The "Star of the West" was attacked.
The "ship's men" needed arms to return fire expected from the shore batteries. Picture it in your mind and try not to snork coffee all over your keyboard.
Todays military ships do indeed have guns. What's so extraordinary about it?
"Extraordinary" is probably the exact word I would have used to discribe the guns of today's warships, specifically with reference to the MK45 Mod 4:
The MK45 Mod 4, combined with the ERGM enhanced munition, is capable of providing accurate over-the-horizon fire support in all weather conditions.
Yes, I know that's not what you meant.
#383 [#3Fan] Confederates opened hostilities by firing on the "Star of the West" (is that the name?) so hostilities towards ships were to be expected.
#386 [nc] The "ship's men" needed arms. Talk about lost at sea.
#386 [#3Fan] The "Star of the West" was attacked.
#386 [nc] The "ship's men" needed arms to return fire expected from the shore batteries. Picture it in your mind and try not to snork coffee all over your keyboard.
#386 [#3Fan] Todays military ships do indeed have guns. What's so extraordinary about it?
In such a target rich environment, the question is where to begin.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were never attached to the ship.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were never attached to the Navy.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were not members of the ship's crew.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were soldiers, not sailors.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were in USS Powhatan. Like Mary's Little Lamb, wherever Powhatan went, the "ship's men" (so-called) were sure to go.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were being provided with transportation by the U.S. Navy. Calling these soldiers "ships men" is like taking a flight on Delta Airlines and calling yourself a member of the air crew. As far as the Navy was concerned, they were passengers.
On April 1, 1861, Admiral Lincoln ordered the Commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard to fit out USS Powhatan and directed him not to communicate such to the Navy Department under any circumstances.
April 1, 1861
To: Commandant, Brooklyn Navy YardYou will fit out the Powhatan without delay. Lieutenant Porter will relieve Captain Mercer in command of her. She is bound on secret service; and you will under no circumstances communicate to the Navy Department the fact that she is fitting out.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
That same date, Admiral Lincoln reassigned USS Powhatan from Captain Mercer to Lt. Porter, and kept this secret from the Department of the Navy and the Department of War. Admiral Lincoln gives the ship to Lt. Porter with orders to take it to Florida.
April 1, 1861 To: Lt. D.D. Porter, USNYou will proceed to New York and with least possible delay assume command of any steamer available.
Proceed to Pensacola Harbor, and, at any cost or risk, prevent any expedition from the main land reaching Fort Pickens, or Santa Rosa.
You will exhibit this order to any Naval Officer at Pensacola, if you deem it necessary, after you have established yourself within the harbor.
This order, its object, and your destination will be communicated to no person whatever, until you reach the harbor of Pensacola.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
Recommended signed: Wm. H. Seward
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles later writes, "There would seem to have been a deliberate purpose to render the Sumter expedition -- the first of the war -- abortive; to prevent the garrison from receiving supplies; to compel Major Anderson to surrender and evacuate the fort; for every step taken, every measure adopted, was met and thwarted by counteracting measures, most of them secret, emanating from or sanctioned by the President, who was unsuspectingly made to defeat his own orders and purposes."
On April 5, 1861, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles gives orders to Captain Mercer to take USS Powhatan to Charleston as his flagship.
April 5, 1861
To: Captain Mercer, Commanding Officer, USS PowhatanThe U.S. Steamers, Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas, and Harriet Lane, will compose a naval force under your command, to be sent to the vicinity of Charleston, S.C., for the purpose of aiding in carrying out the object of an expedition of which the war Department has charge. The expedition has been intrusted to Captain G.V. Fox.
You will leave New York with the Powhatan in time to be off Charleston bar, 10 miles distant from and due east of the light house on the morning of the 11th instant, there to await the arrival of the transports with troops and stores. The Pawnee and Pocahontas will be ordered to join you there, at the time mentioned, and also the Harriet Lane, etc.
Signed: Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy
On April 6, 1861, Lt. Porter took USS Powhatan and sailed.
With Lt. Porter as Commanding Officer, Jessica Lynch acting as navigator, USS Powhatan goes to sea, the ship's name is painted over, and finally, on April 17, 1861 they arrive at Pensacola, Florida flying English colors and burning English coal.
This is rather like going to the airport and catching a Delta Airlines flight to Charleston, South Carolina and being delivered six days late to Pensacola, Florida by a plane falsely identified as belonging to British Air.
The "ship's men" (so-called) were still aboard USS Powhatan. The soldiers purportedly intended to augment the Fort Sumter garrison never went to South Carolina. All the landing craft purportedly intended for the Fort Sumter mission were aboard USS Powhatan. The ships that did arrive at Charleston harbor played no role in the events. They had no soldiers to land, and no landing craft to attempt to land soldiers or anything else. They were spectators, unable to provide any assistance whatever.
#275 [#3Fan] I don't see where the arms were to be delivered.
Usually, when the Navy delivers a load of soldiers to a potential combat zone, the arms are delivered with the soldiers. In such situations, soldiers tend to like to have their weapons with them. It seems to be an old Army tradition.
#275 [#3Fan] I saw that the ship's men needed arms because they expected to be attacked by Confederates.
These "ship's men" (so-called) were soldiers being transported by Navy ship. They needed their long arms because it would have been a severe breach of Army etiquette and tradition to go into battle with nothing in their hands but their short arms.
#341 [#3Fan] [A]ny president has an obligation to give his troops the supplies they need to defend themselves so Buchanan was derelict in not supporting his troops if he did make a verbal agreement with the outlaws.
Admiral Lincoln did not get any supplies to the troops and got their unending supplies from Mr. McSweeney cut off. Admiral Lincoln did not get any reinforcements or provisions of any kind to the troops, and he got them shelled and shot at.
Every military leader who had been consulted, including Major Anderson, had advised that any mission such as that purported was a military impossibility. In the actual event, no landing was either attempted or possible, and the purported garrison reinforcing troops (the "ships men" so-called) were not even there. Also not there was the intended flagship, the Navy captain who was supposed to be in charge, and the landing craft essential to land anything.
#386 [#3Fan] Todays military ships do indeed have guns. What's so extraordinary about it?
What is extraordinary is your notion of issuing ship's guns to soldiers aboard ship.
Here is a look at a gun turret of the battleship, USS Iowa.
And here is a look at the guns. Try issuing one of these bad boys to a soldier and sending him up into the rigging. Now that would be an extraordinary sight.
Pictured is John Mullahy receiving the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the highest award given for heroism in a noncombat situation following an explosion April 19, 1989 which claimed 47 lives.
Here are some links on the Mullahy story. Prior to the Iowa incident he had received a kangaroo court-martial in Rota, Spain.
Mullahy Presidential Citation for Valor