Porter Unleashes Hell on Ft. Fisher, Xmas Eve 1864

Porter Unleashes Hell on Ft. Fisher, Xmas Eve 1864

The largest U.S. naval force yet assembled unleashed hell on Ft. Fisher on Christmas Eve, 1864.  Admiral David Dixon Porter's fleet of over 60 warships, including five ironclads, mounted 624 guns - and Porter intended to use every one of them to bury the Rebel fort under a torrent of iron.

Porter's ships fired over 8,100 rounds - with a combined weight of more than half a million tons - into the sandy bastions guarding the approaches to Wilmington, N.C.   Colonel William Lamb had only 44 guns inside the fort, and Porter hoped to so batter the defenses that General Benjamin Butler's troops could just walk into Fort Fisher unopposed.

Porter's massive bombardment was the greatest the Western Hemisphere had ever seen, yet it had minimal effect on the brilliantly designed fort.  Three guns were dismounted, and four defenders were killed and another 19 wounded.  Porter's fleet sustained heavier losses, with three ships forced to retire due to accurate fire from the fort.  Most of the 91 sailors killed or wounded in the action were victims of their own guns, a number of which exploded.

The Navy landed a portion of Butler's troops, but the assault never went in.   Reports from the advanced guard that the defenses were nearly intact convinced Butler, still offshore, to call off the attack. Much to Porter's fury, Butler re-embarked most of his men, except for about 700 who were forced to spend Christmas Day huddled on the beach, without food or water, due to a sudden storm.  Despite pleas to General Braxton Bragg for permission to attack and capture the remnants of the landing force, Bragg refused to give the order.  The last of Butler's men were pulled off by the Navy on the 26th, and the fleet retired to Beaufort.   

Less than a month later, Porter would return - and with troops commanded by the much more aggressive and competent General Terry.  Porter's fleet bested its own record, firing over 180 rounds a minute in a sustained and much more accurate bombardment that began on January 13 and continued through the day and night of the 14th and into the early hours of the 15th.  Porter's guns fired close support right up until Terry launched his assault - with ironclads and gunboats coming close in shore to rake the defenders when they came out of their bombproofs to battle Terry's infantry and a column of 2,000 sailors and marines that Porter had landed to support the assault.   Although the naval landing force was handily repulsed and with heavy losses, the infantry carried the fort - with help from the Navy's guns.

In GMT's strategic naval game of the Civil War, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, the Union player can build powerful fleets of screw sloops, ironclads and gunboats and recruit key admirals, Porter among them, to wear down the Confederate player's coastal defenses, which, through card play and careful planning, can be every bit as resilient as those constructed by Col. Lamb at Ft. Fisher.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: USS Osceola

The USS Osceola  (USN Card 9).  Built in Boston as a “fighting tow,” she took part in operations on the James River and against Fort Fisher in 1864.  Capable of speeds of up to 15 knots, the heavily armed (nine guns) warship also helped clear a minefield and supported the landing of Union troops at Bermuda Hundred.

As part of the North Atlantic Squadron the ship was also part of the inshore blockade, and had many an encounter with enemy vessels, one such instant Commander Clitz, then officer commanding, describes in a report he send to Admiral David Dixon Porter on November 1, 1864.

“I have to inform you that yesterday at 11 o’clock a.m., when in latitude 33 55’ N., longitude 75 45’ W.,  discovered black smoke bearing N.W., distant about 15 miles.  Gave chase immediately and continued to do so until about 8:45 p.m. The chase was a side wheel steamer, painted white, with two masts and two smokestacks.  She was either a blockade runner or a privateer, I think the later, as her decks were crowded with men.   When first discovered she was steering towards Wilmington (N.C.) but we pressed her so hard she was compelled to change her course to every point of the compass.  At sunset we were about 4 miles from said steamer, opened fire with the forward 100-pounder Parrot rifle, firing five shots; finding that they fell short, discontinued the firing, but continued to follow until the time above mentioned, when we lost her in a fog bank.

            “We kept up a uniform speed of 13 ½ knots during the entire chase.

            “I think that I can safely say but for the darkness and fog it would have been our good fortune to have captured her.”

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Douglas

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The  Douglas

  The Douglas (CSN Card 84)  was a little steamer that ran in and out of the Isle of Man before being purchased by Confederate agents for use as a blockade runner.  After making her first crossing to Charleston in January 1863 she was renamed The Margaret & Jessie.  The little 726-ton iron side-wheel steamer made five more runs in and out of that port and three in and out of Wilmington.  On her fourth attempt to run into the North Carolina den, however, she was caught by an armed transport of the U.S. Army – The Fulton, and a navy warship, USS Nansemond.   The Douglas/Margaret & Jessie was taken into service as USS Gettysburg, and later took part in the assault on the Wilmington forts.   She ended her career as a U.S. Navy survey vessel and was sold off in Italy in 1879.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - CSS Robert E. Lee

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  CSS  Robert E. Lee

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

 CSS  Robert E. Lee (CSN Card 69)  began her career as a blockade runner in  the fal of 1862.  For nearly a year the schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engine, double-stack paddle-steamer ran in and out of North Carolina’s inlets and harbors to bring in war materials and other desperately needed supplies.

