Posted on 12/17/2003 12:00:28 AM PST by SAMWolf
20th Mass. officer Henry Abbott's account:
"In about an hour we let up on the firing along the line, the smoke partially cleared, & we saw the rebels charging from the woods to take Rickets' battery, which, by the way, did admirably. Instantly there went up a tremendous shout along the line & the biggest volley of the battle sent the rebels yelping into the woods. Then our whole line charged, the first halfthe distance in quick time, without cheering, except from old Sumner, who cheered us as we passed, the second half the way taking the double-quick with the loudest cheers we could get up [...]
Among the wounded, Brig. Gen. Pettigrew of SC & Lt. Col. Bull of the 35th Georgians. Pettigrew had given up all his side arms to some of his people before they ran away, in anticipation of being taken prisoner, & had only his watch, which of course I returned to him. Pettigrew will get well. Bull had his side arms, of which I allowed Corp. Summerhayes, his captor, to keep his pistol, an ordinary affair, while I kept his sword, an ordinary US infantry sword, which I intended to send as a present to you, but the Col., knowing [p.129] his family's address, wants me to send it to them, & as the poor fellow is dead, of course I can't hesitate to do any thing which would comfort his family. His scabbard, however, I found very convenient, as mine got broken in the battle and I threw it away. I am going to send you, instead, a short rifle which I took from a H[ampton's] Legion fellow, who were all around with them & the sword bayonet. The rest of the rifles we of course turned over to the col., as in duty bound, except one revolving Colt's rifle, 5 barrels, worth $60 or $70 apiece...which one of my men took from a dying officer, & which I let him keep as a reward of valor."
---Robert Garth Scott, ed., Fallen Leaves: The Civil War Letters of Major Henry Livermore Abbott (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991) pp. 128-129.
20th Mass. Corporal John W. Summerhayes' account:
---Richard F. Miller and Robert F. Mooney, The Civil War: The Nantucket Experience (Nantucket: Wesco Publishing, 1994) pp. 187.
20th Mass. Lt. Henry Ropes' account:
[...] All Officers well and unhurt. [...] Our total loss 30.
B
My Company suffered most in the battle.
Henry."
--From the Letters of Lt. Henry Ropes, 20th MA (ms, Boston, 1888)
Rare Books and Manuscripts Dept., Boston Public Library
Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library
Oliver Wendell Holmes' Account
...May 31st We heard heavy firing from Casey's Div and soon our Div was under arms & marched 4 miles I sh'ld think-the last part through a stream above our knees and then double quick through mud a foot deep on the field of battle [....]
When we got to the road the R. Wing entered the woods firing hard and the left wing advancing more slowly to avoid getting fired into by our own men- A Co. of Rebs trying to pass out of the woods was knocked to pieces-and thus we took the final position of the 1st day.. Here we blazed away left oblique into the woods till we were ordered to cease firing & remained masters of the field....
Well we licked 'em and this time there was the maneurvering of a battle to be seen-splendid and awful to behold...It is singular what indifference one gets to look on the dead bodies in gray clothes which lie all around...
As you go through the woods you stumble...perhaps tread on the swollen bodies, already fly blown and decaying, of men shot in the head back or bowels-Many of the wounds are terrible to look at [...]
Source- Anthony J. Milano, "Letters from the Harvard Regiments: The Story of the 2nd and 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiments from 1861 through 1863 as told by the letters of their Officers" (Civil War: The Magazine of the Civil War Society, Vol. XIII, pp. 23-24)
Col. Lee, was too ill to resume command after Antietam and resigned on 12/17/62. Died 1891
General Lee (CSA), spent the postwar years as President of Washington College, in Lexington VA. Died 1870
Lt. Henry Ropes, killed by friendly fire at Gettysburg
General Pettigrew (CSA), killed in the retreat from Gettysburg.
Capt. Henry Abbott, killed in the Battle of The Wilderness.
Lt. Robert Emory Park (CSA), survived the war to become Treasurer of Georgia in 1900.
Of the two men who fell wounded within feet of Lt. Ropes, Pvt. Chase was discharged for disabilities the following year, but Pvt. Donnelly never made it home. He was missing in action at the Battle of The Wilderness.
