as it was given to him to see his duty."

Considering the current movement to completely dishonor all those who fought for and supported the Confederacy, these words from the past should be examined more closely.

--Old Secesh

Confederates Buried at Arlington National Cemetery: John C. Tennett

From the Arlington National Cemetery Site.

A large number of Confederates are buried at the cemetery, despite its establishment as a final resting place for Union soldiers.  Most of these Confederates died during the war, many in Washington D.C.'s Old Capitol Prison, but others were buried there going into the early 1900s.

I have listed in the last few months all the North Carolina ones (Use the label Arlington National Cemetery) except for two.  This one was in the Confederate Navy, so i will also make an entry on him in today's Running the Blockade blog.

JOHN C. TENNETT, N.C. First Assistant Engineer, CSN

Appointed from North Carolina.  Served aboard the CSS Fredericksburg in the James River Squadron in 1864.  Resigned in late 1864 and joined the Confederate Army as chap[lain.

Died July 11, 1913.

--Old Secesh

Another Talk I'd Like to Go To

This would be interesting, but alas, I'm too far away.

This talk will be for the Cape Fear Civil War Round Table in Wilmington, NC, on September 8th.

Donald M. Wilkinson, the great grandson of Captain John Wilkinson, CSN, one of the foremost blockade-runner captains of the Civil War will be giving a talk on his great grandfather.

He commanded the Robert E. lee, a blockade-runner that successfully ran the Wilmington blockade 21 times. A ship that more than paid for itself in profit.

he was also the only Confederate officer to command every type of vessel in that Navy.

He is currently writing a book on the life and times of his great-grandfather.

Surprisingly, there is no entry on Wikipedia for John Wilkinson.

This Would Have to Be Interesting. --Old B-Runner

Civil War Naval and Homefront Songs-- Part 2

You can go to the Smithsonian site and listen to the songs.

I am not sure how many of these songs would be Homefront ones and hope homefront only in that people besides sailors would sing them. Most folks are very familiar with the songs sung in the armies, but this opens a whole new venue of Civil War music.

Judging by the names of the songs, I would say there is quite the Irish influence. The only song on the list that I recognize is #10, "All for Me Grog" which I used to play a lot when I deejayed around St. Patrick's Day and is a grand drinking song.

Congratulations to the Smithsonian. --Old B-Runner

Civil War Naval and Homefront Songs-- Part 1

From the April 22 Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Folkways Records has released a new collection of music "Civil War Songs: From the Union and Confederate Navies, and the Home Front."

This collection includes 13 tunes sailors sang on ships, in port or belted out in taverns.

A 40 page booklet accompanies the 13 track, 38-minute-long CD.

SONGS:

1. Ten Thousand Miles Away
2. The Ballad of O Bruedair/Out on the Ocean
3. The Saucy Ward
4. Captain Coulston
5. Granuaile
6. Get Up Jack John, Sit Down/Miss Thornton's
7. The Flying Cloud
8. Larry Maher's Big Five-Gallon Jar
9. Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore)
10. All for Me Grog/Parnell's March
11. Castle Gardens (Sixty Years Ago)
12. The Lowlands Low
13. The River Lea

Hoisting Up 'Dem Landlubbers. --Old B-R'er

Confederate Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory-- Part 2

Mallory was born in 1812 in Trinidad and his family settled in Key West around 1823 (the reason the town has the famous Mallory Square where the Sunset Celebration takes place).

To take in more money after his father died, his mother opened her home for Key West's first, and for many years, only, boarding house. She sacrificed much to send Stephen to boarding schools in Mobile and Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where he studied until the money ran out and he then returned to Key West.

In 1833, he was appointed customs inspector for Key West by President Jackson. Later, he participated in the 1835-1837 Seminole War. In 1840, Mallory was admitted to the bar and had much success in his maritime law practice, an excellent choice for a Key West.

From 1837 to 1845, he was also a Monroe County judge.

There is a definitive book about him, "Confederate Navy Chief: Stephan R. Mallory" by Rev. Joseph T. Durkin, SJ, printed first in 1952.

