Knowledge of the Naval War

Do you consider yourself relatively familiar with...


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For an official "in house" government document, I actually enjoyed reading this report. It's a shame that so damage to the USS Cairo occurred during the twelve years she sat waiting to be preserved in 1960s & 70s.

Dear 7th Mississippi Infantry, Greetings,

I agree. It is a shame. We were, at the time, deeply involved with Vietnam!

Regrettably, but related to this very subject, I wish to inform you and Civilwartalk's members of a conflict between Maple Leaf National Historic Landmark shipwreck site and a dedicated cable crossing that portends major adverse impact to this nationally important shipwreck site.

Two weeks ago I learned that a fiber optic cable had been “trenched” over the site by Southern Bell and TW Telecom (now Level-3 Communications) with probably impact. Another fiber optic cable is planned to be place by Tower Cloud by directionally drilling a six inch steel casing which will contain multiple fiber optic cables. I surmise this new cable is being placed under the auspices of the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) as per the City of Jacksonville’s “Telecommunications Master Plan”. Tower Cloud, however, is planning to accomplish this, to their credit and great expense, by directionally drilling sixty to eighty feet below the rivers bottom.

The Facts: On October 12, 1994 the Civil War Army Transport Maple Leaf, Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida was designated a National Historic Landmark by the 47th United States Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt. In July of 1998, a dedicated telecommunication cable crossing appeared in a revised Navigational Chart No. 11492, running from Orange Park, Florida (West) to Mandarin Point, Duval County (East). Within this crossing's center (N-S) is the entire 15.65 acres leased by SJAEI in 1988 for twenty years from the State of Florida's Board of Trustees Internal Improvement Trust Fund, Sovereignty Submerged Lands Use Agreement No. U-0176, and associated with Maple Leaf and General Hunter.

NHL Maple Leaf is centered within this 15.65 acre area. The ship’s hull is one hundred and eighty feet long pointing easterly, ninety degrees athwart the stream, and fully loaded with eight hundred thousand pounds of earning tonnage. The cargo consists of the personal effects of more than three thousand army infantrymen of the 112th NYV, 169th NYV, 1st. NY Engineers, 13th Indiana Vol., three sutler stores, and more. Edwin Bearss states that "The wreck of Maple Leaf is unsurpassed as a source for Civil War material culture. The site contains one of the largest ships during the war, carrying all the worldly goods of more than a thousand soldiers (sic 3,500), with a river bottom environment that perfectly preserved the ship and cargo. It is the most important repository of Civil War artifacts ever found and probably will remain so."

SJAEI, and many others are attempting to ferret out if Southern Bell's and TW Telecom's "trenched" fiber optic cable placements impacted this National Historic Shipwreck Site without State and Federal reviews mandated by federal law in section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. According to official records the easement awarded them conflict, dead center, with National Historic Landmark Maple Leaf.

Our company led the effort to have ML recognized as a NHL. We abdicated our Federal Court Orders right to own eighty per cent of all material culture we recovered, because we realized what a unique and rare historic site ML was ~ in this regard she will never be surpassed. I personally spent enough money to "buy Miami" ~ and gave it, cheerfully, to State and Federal preservation agencies for the benefit of all the citizens of the United States who care about our ACW heritage. further, I assumed that Landmark status would bind her by a strong protective chain pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation act of 1966. Apparently, the links of chain are made of sand.

All that is needed for the people dedicated to the pursuit of exploding the growth of telecommunication infrastructure to become powerful enough to dictate fiber optic transmission lines through, within, around, and under the forth designated NHL Shipwreck site is for those of us who care to do nothing.

What say you?


Keith
 
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I say thank you for leading the effort to preserve the Maple Leaf. I’ve provided a link to your updates within the primary Maple Leaf thread. Keep up the great work and keep us updated about this latest situation with the telecommunication company.
Prinary Maple Leaf thread? I didn't know there was one. I'll search it. This is absolutely unbelievable. Some State or Federal agency has by carelessness, overt, or willful action allowed this to happen.

It will be in the news very soon. We are trying to start at State Level first. But letters to the Federal agencies responsible "permit and compliance" are being drafted now. I will. Post them after they go out. And responses. I'll "telecommunications" the ........well, you know.
 
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As we know, artists were the "CNN camera crews" of the era.