John W. Summerhayes, survived the war and made a career of the US Army. He died in 1911 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. survived three battle wounds and served on the US Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932
www.peninsulacampaign.org
www.ehistory.com
www.people.virginia.edu
www2.cr.nps.gov
usa-civil-war.com
www.allstar.fiu.edu
www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean
www.ngb.army.mil
www.gallon.com
Other Names: Seven Pines, Fair Oaks Station Location: Henrico County, VA Campaign: Peninsula Campaign (March-September 1862) Date(s): May 31-June 1, 1862 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan [US]; Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith [CS] Forces Engaged: (84,000 total) Estimated Casualties: 13,736 total (US 5,739; CS 7,997) Description: On May 31, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attempted to overwhelm two Federal corps that appeared isolated south of the Chickahominy River. The Confederate assaults, though not well coordinated, succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties. Reinforcements arrived, and both sides fed more and more troops into the action. Supported by the III Corps and Sedgwicks division of Sumners II Corps (that crossed the rain-swollen river on Grapevine Bridge), the Federal position was finally stabilized. Gen. Johnston was seriously wounded during the action, and command of the Confederate army devolved temporarily to Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith. On June 1, the Confederates renewed their assaults against the Federals who had brought up more reinforcements but made little headway. Both sides claimed victory. Confederate brigadier Robert H. Hatton was killed. Result(s): Inconclusive |
Today's classic warship, USS Tennessee (BB-43)
Tennessee class battleship
displacement. 33,190 t.
length. 624'
beam. 97' 3 1/2"
draft. 31' s. 21 k.
complement. 1,401
armament. 12 14", 14 5", 4 3" AA, 2 21" tt.
The USS Tennessee was laid down on 14 May 1917 at the New York Navy Yard; launched on 30 April 1919; sponsored by Miss Helen Lenore Roberts, daughter of the governor of Tennessee; and commissioned on 3 June 1920, Capt. Richard H. Leigh in command.
Tennessee and her sister ship, California (BB-44), were the first American battleships built to a "post-Jutland" hull design. As a result of extensive experimentation and testing, her underwater hull protection was much greater than that of previous battleships; and both her main and secondary batteries had fire-control systems. The Tennessee class, and the three ships of the Colorado-class which followed, were identified by two heavy cage masts supporting large fire-control tops. This feature was to distinguish the "Big Five" from the rest of the battleship force until World War II. Since Tennessee's 14-inch turret guns could be elevated to 30 degrees-rather than to the 15 degrees of earlier battleships-her heavy guns could reach out an additional 10,000 yards. Because battleships were then beginning to carry airplanes to spot long-range gunfire, Tennessee's ability to shoot "over the horizon" had a practical value.
After fitting out, Tennessee conducted trials in Long Island Sound from 15 to 23 October 1920. While Tennessee was at New York, one of her 300-kilowatt ship's-service generators blew up on 30 October, "completely destroying the turbine end of the machine" and injuring two men. Undaunted, the ship's force, navy yard craftsmen, and manufacturers' representatives labored to eliminate the "teething troubles" in Tennessee's engineering system and enabled the battleship to depart New York on 26 February 1921 for standardization trials at Guantanamo. She next steamed north for the Virginia Capes and arrived at Hampton Roads on 19 March. Tennessee carried out gunnery calibration firing at Dahlgren, Va., and was drydocked at Boston before full-power trials off Rockland, Maine. After touching at New York, she steamed south; transited the Panama Canal; and, on 17 June, arrived at San Pedro, Calif., her home port for the next 19 years. For the next two decades, the battleship divisions of the Battle Fleet were to incl ude the preponderance of the Navy's surface warship strength; and Tennessee was to serve here until World War II.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, Tennessee was moored starboard side to a pair of masonry "mooring quays" on Battleship Row, the name given to a line if these deep water berths located along the southeast side of Ford Island. West Virginia (BB-48) was berthed alongside to port. Just ahead of Tennessee was Maryland (BB-46), with Oklahoma (BB-37) outboard. Arizona (BB-39), moored directly astern of Tennessee, was undergoing a period of upkeep from the repair ship Vestal (AR-4), berthed alongside her. The three "nests" were spaced about 75 feet apart.
At about 0755, Japanese carrier planes began their attack. As the first bombs fell on Ford Island, Tennessee went to general quarters and closed her watertight doors. In about five minutes, her antiaircraft guns were manned and firing. Sortie orders were received, and the battleship's engineers began to get steam up. However, this quickly became academic as Oklahoma and West Virginia took crippling torpedo hits. Oklahoma capsized to port and sank, bottom up. West Virginia began to list heavily, but timely counter-flooding righted her. She, nevertheless, also settled on the bottom but did so on an even keel. Tennessee, though her guns were firing and her engines operational, could not move. The sinking West Virginia had wedged her against the two massive concrete quays to which she was moored, and worse was soon to come.
