#civilwartimes

[robertwdecker]

Back from vacation, and back to #lunchtime #sketches this guy was a #civilwar #soldier from #Massachusetts. I really need to do something with these soon! #civilwartimes #illustratorsoninstagram #illustratorforhire #scad #unionsoldier #atlillustrator (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzYo-NAjtl8/?igshid=1lz8v2xljj0q0

[germansons]

EXCELLENT CIVIL WAR TIMES ARTICLE!

I received the latest issue of Civil War Times (Volume 54, Number 1) yesterday, and was immediately drawn to William Whyte's Control the Heartland, Hastily Produced Union Ironclads Ruled the Western Theater's Waterways.

Dr. Whyte provides the reader an excellent overview of the formation of the Union's Brown Water Navy on the Western waters in 1861 to 1862. My only complaint is that it left me wanting to turn the page for the rest of the story on this often ignored field of study.

I look forward to William White's continued work in this area, given our maritime link to the Civil War here in the Ohio Valley.

One of our local regiments, the 23rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, played a role in the early days of the gunboats, specifically during the assault on Fort Henry along the Tennessee River, as portrayed in the article on page 44 (image below).

Although the regiment did not take part in the combat operations against Fort Henry, 19 men of Clark County, Indiana, members of Company B, served aboard the gunboat Essex (far right) as sharpshooters.

During the attack against Henry, the Essex shrugged off a number of hits, but the 10th round, in one of those freaks of warfare, entered through a porthole, struck the boiler system and resulted in 37 killed, wounded or missing.

Among the confirmed dead were three members of the 23rd Indiana detachment: Lieutenant Daniel Trotter, Corporal Julius Lumb and Private Charles E. Erb. Three men were listed as scalded, missing and presumed dead: Benjamin Lubeck, William O'Neil and Thomas Murray, all three included among the 273 regiment members listed as 'Unaccounted for.' Two of the men, Jacob Grans and Patrick Cassedy, survived scalding, but died later during the siege of Vicksburg.

Library of Congress image of the U. S. S. Essex.

This was not the only time that the 23rd Indiana contributed to the Brown Water Navy. Experienced rivermen from this regiment, as well as others, provided volunteers for the formation of the Mississippi Marine Brigade.

During the Vicksburg campaign,volunteers from this regiment took positions as pilots, engineers and deck hands on those boats that ran the deadly gauntlet of Vicksburg April 16, 1863.

The U. S. S. Cairo, on display at Vicksburg, Mississippi, shows the conical pilothouse as described by Dr. Whyte on page 43 of his article.