n May of 1861, Lieutenant James W. Cooke, the future Captain of the
Confederate Ram Albemarle, resigned his
commission in the United States Navy to join the Confederate Navy.
By the fall of 1861, Cooke had been appointed official liaison
between North Carolina contractors and the Confederate Navy
Department. Soon after, he was promoted to the rank Commander. Cooke found himself traveling
around North Carolina coordinating the building of ironclads and
attempting to locate boat-building materials including iron for
plating the gunboats. Iron from the railroads became a primary source.
Cooke, for example, managed to secure through negotiations with
the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company the railroad
tracks that ran between Kinston and New Bern. These tracks had
become of no use to the Confederates because New Bern had fallen
into the hands of Union forces.
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Cmdr. J. W.
Cooke |
North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance agreed for the railroad
iron to be taken and shipped to either Richmond, Virginia or
Atlanta, Georgia to be rolled into plate under the stipulation
that it be used for the defense of the state. In particular, the governor noted that the railroad iron should
be used on the ironclads being built inland on the Neuse and the
Roanoke Rivers.
Propellers and propeller shafts for the ironclads were
fabricated in the Confederate Navy yard at Charlotte. Steam
engines were obtained wherever they could be found. Although no one knows for sure, some people claim the engine
for the Albemarle was converted from "a large saw
mill."
The Ram Albemarle was built
upriver in eastern North Carolina in William Ruffin Smith, Jr's cornfield
on the edge of the Roanoke River near Scotland Neck in the spring of 1864. The cornfield soon
became known as Edwards Ferry Shipyard, because of its close proximity to
a river crossing called Edwards Ferry. The Albemarle was 122 feet long, 45 feet beam
and her draft 8 feet. Her planking was 4 inches thick over 8x10 inch
frames. The central shield was 60 feet long and covered by two layers of 2
inch iron plating. Her armament consisted of two 8 inch guns, one forward,
the other aft, behind iron shutters. She had two engines of 200hp each.
She was commissioned into the Confederate Navy on Sunday, April 17, 1864.
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Location of Plymouth,
NC. and Edwards Ferry Shipyard (Red Diamond) and location of first
engagement with Federal gunboats (Red Box with X). |
In the spring of 1864 it was decided at Confederate headquarters that
an attempt should be made to recapture Plymouth. Commander Cooke, was ordered to
begin to take the Albemarle downstream and to cooperate with the commander of the land
forces, General Hoke. The Albemarle was to clear the river front of the Federal war vessels
protecting Plymouth with their guns.
On the morning of April 18th, 1864, the Albemarle left the town of
Hamilton and proceeded down river toward Plymouth, going stern first, with chains dragging from the bow, the rapidity of the current
making it impracticable to steer with her head down-stream. Her tender ship the Cotton Patch following close
behind. She came to
anchor about three miles above Plymouth, and a mile or so above the
battery on the bluff at Warren's Neck, near Thoroughfare Gap, where
torpedoes, sunken vessels, piles, and other obstructions had been placed.
An exploring expedition was sent out, under command of one of the
lieutenants, which returned in about two hours, with the report that it
was considered impossible to pass the obstructions. Thereupon the fires
were banked, and the officers and crew not on duty retired to rest.
Another party was sent out and found that there was ten feet of
water over and above the obstructions. This was due to the remarkable
freshet then prevailing. The party had made its way downstream to Plymouth, and taking advantage of the
shadow of the trees on the north side of the river, opposite the town, watched the Federal transports taking on board the women and children who
were being sent away for safety, on account of the approaching
bombardment. With muffled oars, the party made its way back up the river, hugging the northern bank, and reached the ram
about 1 o'clock, reporting to Captain Cooke that it was practicable to
pass the obstruction provided the boat was kept in the middle of the
stream.
Captain Cooke instantly aroused his men, gave the order to get up steam,
slipped the cables in his impatience to be off, and started down the
river. The obstructions were soon reached and safely passed, under a fire
from the fort at Warren's Neck which was not returned. Protected by the
iron-clad shield, to those on board the noise made by the shot and shell
as they struck the boat sounded no louder than pebbles thrown against an
empty barrel. At Boyle's Mill, lower down, there was another fort upon
which was mounted a very heavy gun.
