The FReeper Foxhole Revisits the Sinking of the C.S.S. Alabama (6/19/1864)

To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; Aeronaut; quietolong; alfa6; E.G.C.; GailA; bentfeather; ...

"For God's sake, do what you can to save them!"

The Duel Between The "Alabama" And The "Kearsarge"

Reports of the Union Navy
From the Official Records, a series of reports dealing with this battle.

Reports of the Confederate Navy
From the Official Records, a series of reports dealing with this battle.

Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren (1809-1870) was a naval ordnance innovator and commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War. Dahlgren became a midshipman in 1826. Service on the U.S. Coast Survey (1834-37) distinguished his early career. In 1847, Lieutenant Dahlgren was assigned to ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard. Over the next fifteen years, he invented and developed bronze boat guns, heavy smoothbore shell guns, and rifled ordnance. He also created the first sustained weapons R&D program and organization in U.S. naval history. For these achievements, Dahlgren became known as the "father of American naval ordnance." His heavy smoothbores, characterized by their unusual bottle shape, were derived from scientific research in ballistics and metallurgy, manufactured and tested under the most comprehensive program of quality control in the Navy to that time, and were the Navy's standard shipboard armament during the Civil War. Promoted to commander in 1855, captain in 1862, and rear admiral in 1863, he became commandant of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861 and chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in 1862.

The Dahlgren Gun

61 posted on 07/15/2005 8:13:26 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)

To: Peanut Gallery; SAMWolf

Oh my! It's... PINK.

62 posted on 07/15/2005 8:16:05 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)

To: Professional Engineer

Your life just got a whole lot more...interesting!

63 posted on 07/15/2005 9:29:40 PM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)

To: snippy_about_it

Great work on today's thread Snippy.

64 posted on 07/15/2005 9:43:57 PM PDT by Colonial Warrior ("I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag...")

As you are aware, as Surgeon Browne of Kearsarge wrote the Dahlgren 11" guns on the Kearsarge were highly superior weapons in their day.

Image is of an eleven inch Dahlgren explosive shell, as destroyed Alabama. This machine is for sale too, only $700, darned cheap.

65 posted on 07/15/2005 11:48:16 PM PDT by Iris7 ("What fools these mortals be!" - Puck, in "Midsummer Night's Dream")

One of these days I shall read

Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States

Admiral Semmes memoir.

66 posted on 07/16/2005 12:30:31 AM PDT by Iris7 ("What fools these mortals be!" - Puck, in "Midsummer Night's Dream")

67 posted on 07/16/2005 3:03:18 AM PDT by E.G.C.

To: Professional Engineer

Does Bittygirl have "the knack"?

68 posted on 07/16/2005 3:03:56 PM PDT by Samwise ("You have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it?")

LOL, you were the first person I thought of. I saved that "knack" file, and play it occassionally.

69 posted on 07/16/2005 4:38:11 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)

To: Professional Engineer

"...pilot "Tex" Johnston..." But of course, a Texan.

70 posted on 07/16/2005 6:16:03 PM PDT by Iris7 ("What fools these mortals be!" - Puck, in "Midsummer Night's Dream")

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