Quite the Life. --Old B-Runner

Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Russell Mallory-- Part 1

From the March 8, 2011, Ft. Lauderdale (Fl) Examiner, by Timothy Lunney.

In March 1861, newly appointed Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory was tasked with the job of creating a functioning navy out of next to nothing. Not only did he have to build one, but it was to be immediately pitted against a pre-existing and much more powerful US Navy.

As if that was not bad enough, nearly all ships, shipyards, ship chandlers (provide supplies for ships), steel mills, foundries and armories were in the north.

However, the ambitious, small-in-stature, Irish-American from Key West proved to be remarkably up to the task.

Before the war he had served as Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Naval Affairs and was the US Senator from Florida from 1851 to his resignation January 21, 1861, when the state seceded.

His wife, Angela Sylvania Moreno, was from Pensacola, Florida. She and her husband spent most of the war apart while she stayed with her children in Pensacola with her extended family.

More to Come. --Old B-R'er

Civil War Navy Word Scramble

The Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial site at http://civilwarnavy150.blogspot.com site is the place to be for Navy Nuts like me.

They currently have a contest going on where they ask three questions each segment and leave it up to readers to answer. I managed to tie for first (8 of 10 points) in the first round, but forgot to send in my answers for the second quiz.

One part was a word scramble. I managed to get the first one on my own, but had my wife get the other four. She likes word scrambles. I don't. She could unscramble. Once she did get some of the word, she would tell me what she had and I was able to complete the word with my naval knowledge.

Give it a try yourself: (Answers below) All words have to do with the Civil War Navy.

A. table choked ___ ___________.


B. a canon and alp ________ ______


C. an ivy noun ______ ______


D. a fools prow _________ _______ _______


E. a blender uncork __________ ________










A. The Blockade


B. Anaconda Plan


C. Union Navy


D. Sloop of War


E. Blockade Runner

Thanks, Liz. --Old B-R'er

The Civil War at Sea-- Part 2

The North quickly began construction of its own ironclad, the USS Monitor, probably one of the most technologically innovative vessels ever built. And, it was built in just 101days and arrived at Hampton Roads just in time to save the wooden Union ships from destruction by the CSS Virginia.

The day before, March 8, 1862, the Virginia had attacked five Union ships and put there out of action. On the 9th, it returned to finish the job, but was met by the Monitor in what became the first-ever battle of ironclad ships. Neither ship won, but the Virginia withdrew and never attacked again.


BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

The April 1862 capture of the largest city in the Confederacy, New Orleans, hurt the Confederacy by denying full access to the Mississippi River. New Orleans is located 100 miles from the river's mouth and was guarded b two forts.

Union ships under the command of David Farragut passed the forts, engaged and destroyed the Confederate fleet and captured the Crescent City.


MOBILE BAY

In August 1864, now Admiral Farragut again sailed past two protecting forts and closed the port of Mobile to Confederate use, although it wasn't captured until near the end of the war.


SUBMARINES

The Union had the Alligator, designed by French inventor Brutus De Villeroi. It was built in 1862 and had two failed missions before being lost at sea off Cape Hatteras while being towed.

The Confederacy had small steam-powered submarines called Davids. In 1863, one disabled a Union ship. In 1864, the Hunley, a human-powered submarine sank a US ship off Charleston, SC.

Don't Forget the Navy. --Old B-R'er

Civil War at Sea-- Part 1

From the April 18th Springfield (Mo.) News Leader "Civil War not confined to land" by Cliff Sain. Part of the News in Education series.

The Civil War is best-known for its land battles. As a matter of fact, most people know little if anything about the sea aspect other than perhaps the blockade or the Monitor versus the Merrimack.

But, there was quite a bit of history at sea.

The Naval portion of the war started a week after Fort Sumter was fired upon, when, on April 19, 1861, President Lincoln declared a blockade of the entire Confederacy, even though his Navy was in no way up to the task. To blockade 3,500 miles of coastline, the US had just 90, mostly outdated ships. Most of those were overseas or awaiting repairs. Actually, there were just three ships able to take up positions off Southern ports.