Two days after leaving the Edwards Ferry yard, the ironclad Albemarle,
with her tender ship the Cotton Patch following close behind,
arrived offshore of Plymouth.
At 4:07 a.m. on April 19, Cooke ordered the Albemarle's gun crew
to load solid shot and standby. Through the misty twilight he had spotted
two approaching Union vessels. Union Navy command in New Bern had been
warned by spies that the Albemarle was on her way downstream and
had sent two gunboats, the Miami and the Southfield to
intercept the ram.
As the enemy drew closer Captain Cooke could see that the two ships were lashed together with long spars, and with chains
festooned between them. The plan of Miami's Captain, Lt. Commander Charles W. Flusser (also
the Senior U.S. naval officer at Plymouth) to run his vessels so as
to get the Albemarle between the two, so the ironclad could be boarded and possibly
captured.
Cooke ordered the Albemarle "all ahead full," sending
the 376-ton ironclad straight for the space between the bows of wooden
hulled Union vessels. Heavy guns from the two Union ships pounded the Albemarle
with shot.
Captain Cooke ran
the ram close to the southern shore, and then suddenly turning toward the
middle of the stream, and going with the current, the throttles, in
obedience to his bell, being wide open, he dashed the prow of the Albemarle
into the side of the Southfield, The Albemarle's ram crashed 10 feet inside the Southfield's
hull, causing the Union ship to start sinking immediately. Part of her crew went down with her.
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Ram Albemarle
becomes entangled in frame of the Southfield and the Miami opens
fire on crippled ram at close range. |
Cooke ordered "all astern full," hoping that full
reverse thrust would relieve the Albemarle's bow and ram
from the sinking Southfield.
To his horror, the Albemarle's ram remained stuck.
The chain-plates on the forward deck of the Albemarle became
entangled in the frame of the sinking vessel, and her bow was carried
down to such a depth that water poured into her port-holes in great
volume, and she would soon have shared the fate of the Southfield,
had not the latter vessel reached the bottom, and then, turning over on
her side, released the ram, thus allowing her to come up on an even keel.
The Miami, right alongside, had opened fire with her heavy guns,
placing several
broadsides into the ironclad's port casemate, but the shots ricocheted off the iron plates of the Albemarle,
careening harmlessly into the water.
During the heat of the battle, Captain Flusser trained the Miami's bow-mounted
9-inch
Dahlgren cannon, and personally fired the big gun pointblank at
the Albemarle from a range of about 30 feet. The shell slammed into the ironclad's casemate, ricocheting
back and exploding directly over Flusser, killing him instantly
and wounding several of the gun crew.
Notwithstanding the death of Flusser, an attempt was made to board
the ram, which was heroically resisted by as many of the crew as could be
crowded on the top deck, who were supplied with loaded muskets passed up
by their comrades below. The Miami, a very fast side-wheeler, succeeded in
eluding the Albemarle without receiving a blow from her ram, and retired
below Plymouth, into Albemarle Sound.
By 5:11 a.m., as the sun began to cast rays over the waters of
the Roanoke River at Plymouth, the Albemarle's first battle
was over. She had suffered only one casualty - a crew member
identified only as "Harris." That unlucky Confederate
received a pistol shot from a sailor on the Miami when he
succumbed to curiosity and took a peek out of one the ironclad's
gun ports.
Cooke navigated the victorious Albemarle to a point one
mile below Plymouth where he dropped anchor and allowed the crew
to recover and prepare their ship for another battle. His "iron sharpshooter battery" and tender ship, the Cotton
Plant, which had remained above Plymouth while the Albemarle
engaged the enemy, was now anchored close by the ironclad. Having now established control of the Roanoke, the Albemarle
began sporadically firing her two 6.4 rifles at Union targets in
and around occupied Plymouth.
