- Joined
- Mar 31, 2012
- Location
- Central Ohio
When the idea was raised of constructing a dam at Alexandria, Louisiana, to allow his gunboats to escape downriver, David Dixon Porter is alleged to have responded that, if 'damming' the river would have helped, he'd have been downstream a long time before...
Before Fort Henry, a heavy flood tore loose a number of Confederate torpedoes (mines) that had been placed in the Tennessee River to help defend the fort. One of these was snagged and brought aboard the Union flagboat for inspection; among the onlookers were Grant and gunboat commander Foote. When opened, a loud hissing emerged from the device, and the men scattered. Foote beat Grant up the ladder (or, in some versions, the other way around) to the upper deck, when it became apparent that the noise did not mean the mine was about to explode. Smiling, Foote asked, "General, why all this haste?" to which Grant replied, "That the Navy not get ahead of the Army."
When Farragut's fleet met Charles H. Davis's gunboat flotilla above Vicksburg in 1862, the two flag officers boarded the ironclad Benton to inspect and shell the city's upper batteries. Hearing the shots slam into the armor and witnessing a casualty nearby, Farragut exploded, "I feel like I'm shut up in an iron pot and can't stand it. I'm going up on deck." (Davis ordered the Benton to withdraw upriver.)
And one of my favorites... Petty Officer James F. Taylor of the North Carolina blockade runner Advance, seeing some other men nervous about being under fire as they went past the blockaders, helpfully informed them that, "A bullet, gentlemen, has a path called a 'line of trajectory.' All you have to do to insure safety is to stand to the left or right of this line."
Before Fort Henry, a heavy flood tore loose a number of Confederate torpedoes (mines) that had been placed in the Tennessee River to help defend the fort. One of these was snagged and brought aboard the Union flagboat for inspection; among the onlookers were Grant and gunboat commander Foote. When opened, a loud hissing emerged from the device, and the men scattered. Foote beat Grant up the ladder (or, in some versions, the other way around) to the upper deck, when it became apparent that the noise did not mean the mine was about to explode. Smiling, Foote asked, "General, why all this haste?" to which Grant replied, "That the Navy not get ahead of the Army."
When Farragut's fleet met Charles H. Davis's gunboat flotilla above Vicksburg in 1862, the two flag officers boarded the ironclad Benton to inspect and shell the city's upper batteries. Hearing the shots slam into the armor and witnessing a casualty nearby, Farragut exploded, "I feel like I'm shut up in an iron pot and can't stand it. I'm going up on deck." (Davis ordered the Benton to withdraw upriver.)
And one of my favorites... Petty Officer James F. Taylor of the North Carolina blockade runner Advance, seeing some other men nervous about being under fire as they went past the blockaders, helpfully informed them that, "A bullet, gentlemen, has a path called a 'line of trajectory.' All you have to do to insure safety is to stand to the left or right of this line."
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