U.S. Presidents with Confederate Ties-- Part 3: Zachary Taylor's Children

Some of the Civil War split between North and South involved the children of U.S. presidents.

One of President Zachary Taylor's sons, Richard, rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and was a top figure in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the war.  He surrendered his army on May 4, 1865, four weeks after Robert E. Lee.

Another of Taylor's children, Sarah, married future Confederate president Jefferson Davis in 1835 at the age of 21.  At the time, Davis was serving in the U.S. Army under Taylor and Taylor  forbade the relationship, saying, "I will be damned if another daughter of mine will marry into the Army."

Sarah came down with malaria later in 1835 and died.  Taylor, who did in office in 1850, reportedly never forgave Davis for her loss.

In addition, one of Taylor's grandsons, John Taylor Wood,  served on the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in its famed battle with the USS Monitor in Hampton Roads in March, 1862.  He was the son of Taylor's eldest daughter Ann.  He also commanded the CSS Tallahassee in a very successful commerce raid along the U.S. coast.  That ship left out of Wilmington, North Carolina.

He also had a brother who served in the Confederate Army named Robert Crooke Wood, Jr.

--Old Secesh

Fort Wool Today-- Part 8

The fort was decommissioned in 1953 as a military installation.  Of course, since it was named for U.S. general John Ellis Wool, its name would not have to be changed now since the passage of the 2020 Defense Bill.

It was turned over to Virginia.  In the 1950s, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) was constructed right next to the fort, with its southern island connected to the fort  by an earthen causeway.  The HRBT opened for traffic in 1957.  In 1967 and again in 1970, the City of Hampton developed the fort into a park which could be accessed by the passenger ferry Miss Hampton II.

The fort can also be seen by  westbound vehicles on approach to the HRBT  southern tunnel, which carries Interstate I-64 across the mouth of Hampton Roads.

The island the fort sits on is now called  Rip Raps and it continues to settle.  Occasionally the casemates of the original fort are put off limits for safety reasons.

On 28 April 2007, a garrison flag was raised over the fort for the first time to salute a Parade of Tall Ships passing by it as part of the 400th anniversary of the settlement of nearby Jamestown.

What caused me to become more aware of the fort and write about it in my Not So Forgotten: War of 1812 blog (it was built as a result of the British occupying the Chesapeake Bay during that war and, of course the attacks on Washington, D.C., and Baltimore), was that the fort has now been turned into a bird sanctuary and is off limits to people.

There Needs To be Some Sort of Compromise Between Nature and People Here.  --Old Secesh

Mark St. John Erickson

I used his article on the Battle of Smithfield as a jumping off point for the Smith Briggs entries and have often come across articles by him in connection with the area around Newport News in Virginia, not just the Civil War, but he's written a whole lot about the War of 1812 in the area. This man knows his history. The Jan. 21, 2014, article in the Daily Press had a short biography on him which I'll write here.

Mr. Erickson covers Hampton Roads history and museums for the Daily Press, has won 17 awards from the Virginia Preservation Association. He was born in Portsmouth and lived in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Yorktown and Williamsburg while growing up. He is the son of a Navy engineer and graduated York High School and the College of William and Mary.

He currently resides in Hampton's Victoria Boulevard Historic District.

Now, If I Was Still Working, I'd Sure Love His Job. --Old Secesh

150 Years Ago: Battle of Smithfield, Virginia-- Part 1

I mentioned this on my February 1st post in my Civil War Navy Blog, Running the Blockade.

This battle took place February 1, 1864. I'd never heard of the Battle of Smithfield before (nor did I even know there was a town by that name in Virginia).

I found this article in the Jan. 31, 2014, Hampton Roads (Va.) Daily Press "Hampton Roads History: Cannon fire thunders down Main Street 150 years ago in fiery Battle of Smithfield" by Mark St. John Erickson.

During the Civil War, the Union ships blockading the Hampton Roads area were often fired on from shore while they patrolled. This battle was a result of those actions.

In late January 1864, the near-grounding of a Union vessel from these shots from the James River bank caused four gunboats, two armed Navy launches and detachments of infantry, cavalry and artillery to land at Smithfield and Chuckaluck on January 31st for a two-pronged sweep along the banks to help eliminate this Confederate practice.

More to Come. --Old Secesh