A Crisis of Loyalties
The Destruction and Abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard
In the opening days of the American Civil War, the U.S. Navy suffered the catastrophic loss of its most valuable navy yard at Gosport, Virginia, commonly known as the Norfolk Navy Yard. Its fate was sealed by Virginia’s vote for secession and the subsequent resignation of most of the yard’s Southern officers, leaving its commandant, Charles Stewart McCauley, virtually defenseless. Early in the morning of Sunday, 21 April, fleeing federal forces set fire to and abandoned the Gosport Navy Yard, burning ten warships and surrendering 1,200 naval guns to Virginia’s militia. A year later the Confederate ironclad Virginia, built on the charred hulk of the steam frigate Merrimack, chose the sloop Cumberland—the one ship to escape Gosport—as her first target during the Battle of Hampton Roads. Virginia then attacked the frigate Congress, leaving in her wake nearly 280 dead or wounded Union sailors and two sunken ships. The birds from the disaster of Gosport had finally came home to roost.
In his quest to uncover details of the events leading up to Gosport’s destruction, the author methodically cross-tracked chronologies, carefully examined primary sources and dug deeper into the principal officers’ backgrounds to grasp just what was in their minds during the hours leading up to the navy yard’s burning. This fresh focus has yielded a more nuanced explanation of McCauley’s decision to hold back Merrimack, of Paulding’s rush to burn the yard and run, and of opportunities for success missed by all three commodores present. The role of Virginia’s former governor Henry Wise in the yard’s downfall has also been explored. A Crisis of Loyalties is the first full length work of history to present the entire story of the destruction and abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard, starting with Abraham Lincoln’s election through to the Senate committee hearings investigating the yard’s loss.
John Lenthall
The Life of a Naval Constructor
Many stirring words have been written about the heroic deeds of the officers and men of the U.S. Navy before, during and after the Civil War. But very little has been published about the naval constructors who built the warships that made their exploits possible. Of all of the Navy’s constructors of this era, none had more impact than John Lenthall (1807-1882). John Lenthall, The Life of a Naval Constructor will find a ready audience among those interested in maritime history, naval technology and the Civil War, and offers historical insights, gripping narratives and illustrations that have never appeared before in print.
John Lenthall’s stellar rise through the ranks of U.S. naval constructors soon led to his appointment as the chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs. Now the U.S. government’s highest ranking naval architect, John Lenthall was in charge of designing and constructing the nation’s warships. The magnificent Merrimack class steam frigates were one of his first achievements. His stance early in the Civil War on ironclads and coolness toward John Ericsson have been consistently misunderstood—Lenthall accepted the Navy’s need for armored warships but objected to a fleet of only brown water-capable monitors. By the time he was forced to retire, he had served for over seventeen years and was responsible for the building of nearly all the Navy’s ships during an era of unprecedented technological evolution. It is a record that has never been equaled.
John Lenthall is thoroughly documented with previously untapped primary archival source material from Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum and Franklin Institute, and the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. John Lenthall is written by a historian and a naval architect who can clearly explain the nuances of ship design. The author’s treatment of Lenthall and the legacy of his fellow constructors brings to life a previously untold chronicle of American ingenuity and achievement.
Merrimack
The Biography of a Steam Frigate
Merrimack is the biography of a warship, the U.S. Steam Frigate Merrimack. Her name has long been linked to the first duel of ironclads, an epic Civil War battle fought at Hampton Roads between the Monitor and Merrimack. But over time the myth of the Merrimack—actually the C.S.S. Virginia—displaced the memory of a magnificent antebellum U.S. Navy warship. The steam frigate Merrimack lost her identity. Nearly forgotten is the story of the original Merrimack, the namesake of a class of six powerful war steamers. When built she was the largest vessel in the U.S. Navy, the nation’s first screw-propelled frigate and the first major warship to be armed entirely with shell-firing guns. Her first commission took her on a tour of the principal naval stations of Europe. During her second commission, she served as flagship of the Navy’s Pacific Squadron, cruising the shores of Chile, Peru, Panama, Hawaii, Mexico and Nicaragua.
Through copious use of Merrimack’s deck logs, official correspondence, contemporary newspapers and journals, and original construction plans, the author’s research illuminates the mechanical issues and human interactions that indelibly shaped Merrimack’s brief career. The author provides an unparalleled glimpse into the day-to-day events that defined the life of an active antebellum warship.
But Merrimack offers more than just a summary of the ship’s operational life. The author, a professional naval architect and marine engineer, dissects the origins of her design and compares the Merrimack class steam frigates to contemporary U.S. and British warships. He also examines the controversy surrounding her troubled engines, documenting their performance using archived drawings and steam log data. In summary, Merrimack embraces the many threads of a bygone era—history, biography, geography and technology—and has woven them together in telling of the story of the U.S. Steam Frigate Merrimack.
Captain Bulloch
The Life of James Dunwoody Bulloch, Naval Agent of the Confederacy
James Dunwoody Bulloch’s central place in history has always rested on his Civil War era achievements as a secret agent of the Confederate States Navy in Europe. He gained fame for having brought into being the Confederate States cruisers Florida, Alabama and Shenandoah. Less well known are his illustrious Georgia ancestors, who were so firmly entwined with the earliest American colonial experience, and his prominent family connections—he was the uncle of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. It has even been suggested that Bulloch is the forgotten hero of the South, who died in obscurity far from his native land. Captain Bulloch presents the full story of the life and times of this most remarkable man.
Bulloch’s antebellum career was that of a very accomplished marine professional, first as an officer in the U.S. Navy and then as a captain of mail steamers. Bulloch’s early life at sea paralleled the golden age of the American merchant marine; his exploits provide a valuable snapshot of its period of greatness. This coincidence is supremely ironic as his unique talents in the service of the Confederacy contributed to its untimely demise. As for the man that was James Bulloch, his life was one of many caught up in a gripping family saga that started with his father’s scandalous second marriage and progressed to his step-sister’s alliance with the Roosevelts of New York. Bulloch’s extended family was soon separated by the worst crisis America has endured—the Civil War—but it survived its unwanted trial stronger than ever. At the war’s end, Bulloch was an exile, unable to return to his homeland. His subsequent years in Liverpool illustrate a tale of redemption and survival as he struggled to rebuild his life in a society far removed from his Georgian roots, Victorian England. With a clearer picture of his life from beginning to end, we can now recognize Bulloch not only as an unsung hero of the Civil War but also as a shining example of the American experience.
In preparation for writing Captain Bulloch, Stephen Chapin Kinnaman followed in the footsteps of James Dunwoody Bulloch, gaining a first-hand feel for the terrain and history which shaped his life. Places so visited include Savannah and Roswell, Georgia; Hartford, Connecticut; New York City, Washington, D.C.; Liverpool, England; Cherbourg, France and the island of Terceira in the Azores. The result is an exposition of not only the life of the South’s most successful naval agent, but of the times in which he lived and the events which influenced him.