The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-12-02

.Ae government mad liberal stock IN
No rthern yards.
I The whole number of available naval
officers left, after 322 southern men had
gone with their seeding States, was
barely sufficient to supply the Navy
| Yards and the little fleet of vessels.
There were plenty of high-grade officers,
! too old for active service: but the lower
grades were so deficient, that, below the
rank OF lieutenant, there were less than
one hundred. This number was aug
mented happily by ordering the three
upper classes of midshipmen from the
Naval Academy into active service.
Then naval examining boards We're ap-
pointed at the Navy Yards, and able
pooled men, who had served upon the
rivers, or the ocean, We're appointed act
ing mates. ensigns and masters, and
drilled by regular officers in the use of
arms. l had classes of these raw re-
crults to drill at the Charlestown Navy
Yard. They proved apt pupils and form
ed valuable part of the navy, often
SURPRISING the regulars in seamanship.
! and equally ready with them to face the
music where shot and shell were fiving.
The whole number Of officers commits
. stoned during the war was $500, and the
regulars numbered 1850, or only one
sixth Of the whole. AS the volunteer
officers OF the army did the greater part
! OF the lighting upon the land so the vol
, unteers of the navy did that upon the
rivers and the sea.
The deficiency in trained seamen was
equally marked. The quota for the
whole service was 1000 men, but owing
to the scattered state of the naval feet.
| there were only POT men at all the sta
tons upon the Atlantic coast. Recruit
ing offices were opened in the larger
seaboard cities, and every one was taken
who could pass muster. There We're men
| from all walks of life, landsmen and sea-
men, a miscellaneous assortment as in
the army. A large proportion Were hon
| EST and courageous men, who kept the
roughs under, and manned and fought
our ships admirably
The navy increased rapidly, especially
after the passage of a law permitting
sailors in the army to change their en-
listment to the navy. The quota of 1900
men at the outbreak of the war had been
augmented at the close to 81, 500, all we'll
drilled in naval routine and forming a
formidable fighting force.
| The arms used on board ship were
swords, pixies, revolvers, Enfield rifles,
Sharpe's carbines, howitzers, smooth
| bore cannon, Parrot rifles and mortars.
The latter were employed at the bonn
| bardments of a few forts, but they had
no place upon real men-of-war A sword
! and Colts revolver were worn as side
arms by officers and some of the sailors
when prepared for fighting. The pixies
were used only in drilling, or in stabbing
shark or porpoise-useless as the
swords, because boarding a vessel was
rare. The style of fighting had changed.
The Enfield and Shapes rifles We're used
in drilling and fighting afioat and ashore;
boats crews We're armed with the Sharpe
and Colt-poWerful arms, as we taught
the southern crackers and the alligators.
Vessels carried two to six 24-pounder
| howitzers, some forward, some aft, to
fire salutes, repel boat attacks, clear the
woods, discharge quickly at an enemy,
and to call all hands to quarters, while
the drummer and fifer were getting into
their clothes. A launch had one mount
ed in her bow for river service, and it
was sometimes put ashore in land attacks.
They were great pets of the gunner S
mates.
One foggy night off Charleston bar the
officer of the deck of the gunboat Ottawa,
a block ade-runner crossed the stern of
the ship so near he could see the men on
board, just as he ran a howitzer out and
| fired into her. The steamer vanished,
the paddle-wheels still revolved, and, as
we rushed half dressed upon deck and to
our stations, the officer said in great ex-
citement, sd her! she came within
an eighth OF an inch of running US down.
Smooth bore 80 pounders, new 8, 8 and
1O-inch shell guns, and few rifed can
non, formed the broadside armament of
the larger vessels.
Regular men-of-war had broadside,
smooth bore guns, mounted on carriages
inside the gun-ports; 30-lb. Parrot aft;
a 60 forward, 100 or $50 before the fore
and main masts, and an 11-inch Dahlgren
on the quarter deck behind the mizzen
mast. The midship guns were on pivot
carriages and could be fired in large arcs
of the horizon upon either side-the bull
warks being removed.
The turrets of the ironclads, Monitor
type, had each one 11-inch and one 15-
inch, Dahlgren pattern; that is, like a
champagne bottle. The large guns fired
shell and solid shot, which were so heavy
they had to be handled by tackles and