Hello readers and welcome back to the good ol’ blog! Today’s tidbit about me is: whenever I’m riding in the passenger’s seat of a car, I feel compelled to quickly count all of the light sockets of traffic lights, as well as all of the electric transformers located on power poles and on the ground. [...]
Hello again readers, and welcome back to the good ol’ blog! Today’s tidbit about me is: I loved riding a bike, I love driving my car, but I have absolutely no desire to ever combine the two by driving or owning a motorcycle. So 150 years ago today, the Union army marched up the [...]
Today, Brian posted an excellent and timely blog concerning General McClellan and what became known as the siege of Yorktown (1862). Demonstrating McClellan’s wary nature, Brian presented you with an overview of the Confederate force he faced in 1862; a force, needless to say, that could have been quashed far earlier if McClellan had chosen [...]
Hey everybody, welcome back to the good ol’ blog! Today’s tidbit about me is: I’ve never been west of the Texas panhandle, but I long to explore the great expanses of mountain and sand that are the American West. So in our last blog posting, I discussed the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff. Now, Drewry’s [...]
While they could not see the action up the York River – the men of the Monitor could certainly hear it. General McClellan had been preparing to lay siege to Yorktown - a plan he intended to carry out on May 5. McClellan believed that was the best way to combat the 120,000 Confederate troops he [...]
On this day, the Monitor was joined in Hampton Roads by another ironclad – the USS Galena. You might say they were cousins, since the Galena was championed by Cornelius Bushnell and built with iron supplied by John Winslow and John Griswold. In fact, many of the documents relating to the Monitor‘s construction contain material relating [...]
It only warrants a brief remark – but a significant event occurred during the first dog watch on this day, 150 years ago. E.V. Gager wrote “succeeded in getting both guns out at once.” Until this day, only one XI-inch Dahlgren could be run out at a time. The cylindrical nature of the turret kept the [...]
Remarks Sunday April 5th/62 From Midnight to 4 AM. Continues same swung to ebb 3 AM E.V. Gager From 4 to 8 AM fine breeze from S & heavy at5.30 AM Rebel steamer fired a shot at a Union transport off Newport News Tug disabled not working Louis Stodder From [...]
She was not meant for war. Yet war found the passenger steamer Yorktown in April of 1861 while she was anchored in the James River. The Virginia State Navy seized the vessel, which eventually became part of the Confederate States Navy in June, 1861. Our good friend John Quarstein wrote the following for us [...]
