Preparing to Attack and Defend New Orleans

| April 17, 2012

April 17, 1862 (Thursday) When last we left General Benjamin Butler, he had been sent home to New England to recruit youthful Democrats into the army. Butler had noticed, upon returning to his northerly home, that the bulk of the privates in the army were Republicans. Fearing, as he later wrote, “a division of the [...]

Monitor Receives Her Commander; Florida Port Taken by Union Navy

| January 16, 2012

January 16, 1862 (Thursday) The war had not started easily for John Worden, a forty-four year old career Navy-man, who was a midshipman at age sixteen. He had the dubious distinction of becoming one of the prisoners of war in the operations to reinforce Fort Pickens just as Sumter was being fired upon. While Worden [...]