The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

Part IV– The Union Ironclads :   USS Passaic – The Giant Monitor

First in a class that would bear her name, USS Passaic (USN Card 28) was one of the few Navy ships – and perhaps the only ironclad – which President Abraham Lincoln himself visited.  A week later she and the USS Monitor (USN Card 19) were caught in a storm off Cape Hatteras.  She survived only by bailing, pumping and throwing overboard all of her shot;  USS Monitor was less fortunate, foundering and going to her grave beneath the stormy waves.

With her mighty guns (an 11-inch and a 15-inch Dahlgren) the USS Passaic was a powerful addition to Samuel Francis DuPont’s (USN Card 54) South Atlantic Blockading Squadron of Charleston.  In addition to capturing a blockade runner, the outgoing cotton-laden Glide,  (a rarity for the lumber ironclads) she took part in DuPont’s abortive April 1863 assault on Charleston Harbor.  After repairs she rejoined the squadron and was chosen by its new commander, John Dahlgren (USN Card 31) as his flagship.  He directed the attack on Fort Moultrie from her pilot house.  When her sister ship USS Lehigh (USN Card 22) was driven aground (see my blog post from yesterday) the USS Passaic offered covering fire and help pull her to safety.

Vive l'Empereur - and "Happy" Waterloo Day ...at 7 p.m. tonight the Old Guard goes up the hill....

Meanwhile...

Rebel Raiders Replay Turn 10 (Part 2) April 1864 - DuPont, Conqueror of the Mississippi

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we left off, the mighty CSS Alabama, upon whom the Confederacy (and Mark) had pinned their last hopes for doing ANYTHING at sea, was caught and sunk on her maiden voyage by the largest warship in the U.S. Navy - USS Mississippi.  Now it is the Union turn, and Brandon is turning his sights to another Mississippi - the river and the Rebel fortresses that dominate it at Memphis and Vicksburg...

It is 1864, and the Union has four dice now in combat.  Brandon knows the clock is ticking, and comes on strong.

He comes back at Memphis again but this time plays DuPont (Card 54) to gain a big advantage (Rebel Batteries only fire one, not two, dice in the first round of combat).  With 5 Ironclads and a Gunboat he faces a Rebel force of 2 Ironclads, 1 Gunboat and 3 Batteries.  Two Batteries are destroyed in the first round, along with an Ironclad and the Gunboat, at no loss to the North.  Mark retreats his remaining Ironclad, sending it down river to Vicksburg.   Brandon completes the destruction of the defenses of Memphis, which falls easily and at great cost in VP to the South.

The Union keeps going with its second Assault of the turn.  The Union has so many ships on the river it almost does not have space for them…so down to Vicksburg they come.   The single Rebel Ironclad that survived Memphis and the one Battery there are no match for five Yankee Ironclads – actually, six, as Brandon plays the Tyler (USN Card 18) turning his sixth ship, a Gunboat, into a virtual Ironclad for the brief battle.

Vicksburg falls.   The South is once again in the negatives in VP.

Unvexed to the Sea?

With Memphis and Vicksburg gone, the North needs only New Orleans to complete its conquest of the Mississippi.  Six Screw Sloops come up river from Forts Jackson and St. Philip.  One is lost to the Battery before the Union warships smother it in shot and shell.  Incredibly, however, despite the advantage in dice and Union Tactics – New Orleans holds!

Brandon then turns to hunting Raiders, fails to find any, and spends his builds to buy four Assaults and an Screw Sloops.  He draws four cards, as it is 1864 (the Union gets that fourth draw in 1863 turns).Two Ironclads and a free Gunboat are placed in the Navy Yards.