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04/17/1861 |
Confederate president invites applications for "letters of Marque and Reprisal" |
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06/28/1861 to 06/29/1861 |
On Chesapeake Bay, a bold stroke captures a Baltimore ferry and turns it into a Confederate privateer |
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07/06/1861 |
Confederate privateer encounters the loaded Boston schooner "Enchantress" and takes her as a prize |
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07/08/1861 |
In Baltimore, the War Department, to secure local shipping from hijack, seizes two Chesapeake ferries |
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07/22/1861 |
U.S. Navy recaptures the Boston schooner "Enchantress" taken as a Confederate prize two weeks before |
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08/24/1861 |
The first of the six new warships Congress appropriated for at the start of the war is launched in Philadelphia |
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08/28/1861 to 08/29/1861 |
In North Carolina, a combined federal army and navy operation bombards and captures coastal forts |
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09/13/1861 to 09/14/1861 |
On the Florida coast, Union sailors and marines raid Pensacola and destroy a Confederate warship there |
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09/16/1861 |
Union naval landing parties retake Chandeleur Island in Louisiana off the mouth of the Mississippi |
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09/16/1861 |
Confederate forces evacuate Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi |
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09/25/1861 |
U.S. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles authorizes the enlistment of runaway slaves into the naval service |
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10/01/1861 |
Confederate gunboats seize Union steamer off North Carolina, capturing Indiana and New York troops aboard |
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10/04/1861 |
On the North Carolina coast, a Confederate amphibious assault captures a Union camp at Chicomacomico |
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10/11/1861 |
United States Navy raiding party crosses the Potomac and destroys a Confederate schooner in Dumfries Creek |
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10/12/1861 |
Confederate naval units stage a dawn attack on the U.S. Navy squadron blockading New Orleans |
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10/13/1861 |
The United States Navy celebrates the eighty-fifth anniversary of its founding |
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10/13/1861 |
Off the Tortugas, the U.S.S. Keystone State captures a Confederate blockade runner bound for Florida |
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10/22/1861 to 10/25/1861 |
In Philadelphia, the piracy trial of privateer William Smith results in guilty verdict and a death sentence |
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10/25/1861 |
At Greenpoint, New York, John Ericsson lays the keel for his revolutionary ironclad |
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10/25/1861 |
Captured blockade runner arrives at Philadelphia Naval Yard - her cargo includes 400,000 Cuban cigars |
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10/26/1861 |
The Confederate commerce raider Nashville runs the blockade at Charleston and heads for the North Atlantic |
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10/29/1861 |
Largest U.S. Fleet ever assembled sails from Norfolk, Virginia to blockade and harass the Confederate coast |
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11/01/1861 to 11/02/1861 |
The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron runs into a storm on its way to South Carolina and ships are lost |
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11/02/1861 |
The "Stone Fleet" sets sail from New Bedford, Massachusetts |
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11/04/1861 |
In Philadelphia, U.S. Justice Grier rebels against piracy cases interrupting U.S. District Court business |
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11/04/1861 to 11/07/1861 |
In South Carolina, the U.S. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron takes Port Royal by naval bombardment |
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11/08/1861 |
A U.S. warship intercepts and boards a British mail ship off Cuba to arrest Confederate diplomats |
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11/10/1861 |
In Richmond, Confederates select prisoners for trial in retaliation for Northern convictions of privateers |
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11/12/1861 |
Union warship captures Confederate privateer off the Bahamas |
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11/16/1861 |
The new 730-ton side wheel gunboat U.S.S. Miami is launched at the Philadelphia Navy Yard |
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11/19/1861 |
In the Atlantic, the Confederate commerce raider Nashville burns the U.S. merchantman Harvey Birch |
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11/21/1861 |
In southern England, the Confederate commerce raider Nashville docks for repairs in the port of Southampton |
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11/22/1861 to 11/23/1861 |
On the Florida coast, Union artillery and navy ships bombard Confederate positions around Pensacola |
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11/24/1861 |
On the Georgia coast, U.S. Navy boat crews take control of Tybee Island |
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12/01/1861 |
The captured blockade runner Albion arrives in New York Harbor under a prize crew from USS Penguin |
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12/04/1861 |
U.S.S. Hartford returns home from Asia with four officers who had declared for the Confederacy |
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12/05/1861 |
In the English port of Southampton, the Confederate warship Nashville enters dry-dock for repairs |
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12/14/1861 |
In Southampton harbor, the Confederate warship Nashville dips its flag in mourning for Prince Albert |
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12/18/1861 |
The "Stone Fleet" sets sail from Port Royal, South Carolina for Charleston Harbor |
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12/19/1861 to 12/20/1861 |
The U.S. Navy's "Stone Fleet" is deliberately sunk in the channels of Charleston Harbor |