As the Japanese torpedo bombers launched their weapons against Battleship Row, dive bombers were simultaneously coming in from above. Strafing fighters were attacking the ships' antiaircraft batteries and control positions as high-level horizontal bombers dropped heavy battleship-caliber projectiles modified to serve as armor-piercing bombs. Several bombs struck Arizona; and, at about 0820, one of them penetrated her protective deck and exploded in a magazine detonating black-powder saluting charges which, in turn, set off the surrounding smokeless-powder magazines. A shattering explosion demolished Arizona's foreport, and fuel oil from her ruptured tanks was ignited and began to spread. The torpedo hits on West Virginia had also released burning oil, and Tennessee's stern and port quarter were soon surrounded by flames and dense black smoke. At about 0830, horizontal bombers scored two hits on Tennessee. One bomb carried away the after mainyard before passing through the catapult on top of Turret III, the elevated after turret, breaking up as it partially penetrated the armored turret top. Large fragments of the bomb case did some damage inside the turret and put one of its three 14-inch guns out of operation. In stead of exploding, the bomb filler ignited and burned, setting an intense fire which was quickly extinguished.
The second bomb struck the barrel of the center gun of Turret II, the forward "high" turret, and exploded. The center gun was knocked out of action, and bomb fragments sprayed Tennessee's forward superstructure. Capt. Mervyn S. Bennion, the commanding officer of West Virginia, had stepped out on to the starboard wing of his ship's bridge only to be mortally wounded by one of these fragments.
While her physical hurts were relatively minor, Tennessee was still seriously threatened by oil fires raging around her stern. When Arizona's magazines erupted, Tennessee's after decks were showered with burning oil and debris which s tarted fires that were encouraged by the heat of the flaming fuel. Numerous blazes had to be fought on the after portion of the main deck and in the officers' quarters on the deck below. Shipboard burning was brought under control by 1030, but oil flowing from the tanks of the adjacent ships continued to flame.
By the evening of 7 December, the worst was over. Oil was still blazing around Arizona and West Virginia and continued to threaten Tennessee for two more days while she was still imprisoned by the obstacles around her. Although her bridge and foremast had been damaged by bomb splinters, her machinery was in full commission; and no serious injury had been done to ship or gunnery controls. Ten of her 12 14-inch guns and all of her secondary and antiaircraft guns were intact. By comparison with most of the battleships around her, Tennessee was relatively unscathed.
The first order of business was now to get Tennessee out of her berth. Just forward of her, Maryland-similarly wedged into her berth when Oklahoma rolled over and sank-was released and moved away on 9 December. The forwardmost of Tennessee's two concrete mooring quays was next demolished-a delicate task since the ship's hull was resting against it-and had been cleared away by 16 December. Tennessee carefully crept ahead, past Oklahoma's sunken hull, and moored at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard.
Temporary repairs were quickly made. From Turret III to the stern on both sides of the ship, Tennessee's hull gave mute evidence of the inferno that she had survived. Every piece of hull plating above the waterline was buckled and warped by heat; seams had been opened and rivets loosened. These seams had to be rewelded and rivets reset, and a considerable amount of recaulking was needed to make hull and weather decks watertight. The damaged top of Turret III received a temporary armor patch.
On 20 December, Tennessee departed Pearl Harbor with Pennsylvania (BB-38) and Maryland-both superficially damaged in the Japanese attack-and a screen of four destroyers. From the moment the ships put to sea, nervous lookouts repeatedly sounded submarine alarms, making the voyage something more than uneventful. Nearing the west coast, Pennsylvania headed for Mare Island while Maryland and Tennessee steamed north, arrived at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 29 December 1941, and commenced permanent repairs.
Working around the clock during the first two months of 1942, shipyard craftsmen repaired Tennessee's after hull plating and replaced electrical wiring ruined by heat. To allow her antiaircraft guns a freer field of fire, her tall cage mainmast was replaced by a tower similar to that later installed in Colorado (BB-46) and Maryland. An air-search radar was installed; fire-control radars were fitted to Tennessee's main-battery and 5-inch antiaircraft gun directors. Her three-inch and .50-caliber antiaircraft guns were replaced by 1.1-inch and 20-millimeter automatic shell guns, and her 5-inch antiaircraft guns were protected by splinter shields. Fourteen-inch Mark-4 turret guns were replaced by improved Mark-11 models. Other modifications improved the battleship's habitability.