Built in England as the merchant ship Giraffe, unlike most blockade runners which were either owned by private individuals or commissioned by the states, the Robert E. Lee was part of the regular navy – hence the CSS before its name.   Among the more important of its 21 voyages was a trip to Halifax to deliver cotton and a number of key passengers, including 20 naval officers destined to serve aboard other blockade runners and raiders.  Her frequent runs, however, were between Bermuda and Wilmington.

Naval officer Lt. Richard H. Gayle took command in May 1863 and eluded capture several times, but on November 9, 1863 his ship was finally run down off the North Carolina shore by a pair of Union warships:  USS Iron Age and USS James Adger.  The Navy took her as a prize, armed and rechristened her USS Fort Donelson and put her into service on the blockade.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  The Banshee

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The Banshee

The Banshee (CSN Card 68) was one of the first ships built specifically to run the Union blockade.  She was also one of the first commercial vessels to build of steel.

 Under Joseph W. Steele the ship made eight successful runs, giving her owners their investment seven times over.  After a transatlantic maiden voyage in April 1863, most of her runs were from Bermuda or the Bahamas into Wilmington, where she was caught later that year on her ninth and final run by the USS Grand Gulf.  Taken to New York as a prize, she was purchased, armed and rechristened by the U.S. Navy as the gunboat USS Banshee, under which name she joined the blockade in Chesapeake Bay.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  The CSS Advance

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The CSS Advance

Most blockade runners made a profit by their second voyage; the CSS Advance (CSN Card 67) made 20 such successful runs, making her one of if not the most profitable of all of those ships that ran the Union blockade.   A side-wheel steamer built in Scotland as the Lord Clyde in 1862, she was purchased by the state of North Carolina and renamed in honor of its governor, Zebulan Vance.   She eluded capture on over 40 occasions before her luck ran out on September 10, 1864 off Wilmington, where she was caught by the gunboat USS Santiago de Cuba.  The Union impressed the ship into service, refitting and rechristening her as the gunboat USS Frolic.  She finished out the war, ironically, enforcing the blockade.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  The Don

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners -  The Don

With few arsenals or factories of its own, the Confederacy relied upon European manufacturers for much of its war material as well as other vital supplies.  As European vessels would not cross the Union naval blockade to deliver those goods into Southern ports, the South relied upon a fleet of swift merchantmen to “run” the blockade.  

The Don (CSN Card 66) was a particularly fast twin-screw, two-stacker Blockade Runner.   Capable of 14 knots and drawing only six feet, The Don was hard to run down and could slip into coastal inlets to hide.  The vessel cost $115,000 to build, but made back that and more for her owners, who included the State of North Carolina and Francis Muir of Pudding Lane in London and on her first trip from England via Nassau in 1863.  Her 32-year-old captain, Fred Cory, made a second similarly successful voyage, but on his third trip his ship was caught off Beauport, on March 4, 1864, by the wooden screw gunboat USS Pequot.

On that final voyage the ship was packed not with weapons and munitions, but with uniforms, blankets and shoes, a cargo valued at over $200,000 – or twice what it cost to build The Don.

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 6)

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

When we left off last time, the Union blockade had become so formidable that nearly half of the vessels trying to run it were caught - most with their cargo.  The net suitably tight, now the North is starting to send out packs of screw sloops to hunt down Raiders....

Four more Blockade Runners go down --- Brandon is capturing them faster than the South can build them.  Twelve victory points are acquired by the South this turn, bust mostly from Raiding, not Running.  Memphis is strengthened by the Gunboat the South built last turn (which was built in Vicksburg, as I failed to mention, as an Ironclad appeared in Memphis last turn and the South may only place one ship per port per Build Phase, other than through card play).

Beauregard (Card 88) again appears, with that blessed third battery, and Nashville and Memphis are now brought up to full strength with three batteries each, and another is placed in Richmond, just to safeguard the capital.   The South builds four Blockade Runners, one for each lost this turn, and builds a Gunboat in Memphis.

Brandon decides it is time to start chipping away at the Atlantic, and goes for an Amphibious Assault on Wilmington.  His fleet of four Gunboats and the Screw Sloop Brooklyn (Card 13) gets a surprise as the Ring of Fire (Card 101) adds a second battery to the defenses…although Mark rolls horribly (even with the bonuses from the card) and sinks only one Gunboat, Brandon backs off rather than take on two batteries with his under-gunned force.

Diplomatic Pressure  (Card 55) is applied through the card of the same name, which sends the Trent and Royal Navy (Cards 83 and 62) to the Discard Pile - this frees up the three screw sloops that were on the later card, giving the North yet more big warships to go a'Raider-hunting.

Brandon buys an extra Attack for next turn, as well as another Ironclad and some Gunboats.   Turn 7 apparently is going to be the start of the "big push," as it will be 1863 - which means the North increases its attack dice from two to three - giving it the edge on the South, which remains at two.  The Union is learning the art of war...and how to use its massive industrial base to powerful effect.

Images below:  The big map situation early in Turn 6, before the Union play...

...and some of the cards played on Turn 6....