Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War.

Chapter 22: operations in the Potomac.--destruction of Confederate batteries.--losses by shipwreck, in battle, etc.

• The Potomac flotilla.
-- naval operations in the Potomac. -- destruction of Confederate batteries. -- Confederate rams. -- condition of the Navy, and list of vessels in December, 1862. -- losses by shipwreck, in battle, etc., etc.

Although no important event occurred on this water highway to Washington, early in the war the Confederates left nothing undone to stop the passage of transports, and even men-of-war, but they were not very successful. Cockpit Point was one of the places made quite strong by the enemy, and for a time it was considered quite a dangerous place to pass.

No persistent attack was made upon it until March, 1862, and as our Army was advancing into Virginia at the same time, the Confederates were now compelled to abandon this troublesome battery and blow up the magazine.

Before retreating, they destroyed all the guns and carriages, munitions of war, stores and provisions, having no means of transportation by which they could be taken away. The guns were of heavy calibre, having been mostly obtained from the Norfolk Navy Yard, where they had been abandoned by our forces early in the war. But for that affair, we would not have encountered so many forts in the South and West, and would have escaped the disgrace of having the public river way to Washington obstructed for so long a time.

An expedition under Lieutenant Wyman penetrated the Rappahannock as far as Fredericksburg after this place had surrendered to the Army, and captured twenty small vessels and a quantity of stores.

Some of his command also penetrated the Severn, Pianketank and North Rivers, and captured some small vessels that had, no doubt, been used in transporting goods and information from the Maryland shore.

The Union vessels were frequently attacked by field-pieces and riflemen, but they always managed to give a good account of themselves, while they demoralized the enemy by their persistent pursuit of him — but these adventures were not very exciting.

The Potomac may be said to have been opened with the fall of the forts at Cockpit Point, for though the flotilla was maintained, and there were skirmishes with the enemy from time to time, there was nothing to hinder the passage of vessels up and down the river.

About the end of the year 1861, the United States Government began to realize the necessity of building vessels that would be able to contend with the heavy iron-clads which had been constructed by the Confederates.

By May, 1862, the latter had finished the powerful Merrimac, together with the Louisiana and Arkansas, both equally powerful with the Merrimac, and had nearly completed the Mississippi at New Orleans, the Albemarle, the Atlanta, the Tennessee, at Mobile, and several other iron-clads on the tributaries of the Mississippi.

Up to this time the United States Government had only Ericsson's little Monitor to show, but the success of that famous vessel stirred the Navy Department up to building iron-clads able to cope with anything in the way of ships or forts that the Confederates could devise. Previous to the memorable encounter between the Monitor and the Merrimac the Department had exhibited neither zeal nor intelligence in dealing with this important problem.

The following is a list of vessels of our Navy, published by the Navy Department in December, 1862; an enumeration which is calculated to mislead, for if any one [266] supposes that the vessels therein described as “iron-clads” bore any comparison to those built by the Confederates, he is mistaken. The Northern States, with all their resources, all their vessels which could have been cut down and made impervious to shot and shells, had not an ironclad stronger than those hastily built on the Mississippi River. Naval commanders had to take whatever would carry a gun,no matter how frail or vulnerable, and attempt impossible things with, at times, deplorable consequences to themselves, their officers and crews, from bursting steam pipes and boilers, which added new horrors to the ordinary havoc of war.

The work performed by Foote and Davis and their officers and men on the Western rivers, with the so-called “iron-clads,” was herculean from the time the first gun-boats got afloat in January, until July 1862. They had captured, or assisted to capture, seven heavy forts armed with one hundred and ninety-eight guns, and manned or supported by over fifty thousand men, besides destroying thirteen or more of the enemy's vessels armed with forty guns and a floating battery of sixteen guns; and all this without the enemy's capturing a single vessel.

In the Navy Department list, the Western “iron-clads” ale put down as twenty-six armored vessels, a formidable force on paper, but in this number are included at least fifteen “tin-clads” --small stern wheel merchant steamers, covered with quarter-inch iron to turn musket balls, but easily penetrated by a twelve pound shot or shell.

The list may be interesting as showing the “historical account” of our naval forces in December, 1862, but it conveys no idea of the frail barks in which the officers and men of the Navy had to fight the heaviest kind of earthworks, often perched at a great height above the water where their plunging fire could perforate the vessels' decks and boilers, or even pass down through their bottoms.

Naval force at date of the last annual report.

Present naval force.

Losses by shipwreck and in battle.

Vessels added since fourth of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one. (exclusive of those lost.)

Added by construction.

Iron-clad navy.

Navy on Western waters.

[267]

When the vessels now under construction are completed, the Navy will consist of

Sailing vessels.

Steam vessels.

Recapitulation.