Manet and the American Civil War: The Battle of U.S.S. Kearsarge and C.S.S. Alabama: Exhibition Catalog
http://www.metmuseum.org/research/m...r_The_Battle_of_USS_Kearsarge_and_CSS_Alabama
and
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1422393178/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

The original hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/101707.html
See also
https://www.philamuseum.org/doc_downloads/education/ex_resources/manetSea.pdf
 
Hi Mark,
Was re reviewing the "ironclad +blockade runners" page the other day any finally connected the dots, it was the names given to the unaimed nc ironclad building ( great site by the way, have been visiting for years).
It made me think about several things. First is how much more I know about, not only the ships them selves (what was my original main interest) but a lot of back ground info that readily makes into print. For me, it helps flesh out the vessels, givining them all indivial forms and identifies , unlike the fuzzy ideas in my head that were all too similar.
Have also learned better ways to search for new info and better ways to interpret old and new info alike. It is always interesting to study how the other members go back and forth with a ideas, then by using other people's input, revamp and polish the data to a improved form.
Have always been able to repeat facts from books, have come up with ideas , questions, but in till now it was like talking to yourself (just glad did not started talking back....just kidding) no one was around was interested, or even could understand the questions were asking. So thanks to all, (like Mark,john,andy, Bill r, Dave b etc)have learned a lot from every one, a great group of guys ( and girls). Grizzly
Ps was also goining to comment on how easier it is now to get info, just like it up on a computer. To find info was hard, you would have to go to a library and search(there is not a lot of interest in NH for naval civil war books. FIRST full copy of Csn vessels was photographed from DANS. Still have it. Still have weed out some early lists, not original as when joined us at my mother tossed out everything except my books.(like old bb cards, comic books of 1940's,50's (junk shop 6 for 25 cents) my grandfather,s 1895 remington .22 breakdown rifle..ect ...chow!
 
Yup. Although the Interwebs is frequently (and justly) cited as a mass purveyor of disinformation, when used with care it's one of the best research tools ever invented.

I believe I've told this story before, but it's a good one, so here's a re-run: what got me started on researching Henry Walke is because I wanted to read his book. Naval Scenes and Reminiscences is cited in just about every history of the war on the Western Rivers ever done, and I could not find it anywhere. Anywhere at all. I went from library to library, haunted used and antiquarian bookstores, wrote to all sorts of people... finally, after a couple of years of this, I ran a copy to earth in the Ohioana Library (part of the State Library of Ohio) and actually stood there and xeroxed the book, page by page, so I could have a copy to read.

Nowadays, it's a free PDF on Google Books. Easy as pie.

For that matter, the whole reason I did the ironclads and blockade runners website is because, in the early days of the Web (1996), I was looking for something like that, and it didn't exist-- so I figured I should go ahead and make one. It started as a couple of pages via AOL, and it's definitely showing its age-- it was optimized for 600x800 resolution, and since I had a 2-meg limit, everything is pared down to be as small as could be. Very funny to think about that now!
 
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If I may - some additions to the booklist. While most are not as 'on-point' as Browning or Wise or Hearn, I think they can add as much as Chesnau;

'The American Civil War through British Eyes' - Barnes
'The Empire of the Seas / A Biography of Rear Admiral Robert Wilson Shufeldt, USN' - Drake
'Ships for the Seven Seas / Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism' - Heinrich
'Naval Gun' - Hogg / Batchelor
'Europe and the American Civil War' - Jordan
'America's Maritime Legacy: A History of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Shipbuilding Industry Since Colonial Times'. - Kilmarx
'Sumter is Avenged! / The Siege & Reduction of Fort Pulaski' - Schiller
'John Roach Maritime Entrepreneur / The Years as Naval Contractor,1862-1886' - Swann
'Attack on Maritime Trade' - Tracy
'Naval Shipbuilders of the World / From the Age of Sail to the Present Day' - Winklareth

For some background;
'A House Dividing / Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia Before the Civil War' - Majewski

As a follow up to Bradford / Carrison / Hackemer / et al;
'Gray Steel and the Blue Water Navy / The Formative Years of America's Military-Industrial Complex 1881-1917' - Cooling

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
After digging around in my basement and scrubbing my Amazon Want List (Man, I need to win the Powerball or start an Indigogo account to clean that up - the Want List, not my basement) found a few more;

Badly categorized....

Naval;
The Sinking of the Merrimac by Richmond P Hobson Jr
Yankee admiral;: A biography of David Dixon Porter by Paul Lewis
Rise of American Naval Power, 1776-1918 by Harold Sprout, Margaret Sprout
The U.S. Merchant Marine at War, 1775-1945 by Bruce L. Felknor

Ordnance;
Making Arms in the Machine Age: Philadelphia's Frankford Arsenal, 1816-1870 by James J. Farley
The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon by Edwin Olmstead, Wayne E. Stark, Spencer C. Tucker
Round-shot to rockets: A history of the Washington Navy Yard and U.S. Naval Gun Factory by Taylor Peck

Yeah-- problem here is that once one starts analyzing the blockade, one is almost immediately led out of the strictly military sphere and into economics, politics/policy, and foreign relations... I think one can't properly deal with the topic without taking a multidisciplinary approach.

And given the above quote...

