confederate soldiers confederate navy civil war uniforms

This ruptured the ship's steam lines, which caused the engine room to immediately fill with steam. Before it could round a curve in the river to get past the fort, Richmond was hit by a 6-inch shell that shattered the starboard safety-valve chamber and damaged the port safety-valve chamber. Between the enemy fire and the river's strong current, it struggled to continue its journey upstream. The Richmond was the second ship in line in the flotilla. The ships ended up facing the full force of Confederate artillery shelling. Farragut was expecting a coordinated attack by the Union Army to divert enemy fire that would damage the ships, but that inland support arrived too late. On March 14, 1863, Farragut ordered seven ships, including USS Richmond, to make their move. So, they started making plans to complete their mission sooner rather than later.įarragut was tasked with getting his flotilla past Port Hudson. He and other military leaders learned that the Confederates were making improvements to their defenses at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, about 15 miles upriver from Baton Rouge. David Farragut - who would later be given credit for uttering the famous naval phrase 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!' - was in charge of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The only portion of the Mississippi that remained in Confederate hands was a roughly 150-mile-long stretch of territory between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Richmond spent the first part of the war in the Caribbean before joining the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, which aimed to divide the Confederacy at the Mississippi River by cutting off its main southern supply and communication route.īy the spring of 1862, New Orleans - the Confederacy's busiest commercial port - and nearby Baton Rouge had been captured by the Union. Hickman was from Altoona, Pennsylvania McClelland was born in Ireland before his family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York Rush grew up in Washington, D.C., while Vantine was from Philadelphia.īy the time the Civil War broke out, all four men were sailors in the Union Navy stationed aboard the wooden steamship USS Richmond. Not a lot of information can be found online detailing the early lives of these men other than where they grew up.

Confederate soldiers confederate navy civil war uniforms