Civil War Photo Friday: Crewmen from the USS Hunchback

These two jaunty fellows are from the crew of the USS Hunchback. Before the war this ship was a ferry in New York City. It was purchased by the U.S. government for military service and spent most of the war in the rivers and along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, seeing action numerous times and chalking up a good record of captured enemy vessels.

Like many gunboats converted from civilian use, the Hunchback had most of its guns on deck. They were simply regular artillery guns put on a ship.

The ship took some hits during the war but survived to see the end, at which point it went back to being a ferry in New York City until the early 1880s.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Civil War Photo Friday: Union mortar boat

This ugly little vessel is a mortar boat. Used primarily by the Union navy, they were armored rafts carrying a heavy mortar. As the siege of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg got underway 150 years ago this week, many of these vessels were towed up the Mississippi River and used to bombard the fortified city.

Mortars are handy in that they provide indirect fire. Instead of shooting directly at a target like regular artillery, they launch their projectiles at an arc, so they can hit targets behind hills and other obstructions.

In my sequel to A Fine Likeness, one of these mortar boats makes an appearance. Captain Allen Addison of the Union navy, and son of the protagonist in the first book, is at the siege of Vicksburg in his gunboat the USS Essex watching a group of mortar boats do their thing, when an incoming rebel shell gives him a nasty surprise. . .

. . .but you'll have to read about that later. I still have about 15,000 words to go before the book is done.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The USS Keokuk: An Ill-Fated Civil War Ironclad

The Civil War saw the first use of ironclad ships. Since the technology was in its early days, engineers experimented with different designs. One failed design was the USS Keokuk.

Launched in December 1862 from New York City, this 677-ton ship was almost 160 ft. long. She had two stationary, cylindrical gun towers, each pierced with three gun ports. Each turret only had one gun, however, that rotated within the turret. Her armor was also unusual, being made up of horizontal iron bars alternating with planks of oak wood and sheathed with a boiler iron sheet. The total thickness of this composite armor was only 5.75 in.

The USS Keokuk saw her first and last battle 150 years ago this week, when on April 7 she was part of a fleet attacking Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. This was the famous fort that the rebels took at the start of the war. Recapturing it would be a major propaganda victory for the North as well as allowing them to dominate the harbor.

The Confederates weren't about to let that happen. They opened up a brutal fusillade against the ships. The Keokuk was struck by about ninety projectiles, many of which hit at or below her waterline. Her experimental armor proved completely inadequate. One observer said she was "completely riddled". Though the Keokuk was able to withdraw, she sank on the next morning.

You can read a more detailed account of the battle at the Civil War Daily Gazette.

Photos courtesy U.S. Naval Center. Click on the link for more!

Civil War Photo Friday: Coaling Admiral Farragut's fleet at Baton Rouge

While Civil War books tend to focus on the battles and leaders, the day-to-day work of running an army and navy made up the bulk of the wartime experience of the men in the armed forces. This shot, courtesy the Library of Congress, shows the Union fleet taking on coal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1862. Steamships required huge amounts of coal and hundreds, perhaps thousands of men spent their entire war mining, transporting, and loading that coal. Not very glorious but vital to the war effort!