The Confederacy relied on blockade-runners to bring in much needed supplies. It's Navy started from absolutely nothing with few shipbuilding facilities. However, it did have the services of an innovative and tireless Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory.


IRONCLADS

One of Mallory's innovations was the use of ironclads to break the blockade. Knowing that the South could not keep up with the North in warships, Mallory ordered one of the newest Naval technologies, the ironclad ship, to be used. The South had recovered the burned hulk of one of the North's most powerful warships, the USS Merrimack, when they captured Gosport Naval Yard in Virginia.

The Confederacy quickly set about rebuilding the ship as the CSS Virginia.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner

CSS Peedee Found-- Part 6

In 1954 most of what remained was destroyed after a group of local businessmen spotted the wreckage, brought in a bulldozer to make a road to the riverside and attempted to drag it ashore to display it as a roadside attraction to be called Confederateland.

The attempt broke the wreck into pieces, but the men grabbed what they could. A thirty foot section of the stern, the boiler, two engines and the propeller shafts were put on display and a 25 cent ticket was charged to see it.

No efforts at preservation were made and the ship disintegrated rapidly.

The boiler ended up on display at the I-95 attraction South of the Border, but eventually disappeared (probably sold for scrap).

But, a 12-year-old boy, Michael Hartley, saw the Peedee being recovered from the river in 1954 and became an archaeologist himself. He drew a sketch of the place in the river where the ship was and that was used to locate the remains.

Archaeologists are still looking for the location of the Mars Bluff Naval Yard which had at least 12 structures, a forge, slipways and a dry dock. An expedition in the summer of 2009 by East Carolina University students failed to locate it, but more efforts will be made.

The Story of a Lost Ship and Navy Yard. --Old B-R'er

Admiral David Dixon Porter Wins!

The last several months, the Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial Blog has been running a Who Was the Greatest Naval Officer During the Civil War contest with weekly voting.

Both Union and Confederate officers were included and this was done in a playoff style.

In order to win, Porter had to defeat the following officers in direct competition:

John Worden
David G. Farragut (a big surprise here)
William Goldsborough
John Dahlgren
William Cushing (in the Union championship_

And finally Confederate Raphael Semmes for the championship.

Hey, he was at Fort Fisher which always gets my vote, but I have to admit I vote for his last two opponents.

Congratulations David D.!! --Old B-Runner

CSS Peedee Found-- Part 4

From the Dec. 28, 2010, Columbia (SC) Free Times "Gunboat Discovery Came After Years of Sightings, Botched Efforts" by Craig Brandhorst.

The recent discovery of the Peedee (or is it the Pee Dee) has caused lots of press coverage (but none here in Chicago).

The Peedee's wreck was discovered near the South Carolina town of Marion back in November. The ship was one of 22 similar Confederate gunboats constructed at inland naval yards across the south. They were built there for safety reasons from Union attack.

Two of the ship's three cannons were discovered 18 months earlier. They will be raised next summer and after conservation, will be housed in the Florence County Museum. A third cannon is also being sought.


THE CSS PEEDEE'S NAVAL CAREER

It can be described as humble at best. The 150-foot-long ship never went to open sea as Georgetown, at the mouth of the Peedee River, was already in Union hands. Launched in January 1865, it only fired its guns at the enemy in one minor skirmish.

Continuing. --Old B-R'er

CSS Peedee Found-- Part 2

Michael Hartley, a North Carolina archaeologist was only 12 when he remembered seeing and attempted recovery of the Peedee back in 1954. The water was especially low that year and the wreck was clearly visible. he made a map of it which was used for the relocation. Chris Amer said he was able to go right to the wreck's location.

He took magnetic readings which proved positive for Hartley's location.

In November, Amer used sonar to search for it an found evidence of the wreck: ripples on the sand where sediment had built up over the debris, magnetic "hits" in straight lines depicting the iron bolts along bedding timber.

It's in pieces and buried and no one is sure exactly how deep.

The Confederates set fire to the 170-foot boat and it blew up so it wouldn't fall into Union hands as Sherman's army approached.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner