Happy 201st Birthday, Adm. David Dixon Porter

Happy 201^st Birthday, Adm. David Dixon Porter

Admiral David Dixon Porter would be 201 today.   The storied Union naval officer and Civil War hero is represented by both a counter and a card in my strategic naval game of the Civil War – Rebel Raiders on the High Seas. Judicious use of USN Card No. 2 “David Dixon Porter & His Little Mortar Boats” can greatly ease the Union Navy’s attacks into Confederate river and ocean ports.

Porter is USN Card No. 2 because he was the second officer to attain the rank of rear admiral in the Union Navy.  David Glasgow Farragut was the first – and hence he is on USN Card No. 1 (“Damn the Torpedoes…Full Speed Ahead”) – a little inside joke of mine.  Porter was also the adopted brother of Farragut, and their sibling rivalry was infamous.  Farragut also appears on USN Card 33 – “The Grand Fleet,” a card which allows the Union to stack 10 warships instead of the usual maximum of 6.  Porter, alas, being the junior of the two admirals/brothers, is limited to the lesser number.

Porter, however, made many contributions to the war effort and is also remembered by USN Card 25 – “The Black Terror.”  Although not listed on the card, it was his idea to build the phony ironclad that so frightened the Rebels on the river.

Porter and his mortar boats were vital to the Union victory at New Orleans (where he served under his elder brother), and to the first naval attack on Vicksburg (where he again served at his brother’s side).  Porter was promoted to a command of his own, leading the Western Gunboat Flotilla – renamed the Mississippi River Squadron – during the Vicksburg campaign.  He was named “acting” rear admiral in recognition of his role in its capture. 

The importance of Vicksburg is noted in Rebel Raiders, as it is one of the critical victory cities the Union needs to take to win the game.

Porter also took part in the abortive Red River Campaign (which is represented in the game by CSN Card 76 – “Red River Fiasco”).  It is a Rebel card because it was such an ill-conceived plan that no Union player in his right mind would willingly attempt it.

Porter redeemed himself by saving his fleet from disaster on the Red River (thanks to an Army engineer who built a damn to float his ironclads over the rapids to safety) and again by leading the naval forces that pounded and helped capture Fort Fisher in January 1865. 

After the war, Porter went on to become superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.   In 1866 Farragut became the nation’s first full admiral, and Porter became its first vice admiral – and when Farragut died, Porter was promoted, becoming the nation’s second full admiral.   He died in 1891 at the age of 77.

A Rebel Raiders’ Happy Birthday to the USNA - & Its Rebel Admiral

  

On this date in 1845 Franklin Buchanan – who later became the first admiral of the Confederate navy – opened the doors of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.    “Old Buck” was the academy’s first superintendent, and many of the midshipmen who studied while he was at the helm of the academy would see him again through the smoke of battle during the Civil War.

 Buchanan did not stay long at Annapolis, as the old salt longed to go sea – which he did as second in command of Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition that “opened” Japan. At the start of the Civil War he was commandant of the Navy Yard in Washington, but resigned his commission and went South after the Baltimore riots in 1861.  (Although when his native Maryland failed to secede, he tried to get his federal commission back, but Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles would have none of that and sent him packing, with a curse).

Buchanan’s reputation and service, however, propelled him up the ranks of a grateful Confederacy, which named him its first admiral.  “Old Buck” was a fighting admiral, a combat sailor in the finest tradition of the USNA, personally taking charge of the South’s first ironclad, the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads in 1862 and later the CSS Tennessee in the fateful battle at Mobile Bay in 1964.

 .

Buchanan is represented three ways in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas; first, as a leader counter for the South, and then twice more in the cards – for the two ironclads he commanded during their historic encounters with the Union navy.  Those ships are represented by CSN Cards 70 and 86.  Despite having “gone South,” Buchanan has not been forgotten by the Navy or the Academy: three U.S. Navy destroyers were named for him, as is the house that serves as the superintendent’s quarters at Annapolis.

A Rebel Raiders’ Happy (Almost) Birthday to the USNA - & Its Rebel Admiral

Sept 3, 1845 - Buchanan Takes command of the post at old Fort Severn, Annapolis

On this date in 1845 Franklin Buchanan – who later became the first admiral of the Confederate navy – took command of the post at old Fort Severn in Annapolis, with orders to prepare for the opening day of the United States Naval Academy.  That day came five weeks later on October 10, with “Old Buck” as its first superintendent.

Buchanan is represented three ways in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas; first, as a leader counter for the South, and then twice more in the cards – for the two ironclads he commanded during their historic encounters with the Union navy.

As James McPherson notes in his recent book, War Upon the Waters, Buchanan was a veteran of 45 years in the U.S. Navy. In addition to having been the first superintendent of Annapolis, he was also second in command of Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition that “opened” Japan and was commandant of the Navy Yard in Washington when the Civil War began.   When mobs rioted in Baltimore, the native Marylander tendered his resignation from the service to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.  Three days later, however, the hot-headed “Old Buck” realized as McPherson puts it that “he had acted rashly” and tried to withdraw the resignation.  Welles, however, explains McPherson “wanted no sunshine patriots in his navy.”  He refused Buchanan’s request, and told him rather “icily” as Mcpherson notes that “by direction of the President, your name has been stricken from the rolls of the Navy.”

Buchanan found a much warmer welcome when he went South – as did 258 other Southern-born naval officers.  In March of 1862 he personally took command of the CSS Virginia  (CSN Card 70 in Rebel Raiders) when it steamed out to attack Union warships in Hampton Roads.  During that action he became so incensed at Union snipers firing from the shore that he climbed OUT of the ironclad to fire a musket at the Yankees.  Wounded by the snipers, Buchanan had to turn over command of the ironclad – and thus missed out on the epic action the following day against the USS Monitor (USN Card 19).

Buchanan was promoted to admiral – the first (and until almost the very end of the war, the only) admiral in the Confederate Navy.   He helped organize the fleet and defenses of Mobile, and when Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (who also appears in Rebel Raiders as a leader and on three cards – USN Cards 1, 33 and 37 – Damn the Torpedoes, the Grand Fleet and USS Hartford)  steamed into the Bay, it was “Old Buck” who went  out to meet him in the ironclad ram CSS Tennessee (CSN Card 86).

That confrontation is dramatized in the classic painting by William Heysham Overrend (see below).

“Old Buck” survived the war – and outlived Farragut, who passed away on August 14, 1870 – by nearly four years. 

Despite having “gone South,” Buchanan has not been forgotten by the Navy or the Academy: three U.S. Navy destroyers were named for him, as is the house that serves as the superintendent’s quarters at Annapolis.