On 26 February 1942, Tennessee departed Puget Sound with Maryland and Colorado. Upon arriving at San Francisco, she began a period of intensive training operations with Rear Admiral William S. Pye's Task Force 1, made up of the Pacific Fleet's available battleships and a screen of destroyers. From February through August 1942, she operated off the U.S. west coast, then briefly went to Pearl Harbor before returning to Puget Sound for extensive modernization.
By the time Tennessee emerged from the navy yard on 7 May 1943, she bore virtually no resemblance to her former self. Deep new blisters increased the depth of her side protection against torpedoes by eight feet-three inches on each side, gradually tapering toward bow and stern. Internal compartmentation was rearranged and improved. The most striking innovation was made in the battleship's superstructure. The heavy armored conning tower, from which Tennessee would have been controlled in a surface gunnery action, was removed, as were masts, stacks, and other superstructure. A new, compact, superstructure was designed to provide essential ship and gunnery control facilities while offering as little interference as possible to the fields of fire of the ship's increasingly essential anti-aircraft guns. A low tower foremast supported a main-battery director and bridge spaces; boiler uptakes were trunked into a single fat funnel which was faired into the after side of the foremast. Just abaft the stack, a lower structure accommodated the after turret-gun director. Tennessee's old 5-inch battery, and combination of 5"/25 antiaircraft guns and 5"/51 single-purpose "anti-destroyer" guns, was replaced by eight 5"/38 twin mounts. Four new directors, arranged around the superstructure, could control these guns against air or surface targets. All of these directors were equipped with fire-control radars; antennas for surface- and air-search radars were mounted at the mastheads. Close-in antiaircraft defense was the function of 10 quadruple 40-millimeter gun mounts, each with its own optical director, and of 43 20-millimeter guns.
Though the slow battleships were still incapable of serving with the carrier striking force, their heavy turret guns could still hit as hard as ever. Naval shore bombardment and gunfire support for troops ashore-then coming to be a specialty in its own right-was well suited for this the earlier generation of battleships which were also still quite usable for patrol duty in areas where fire-power was more important than speed. The refurbished Tennessee's first tour of duty combined both of these missions.
She almost immediately moved up to the Aleutians area, where her 14-inch guns bombarded Kiska when that island was invaded in August. During the next year, from November 1943 into September 1944, she participated in bombardments of Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, New Ireland, and Saipan, where she was damaged by Japanese counter-fire.
D-Day on Saipan was 15 June 1944. Tennessee's assault station was off the southern end of the landing beach. During the first wave's approach, her guns enfiladed that end of the objective to prepare the way for the right-hand elements of the 4th Division. She checked fire as the troops neared the beach, resuming it a few minutes later as the marines fought to establish themselves ashore. Japanese 4.7-inch field guns, emplaced in a cave on Tinian, opened on Tennessee. The battleship commenced counterbattery fire, but the third enemy salvo scored three hits, all of which burst on impact. One projectile knocked out a 5-inch twin gun mount; the second struck the ship's side, while the third tore a hole in the after portion of main deck and sprayed fragments into the wardroom below. An intense fire inside the disabled gun mount was subdued in two minutes by repair parties and men from nearby gun crews; the hit to the hull damaged external blister plating, but was prevented from inflicting further damage by the battleship's heavy belt armor. Eight men were killed by projectile fragments, while 26 more were wounded by fragments and flash burns. Tennessee's damages did not prevent her from delivering call fire to help break up a developing Japanese counterattack near Agingan Point before leaving the firing line to make emergency repairs. During the afternoon and night, she took station to screen assembled transports. Four Japanese dive bombers attacked nearby ships at 1846, and Tennessee's 5-inch guns briefly engaged them but claimed no hits. That evening, Tennessee buried her dead. Tokyo radio claimed victory in the battle for Saipan, stating that they had sunk a battleship which they identified as "probably the New Jersey."
The Tennessee went on to provide gunfire support for the invasions of Guam, Tinian, Anguar and Pelieu. In October, Tennessee's guns pounded the Leyte invasion area as U.S. forces returned to the Philippines, and, on the night of 24-25 October, she helped sink the Japanese battleship Yamashiro in the Battle of Surigao Strait.
On the morning of 25 October 1944, the Tennessee would finially fight the battle she had been designed for. The Tennessee, along with five other battleships, including four other survivors of Pearl Harbor, would avenge that defeat in the last battleship vs battleship fight in history at Surigao Strait.
Sailing eastwards towards Surigao Strait on the night of the 24th was Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura, and the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro. Accompanying them would be the heavy cruiser Mogami, the destroyers Shigure, Michishio, Asagumo and Yamagumo. Following close behind would be a second force sailing from Japan under the command of Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima. This second force would consist of two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and four destroyers. Unfortunately for Nishimura and Shima, the Americans would be perfectly deployed and anxiously waiting for all of the Japanese ships to sail into their trap.
Rear Admiral Jesse B. Olendorf had a collection of old battleships. Among them were the West Virgina and California both of which had been officially "sunk" at Pearl Harbor nearly three years earlier. But they had been recovered, rebuilt, and redeployed to exact a measure of revenge from the Japanese. Armed with the latest radar and fire control systems, they waited. Along with these two were the Maryland, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania, also veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack (these three were all damaged but not sunk) and the Mississippi.
The battle was fought using tactics centuries old, with Olendorf "capping the T" of Nishimura. At 3:51AM, Olendorf ordered the cruisers Louisville, Portland, Minneapolis, Denver, Columbus, Phoenix, Boise and HMAS Shropshire to commence firing, followed by the battleships two minutes later. The Japanese suffered a terrible beating. The West Virginia fired 93 rounds of 16" armor piercing (AP) ammunition, while the Tennessee and California added another 132 rounds of 14" AP. The other three battleships did not have as sophisticated fire control radar, and were therefore slower to join in the mauling being delivered. The Maryland picked up the splashes from West Virginias rounds on radar, and soon added 43 rounds of her own to the mix. The Mississippi fired a single salvo, and the Pennsylvania never had a chance to fire at all.
But it didnt matter. The Fuso was burning red-hot. The Mogami was a shambles. And the little Shigure was running away as fast as she could manage with no working instruments at all. When the helmsman of the Shigure cried out that he no longer had control of the rudder, she too came to a full stop dead in the water. Yamashiro, still able to make 16 knots after her frightful beating, was fatally hurt and, at 0419, rolled over and sank with all but a few of her crew. And thus ended the Battle of Surigao Strait. Two Japanese battleships, one cruiser, and three destroyers became the final victims in history of classic battle line tactics. It is perhaps fitting that this fight would take place among ships a quarter of a century old, given one final curtain call to fight in the manner of centuries of naval engagements.
The next several days were quiet ones for Tennessee, though the Japanese sent numerous land-based air strikes against Leyte Gulf. On 29 October, the battlewagon's crew was told that their next destination was to be the Puget Sound Navy Yard. Late that day, she got underway for Ulithi with West Virginia, Maryland, and four cruisers. From there, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor and thence to Bremerton where she entered the shipyard on 26 November.
After a Stateside overhaul, Tennessee supported the Iwo Jima operation in February and March 1945, firing nearly 1400 fourteen-inch and over 6000 five-inch shells at targets on the small, but fiercely defended island. Beginning in late March, she bombarded Okinawa. Hit by a suicide plane on 12 April (Twenty-two men were killed or fatally wounded, with another 107 injured), Tennessee remained in action until 1 May, when she went to Ulithi for repairs, then returned to Okinawa to continue her gunfire support during June. In July and August, she operated in the waters off China.
The battleship's final assignment of the war was to cover the landing of occupation troops at Wakayama, Japan. She arrived there on 23 September, then went on to Yokosuka. Tennessee's crew had the chance to look over the Imperial Navy's big shipyard and operating base and do some sightseeing before she got underway for Singapore on 16 October. At Singapore Oldendorf shifted his flag to the cruiser Springfield (CL-66), and Tennessee continued her long voyage home by way of the Cape of Good Hope.
On the fourth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the old veteran moored at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. During those years, she had hurled 9,347 14-inch rounds at the enemy, with 46,341 shells from her 5-inch guns and more than 100,000 rounds from her antiaircraft battery.
The process of trimming the wartime Navy down to postwar size was already well underway. Tennessee was one of the older, yet still useful, ships selected for inclusion in the "mothball fleet;" and, during 1946, she underwent a process of preservation and preparation for inactivation. The work went slowly; there were many ships to lay up and not too many people to do it. Finally, on 14 February 1947, Tennessee's ensign was hauled down for the last time as she was placed out of commission.
Tennessee remained in the inactive fleet for another 12 years. By then, time and technology had passed her by; and, on 1 March 1959, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. On 10 July of that year, she was sold to the Bethlehem Steel Company for scrapping.
Tennessee earned a Navy Unit Commendation and 10 battles stars for World War II service.
LOL! Thanks for posting the Press Release from the Wright Brothers.
Pvt. Wilson Fryling's letter made it back home to Pennsylvania.
He did not.
As was true of too many.
Thanks SAM for brining us this history.
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