On the morning of the 20th, Cooke steamed the Albemarle to
the banks of the river at Plymouth in support of Confederate
ground troops who were attacking Union forces stationed there at
Fort Williams. Anchoring off Jefferson Street, The Albemarle's crew
began shelling the fort. By 10 a.m., the Union had surrendered Plymouth back to the
Confederates, and the Albemarle was basking in another
victory. The Albemarle now went to the wharf at Plymouth to
be completed and repaired.
On May 5, the Albemarle, accompanied by the Cotton
Plant and the CSS Bombshell (formerly the
USS Bombshell which had been recently raised after being sunk by
confederate land fire), entered Albemarle Sound with intentions of
heading to New Bern to support a planned Confederate attack
against the Union forces occupying the town. Captain Cooke was
ordered to convoy the Cotton Plant to Alligator river. After
proceeding some 15 miles down the sound she encountered the Federal fleet,
consisting of the double-enders Mattabesett, Sassacus, Wyalusing
and Miami, and the gunboats Ceres, Whitehead, Commodore
Hull and the transport Ida May, all under the command of
Commodore M. Smith. These vessels were heavily armed, and the Miami
carried a torpedo and a seine, the latter to foul the Albemarle's
propeller. The Cotton Plant was sent back to Plymouth, and the Bombshell
should have been, for of course she had soon to surrender. The unexpected arrival of the Albemarle caused the Union
captains to cancel their mission of laying torpedoes across the
river. They quickly withdrew while sending the Ida May,
their fastest vessel, for help.
At 4:40 p.m., the seven Union gunboats had combined forces and
were bearing down on the Albemarle. They had orders to
steam past the ironclad in two columns, blasting her "at
every opportunity." The Bombshell, which had been slow about retreating, was
caught in the encounter.
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Confederate Ram
Albemarle being rammed by the Union Gunboat Sassacus |
About 5 p.m. the engagement commenced. The Albemarle
made repeated attempts to ram her huge antagonist, but her slow
speed prevented. The enemy poured broadside after broadside into
her; but even the 100-pound rifled projectiles and the 9-inch
solid shot failed to penetrate her shield. The Sassacus
rammed her just abaft the shield, but without effect. In return,
she received from the Albemarle a 100-pound Brooke
rifle-shot, which passed through one of her boilers, scalding many
of her crew, and sending her out of action, disabled. The Miami
made no use of her torpedo and the seine accomplished nothing. The
Albemarle kept up a constant fire, though one of her guns
was badly cracked. Finding it impossible to capture the Albemarle,
the Federal fleet discontinued the action at 7:30 p.m., and the
unconquerable little ram made her way slowly back to Plymouth. The
total loss in the Federal vessels was 29. We have no returns of
the Albemarle's loss. For the next three hours, the Albemarle and the Bombshell
were surrounded by gunboats firing into them at close range.
Both ships became completely engulfed in thick white smoke from
the cannon fire. The Bombshell was finally disabled and her
crew captured. The Albemarle was rammed once and hit by
shells over 44 times.
Luckily, with darkness coming on, the Union fleet drew weary of
attacking the ironclad, believing her to be "impervious to
damage." The wounded Albemarle was finally able to
escape west to the Roanoke and back to the wharf at Plymouth.
Five days later, Southern loyalist Catherine Ann Edmondston
wrote in her journal about the Albemarle's heroic battle on
the sound:
"Captain Cooke has had a severe fight with Yankee gunboats
in Albemarle Sound. His smokestack was so riddled with shot that
he could not burn coal & but for a supply of lard & bacon
he would have been taken. He kept up his fires with these,
however. Sunk two steamers & fought his way back to Plymouth
with one gun disabled & her smokestack with holes in it
through which a man might creep. He lost his new tender, the Bombshell.
She was sunk & her crew captured. Ten men were killed on the
deck of the Albemarle. She engaged 11 boats at once &
escaped them all. They threw a net made of rope over her but the
ropes which held it to the steamers parting, it fell harmless off
her sides into the water. For her preservation, God be
thanked."
