The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 361
434 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The United States Gunboat Harriet Lane
steamer Nashville, off the Charleston bar.2 At 8:30 a. m., June
5, 1861, under command of Captain Famnce, she engaged the Con-
federate battery at Big Point, on Nansemond River, near Newport
News, Virginia, for one hour. Her fire was ineffective because of
the light calibre of her guns, and their short range; she was struck
twice by shots from the battery, and five of her crew were
wounded.3 She also participated in the attack upon Fort Hat-
teras, and was used as a convoy for merchant vessels and in cruis-
ing.4
Upon the organization of the West Gulf Squadron under Com-
modore Farragut for the reduction of Confederate ports in Louisi-
ana and Texas, because of her light draft, she was chosen for the
work and her batteries were strengthened as follows: one four-inch
rifled Parrot gun as pivot on the forecastle deck; one nine-inch
Dahlgren gun on pivot forward of the foremast; two eight-inch
Dahlgren Columbiads and two twenty-four-pound brass howitzers
on ship carriages, aft; and cutlasses and small arms for ninety-five
men. She was commanded by Commander John D. Wainright
and Lieutenant Commander Edward Lea, and was used as the flag
ship, by Commodore Farragut until January 20th, when he trans-
ferred his flag to. the Hartford.
Finally she was ordered to join Captain David D. Porter's fleet
which consisted of the Owasco, Westfield, Clifton, Mia.mi, Jack-
son, R. B. Forbes and Octorara, the last his flagship, at Ship Is-
land, near the mouth of the Mississippi river. From this rendez-
vous they sailed on the 4th of March, 1862, for the Southwest
Pass of that river, and thence to attack the forts below the city of
New Orleans. On the 8th of April they advanced up the west side
of the river as far as FPort Jackson, opened fire upon and enfiladed
this fortification, passed it on the morning of April 24 and on
the next day took New Orleans. After the surrender of the city
the Harriet Lane was sent up the river to aid in the attack on the
Vicksburg batteries, June 29, 1862.
In September she was dispatched to Galveston, Texas, along
10a.ptain H. D. Smith, "The U. .S. Revenue Cutter Service," Century
Magazine, Vol. 33, 575 (February, 1898).
'Frank Leslie's Pictorial History of the Civil War, 1861, 70.
'Captain H. D. Smith, loo. cit.
5D. S. Osborn, "Memoirs" in Pearson's Magazine, February, 1906.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/367/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.