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Posted on 04/22/2004 12:00:08 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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In July of 1864, Union commander General William Tecumseh Sherman sent cavalry under Major General Lovell H. Rousseau into Alabama with the mission to cut the one remaining rail link to Confederate forces defending Atlanta. The West Point and Montgomery Railroad was the vital supply line for munitions from Selma and war material stored at Montgomery for the Confederate Army in Georgia under General Joe Johnston.  Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau Rousseau gathered 2,500 troops in Union occupied Decatur with cavalry from the Eighth Indiana, Second Union Kentucky, Fourth Union Tennessee, Ninth Ohio, and the Fifth Iowa. The artillery support came from the First Michigan, armed with ten pound parrot cannons. On 10 July 1864 Rousseau left Decatur and went south through Somersville, Blountsville, and Asheville. On 13 July 1864 the Union force reached the Coosa River ferry at Greensport. During the night of 13 July 1864, Rousseau sent an initial force of 200 across the Coosa River by ferry at Greensport to secure the opposite side in advance of the crossing of the main Union cavalry. Four miles south of Greensport was Ten Islands Ford in St. Clair County, which offered another good position to cross the river. In the early morning of 14 July, the Rousseau advance force skirmished with Confederates on the east bank of the river. At the same time, the main portion of Rousseau’s force began to cross the Coosa River at Ten Islands Ford. They were opposed by 200 Confederate cavalry under General James H. Clanton. The Confederate troops from the Sixth Alabama Cavalry and Eighth Alabama Cavalry attempted to stop the initial Union advance. The initial Union troops were reinforced by the Eighth Indiana, and met heavy but short resistance from Confederates on the east side of the river. Soldiers from the Fifth Iowa and Fourth Tennessee Union Cavalry took up positions on two islands in the river, and succeeded in driving the Confederates from the opposite side of the river, and thereby safely securing the river crossing. The Eighth Indiana was also successful in routing the Confederates from the road to Greensport.  The Janney Furnace was destroyed during Rousseau's Raid After the engagement at Ten Islands Ford, Rousseau also destroyed the Janney Furnace in St. Clair County. The iron works had produced cannon balls and iron sheet metal for the arsenal at Selma, and was completely burned by the Union cavalry. A large amount of manufacturing equipment was also burned, which had previously been moved from the Janney Foundry in Montgomery. On 15 July 1864 Rousseau occupied Talladega. Here his force burned a railroad depot, rail cars, and a gun factory. It also captured a large amount of food supplies, which was destined for Confederate forces in Atlanta. After leaving Talladega, Rousseau employed tactical deception and moved in the direction of Montgomery. This was in order to disguise his real aim of cutting the rail line to Atlanta. Last minute defensive preparations had been attempted in Montgomery, but would have been completely inadequate to repel a force of Rousseau’s size. Rousseau then turned east and bypassed destroying the Tallessee Arsenal, which had recently begun manufacturing the carbine for use by the Confederate Army.  On 17 July 1864, Rousseau first reached his primary objective of the West Point and Montgomery Railroad at Loachapoka in Lee County. Here the Union cavalry began demolishing the railroad for several miles. The tactic used to destroy the railroad was common to forces under Sherman, and involved burning pine railroad cross ties and melting iron tracks until they were bent and completely unusable. The Union cavalry also burned a small supply depot at Loachapoka. On 18 July 1864, troops from the Ninth Ohio Cavalry destroyed an additional six miles of the West Point and Montgomery Railroad between Auburn and West Point, Georgia. In addition, a large amount of supplies was destroyed and a train was captured that had been traveling from Opelika, and was destroyed. The Ninth Ohio was initially fired on by a small force of 18 that was hastily gathered from among the 400 Texas troops at the Confederate hospital in Auburn. This Confederate force was quickly repulsed.  At the same time as the action at Auburn, the Fifth Iowa, Eighth Indiana, and Fourth Tennessee Union Cavalry were sent to Chehaw Station in Macon County. A force of 500 Confederate troops had been rushed into the area by train from Montgomery. The vast majority of Confederate forces at Chehaw Station consisted of 16 and 17 year old boys from eight companies of H.C. Lockhart’s Battalion. There were also 50 University of Alabama cadets who had been on furlough, and conscripts from Camp Watts in Notasulga. Rousseau sent in the Union forces to destroy part of the West Point and Montgomery Railroad that ran between Loachapoka and Notasulga. The Fifth Iowa Cavalry initially engaged the Confederate force. Armed with only old muskets, the Confederates put up stiff resistance before having to fall back to the safety of a ravine. The Fifth Iowa was then reinforced by the Eighth Indiana and flanked the new Confederate position to force a withdrawal. Rousseau reported Confederate causalities as forty dead and wounded in the engagement.  Rousseau’s Raid achieved its principal aim with the destruction of over thirty miles of railroad and the disruption of critical war supplies to Atlanta by rail from central Alabama. This came as a critical blow for Confederate forces fighting in Atlanta. A massive repair effort was started for the West Point and Montgomery Railroad, but was hampered since the original railroad ties had been melted and bent beyond use by the Union. With the effort of slave laborers, it was over a month before the complete rail line to Montgomery was reopened.
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| The usual crew of a swift boat consisted of: | 1 - Lieutenant/Lieutenant junior grade/Ensign (boat commander) |
| 1 - Quartermaster | |
| 1 - Radarman------------------- (the enlisted personnel ranged from | |
| 1 - Gunners' Mate--------- E3 seaman, to E6 Petty Officer First class) | |
| 1 - Engineman | |
| 1 - Boatswains' Mate |
Gonna post it on Treadhead Tuesdays?
I'd love to. That's one of the graphics I collected soon after the 9/11 --two and half years ago. Oh man, time sure flies.
FAKE PURPLE HEARTS
[NOTE: Go to the above-linked home page; go to the menu at left; go to the bottom-most entry and click on HUNLEY FUNERAL PHOTOS.]
One famous U.S. inventor was a former West Point graduate and ordnance officer named Robert Parker Parrott. In 1836, Parrott resigned his rank of captain and went to work for the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York. This foundry was a civilian operated business and Parrott, as a superintendent, was able to dedicate some forty years perfecting a rifled cannon and a companion projectile. By 1860, he had patented a new method of attaching the reinforcing band on the breech of a gun tube. Although he was not the first to attach a band to a tube, he was the first to use a method of rotating the tube while slipping the band on hot. This rotation, while cooling, caused the band to attach itself in place uniformly rather than in one or two places as was the common method, which allowed the band to sag in place. The 10-pounder Parrott was patented in 1861 and the 20- and 30-pounder guns followed in 1861. He quickly followed up these patents by producing 6.4-, 8-, and 10-inch caliber cannons early in the war. The Army referred to these as 100, 200, and 300-pounder Parrotts respectively. By the end of the conflict the Parrott gun was being used extensively in both armies.
Parrott's name is also associated with the ammunition fired by his cannon. The elongated Parrott projectile employed a sabot made of wrought iron, brass, lead or copper that was attached to the shell base. When the projectile was fired, the sabot expanded into the rifling of the tube. In 1861 Parrott patented his first projectile with the sabot cast on the outside of the projectile. A controversy arose after the war between Dr. John B. Read, who had actually invented this expansion system, and Parrott, who contended he had brought the 1856 and 1857 patents from Read before the war. As a result, these shells are often referred to as Read-Parrotts.
Robert Parker Parrott 1804-1877
This box was originally designed and patented by Colonel Blakeslee. This was a six tube cartridge carrier with a wood block, bored with longitudinal holes to hold six tin tubes. Each tube held the correct number to reload the buttstock magazine. The wood block was encased in smooth black leather, with a hinged leather lid to protect the open tops of the tubes. A leather strap held the loaded box under the trooper's left arm, close to his body.
Drawing: Standard 80 lb Rail, March 1890
New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad
Drawing: Standard Rail Splice, December 1893
New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad
Drawing: Standard Splice Bolt, November 1891
New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad
My mother's father handdrilled rails for splices and telegraph wire summers getting his degree in electrical engineering at Penn State ca. 1907.
He remarked in his dry way that when lunchtime came he would lie flat.
The article remarks that the thirty-mile damage was repaired in a month using slave labor.
That would be a few holes to handdrill.
That kind of muscle work would take a real jock.
quoted by LtGen Hal Moore in " We Were Soldiers, Once and Young."
To Julie Moore (the eldest daughter of LtGen Moore and his wife Julie)
Julie, I hope you remember dating me back in the mid 70's. I was the dashing IM resident at UAB with the brown Porsche. I mourn your loss.
Poor Prince John is searching everywhere, but still can't find Robin Hood.
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