Diplomatic;
The Anglo-American Crisis of the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Times and America, 1850-1862 by Martin Crawford
Spain and the American Civil War by Wayne H. Bowen
When the guns roared;: World aspects of the American Civil War by Philip Van Doren Stern
The Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War by Brian D. Schoen
Desperate Diplomacy: William H. Seward's Foreign Policy, 1861 by Norman B. Ferris
The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy by Charles M. Hubbard
Power Politics, Diplomacy, and the Avoidance of Hostilities Between England and the United States in the Wake of the Civil War by Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli, Elena Bertozzi, Cynthia De Nardi Ipsen
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War by Robert B. Ekelund Jr., Mark Thornton
Debtor Diplomacy: Finance and American Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era 1837-1873 by Jay Sexton
Gold Braid and Foreign Relations: Diplomatic Activities of U.S. Naval Officers, 1798-1883 by David Long

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
The Sinking of the Merrimac by Richmond P Hobson Jr

That's the Spanish-American War Merrimac, a collier that was intentionally sunk in an effort to bottle up the Spanish fleet in Santiago. (I often find myself reshelving it at Half Price Books from the Civil War section to the Naval History section...)
 
Dear 7th Mississippi Infantry, Greetings,

I agree. It is a shame. We were, at the time, deeply involved with Vietnam!

Regrettably, but related to this very subject, I wish to inform you and Civilwartalk's members of a conflict between Maple Leaf National Historic Landmark shipwreck site and a dedicated cable crossing that portends major adverse impact to this nationally important shipwreck site.

Two weeks ago I learned that a fiber optic cable had been “trenched” over the site by Southern Bell and TW Telecom (now Level-3 Communications) with probably impact. Another fiber optic cable is planned to be place by Tower Cloud by directionally drilling a six inch steel casing which will contain multiple fiber optic cables. I surmise this new cable is being placed under the auspices of the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) as per the City of Jacksonville’s “Telecommunications Master Plan”. Tower Cloud, however, is planning to accomplish this, to their credit and great expense, by directionally drilling sixty to eighty feet below the rivers bottom.

The Facts: On October 12, 1994 the Civil War Army Transport Maple Leaf, Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida was designated a National Historic Landmark by the 47th United States Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt. In July of 1998, a dedicated telecommunication cable crossing appeared in a revised Navigational Chart No. 11492, running from Orange Park, Florida (West) to Mandarin Point, Duval County (East). Within this crossing's center (N-S) is the entire 15.65 acres leased by SJAEI in 1988 for twenty years from the State of Florida's Board of Trustees Internal Improvement Trust Fund, Sovereignty Submerged Lands Use Agreement No. U-0176, and associated with Maple Leaf and General Hunter.

NHL Maple Leaf is centered within this 15.65 acre area. The ship’s hull is one hundred and eighty feet long pointing easterly, ninety degrees athwart the stream, and fully loaded with eight hundred thousand pounds of earning tonnage. The cargo consists of the personal effects of more than three thousand army infantrymen of the 112th NYV, 169th NYV, 1st. NY Engineers, 13th Indiana Vol., three sutler stores, and more. Edwin Bearss states that "The wreck of Maple Leaf is unsurpassed as a source for Civil War material culture. The site contains one of the largest ships during the war, carrying all the worldly goods of more than a thousand soldiers (sic 3,500), with a river bottom environment that perfectly preserved the ship and cargo. It is the most important repository of Civil War artifacts ever found and probably will remain so."

SJAEI, and many others are attempting to ferret out if Southern Bell's and TW Telecom's "trenched" fiber optic cable placements impacted this National Historic Shipwreck Site without State and Federal reviews mandated by federal law in section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. According to official records the easement awarded them conflict, dead center, with National Historic Landmark Maple Leaf.

Our company led the effort to have ML recognized as a NHL. We abdicated our Federal Court Orders right to own eighty per cent of all material culture we recovered, because we realized what a unique and rare historic site ML was ~ in this regard she will never be surpassed. I personally spent enough money to "buy Miami" ~ and gave it, cheerfully, to State and Federal preservation agencies for the benefit of all the citizens of the United States who care about our ACW heritage. further, I assumed that Landmark status would bind her by a strong protective chain pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation act of 1966. Apparently, the links of chain are made of sand.

All that is needed for the people dedicated to the pursuit of exploding the growth of telecommunication infrastructure to become powerful enough to dictate fiber optic transmission lines through, within, around, and under the forth designated NHL Shipwreck site is for those of us who care to do nothing.

What say you?


Keith
 

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  • MapleLeaf_Site_Disturbances_1July2016_.pdf
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Does 'Confederate cruiser oprations' include commerce raiding? As a kid I was fascinated by the story of the Alabama and read everything I could find on the subject of commerce raiding.
 
The two are essentially synonymous. :thumbsup: The Confederate cruisers were engaged in the mission of commerce raiding.

Ah, okay...Sorry, I'm not well versed in the proper naval terminology.

Your poll is fascinating, by the way. It might be interesting to do a similar poll on leading naval figures of the war (Farragut, Semmes, etc.).
 
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