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Part of the
smokestack from the Albemarle. |
In actuality, the combined assault on the Albemarle
consisted of seven Union gunboats. The damage inflicted on the
Union ships by the Albemarle included four Union crewmen
killed, 25 wounded, one gunboat completely disabled and three
others seriously damaged. After-battle reports from the Union vessels indicated that a
combined total of 60 guns had fired 557 various types of shot and
shell at the Albemarle. The two-gun Albemarle had fired 27 shells at the Union
ships.
By the autumn the Federal
Government decided something must be done about the situation in
North Carolina and the navy discussed a number of plans for
destroying Albemarle. Commander William Cushing was
authorized to find two small steam launches to be fitted out as
spar-torpedo-boats. He found two suitable 30 foot picket boats
building in New York; and he fitted them with a torpedo, invented
by Engineer Lay (USN), which was mounted at the end of a
fourteen foot spar. A 12-pounder howitzer was mounted in the bow.
One of the boats was lost on the way to Norfolk, but he took the
other, with a crew of seven officers and men, to the federal ships
waiting in the Sound off the mouth of the Roanoke.
The
torpedo contained an air chamber which allowed it to float in a vertical
position. Pulling out the pin let a grape ball fall on a percussion cap
which ignited the powder charge in the lower chamber. The device, at the
end of a 14 ft. spar was released by pulling a lanyard when it was under
the enemy hull.
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Albemarle being
sunk by Lay torpedo. Note chained/sparred log curtain around
Albemarle to prevent boarding and torpedo attack. |
On the night of 27 October they
entered the river with a small cutter in tow. The men in this had the job
of surprising the picket which had been placed on a schooner alongside the
wreck of the Southfield, a mile below Plymouth, and prevent them
firing warning rockets. In the event they went past unchallenged and Cdr.
Cushing decided to use his 22 men to board the ram and try and take her
out into the stream, but as they approached the wharf they were hailed and
this was quickly followed by heavy fire from the ship and the shore. By
the light of a fire on the bank Cushing now discovered that Albemarle
was protected against torpedo attack by a boom of floating logs; however
the logs, after long immersion in the water, were covered in slime and the
picket boat easily rode over them. Cushing stood in the bow and pulled the
detaching and firing lines to explode the torpedo under the ram`s hull at
the same time as a canister of grape struck the boat throwing them all
into the freezing water. The blast, along with a simultaneous blast of a cannon fired
from inside the Albemarle, killed a number of Cushing's
crew. Cushing called on his men to save themselves, stripped
off his uniform, and swam out into the stream while boats searched for
survivors. He was not seen and eventually, finding mud beneath his feet,
he lay exhausted, half out of the water until daylight. The sun brought
welcome warmth and he found that he was on the outskirts of Plymouth under
the parapet of a fort. In the afternoon he managed to board a small skiff
and paddled down the river until he reached the safety of a federal picket
vessel. His attack had been successful. Albemarle had "a hole
in her bottom big enough to drive a wagon in." She was resting in
eight feet of water with her upper works above the surface. Her captain,
Alexander Wharley, who had been appointed to her about a month
earlier, salvaged the guns and shells and used them to defend the town
against the subsequent federal attack until he could see further
resistance was fruitless.
The only reported casualty of the Albemarle's crew of 66
was acting Master's Mate James Charles Hill. When the torpedo
exploded, he sustained severe injuries from a hatchway falling on
him as he slept. Probably the youngest member of the Albemarle crew was
Benjamin H. Gray, a 12-year old black youth who had enlisted as
"powder boy" when Cooke was recruiting his crew. Gray
served in combat aboard the Albemarle six months until Cushing's
torpedo sank the gunboat.
After the war, the famous Confederate ironclad Albemarle was
raised, taken north and sold for scrap. Albemarle was raised after the Union forces captured Plymouth. In
late April 1865, she was towed to Norfolk Navy Yard by USS Ceres. There
she was condemned as a prize, and purchased by the Navy who sold her in
October 1867.