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12/28/1861 |
Off Mississippi, a U.S. Navy steamer collides with a French warship sent to evacuate citizens from New Orleans |
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12/31/1861 |
On the Mississippi Gulf coast, U.S. Navy units based at Ship Island capture the town of Biloxi |
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01/02/1862 |
In South Carolina, a Confederate steamer easily avoids the U.S. Navy and enters the blockaded port of Charleston |
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01/08/1862 |
The U.S.S. Tuscarora moors in Southampton Water, a mile from the Confederate commerce Nashville |
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01/23/1862 |
In the English port of Southampton, sailors from Confederate and Union warships brawl in a pub |
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01/26/1862 |
The U.S. Navy sinks a second "stone fleet" to block another channel in Charleston Harbor |
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01/30/1862 |
John Ericsson's new ironclad is launched in New York |
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02/03/1862 |
Watched by the U.S.S. Tuscarora, the Confederate warship Nashville sails from Southampton |
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02/15/1862 |
The United States reclassifies convicted Confederate privateers as prisoners of war |
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02/19/1862 |
At Greenpoint, New York, John Ericsson's new ironclad is completed and turned over the the U.S. Navy. |
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02/28/1862 |
At Beaufort, North Carolina, Confederate commerce raider Nashville returns home |
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03/04/1862 |
John Ericsson's new ironclad is commissioned as the U.S.S. Monitor |
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03/08/1862 |
Off Norfolk, Virginia, the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia leads an attack that cripples the Union blockading fleet |
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03/09/1862 |
In Hampton Roads, the Virginia and the Monitor pound each other in the first ever battle between ironclads |
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03/12/1862 |
The Governor of New York reacts to the emergence of naval ironclad warfare in Virginia |
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03/15/1862 |
Union naval units bombard remaining Confederate installations along Aquia Creek in northern Virginia |
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03/17/1862 to 03/18/1862 |
Under cover of darkness, the Confederate commerce raider Nashville escapes Beaufort, North Carolina |
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03/18/1862 |
British ship Emily St. Pierre seized off the South Carolina coast and sent as a prize to Philadelphia |
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03/19/1862 |
The U.S.S. Rhode Island arrives in Philadelphia with Confederate privateer prisoners |
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03/20/1862 |
The new steam sloop Juniata is launched at the Philadelphia Naval Yard |
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03/21/1862 |
Commodore Du Pont moves on Saint Augustine, Florida and finds U.S. Marines already there |
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03/21/1862 |
British captain and two of his men recapture the Emily St. Pierre from its U.S. Navy prize crew |
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03/28/1862 |
New 1400 ton steam sloop for the expanding Union Navy is launched at the Boston Navy Yard |
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04/03/1862 |
Union naval units occupy Appalachicola, Florida |
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04/04/1862 to 04/05/1862 |
The U.S.S. Carondelet makes her daring night run past the Confederate blockade on the Mississippi |
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04/21/1862 |
The Emily St. Pierre, the British ship recaptured from its U.S. Navy prize crew, arrives in Liverpool |
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04/28/1862 |
New warship Sacramento launched at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in eastern Maine |
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04/28/1862 |
New British built steamer Oreto arrives in the Bahamas, a secret purchase of the Confederate Navy |
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05/01/1862 |
In Philadelphia, the U.S. Navy's first submarine, French-designed and called the Alligator, is launched |
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05/03/1862 |
Captured blockade runner packed with munitions arrives in New York harbor as a U.S. Navy prize |
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05/08/1862 |
Off Norfolk, Virginia, President Lincoln observes a bombardment of Confederate positions |
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05/09/1862 |
Captain Charles H. Davis replaces Commodore A.H. Foote as commander of the Union's Mississippi Flotilla |
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05/10/1862 |
In Virginia, a Union amphibious operation forces the surrender of Norfolk and its naval installations |
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05/10/1862 |
In Philadelphia, War of 1812 hero Charles Stewart does the honors at launch of new Union ironclad |
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05/10/1862 |
Sharp half-hour naval engagement on the Mississippi River below Fort Pillow in Tennessee |
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05/11/1862 |
In Virginia, the famous and feared Confederate ironclad "Merrimac" is burned to avoid its capture |
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05/12/1862 |
U.S. Navy gunboats demand the surrender of Natchez, Mississippi |
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05/13/1862 |
African-American slave defects with his Confederate dispatch boat from Charleston Harbor |
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05/13/1862 |
Natchez, Mississippi surrenders to U.S. Navy gunboats |
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05/16/1862 to 05/17/1862 |
U.S. Navy transport with new Department of the South commander aboard wrecked in North Carolina |
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05/17/1862 |
U.S. Navy warships demand the surrender of Galveston, Texas |
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05/22/1862 |
In Richmond, the Confederate Navy convenes a court of inquiry over the destruction of the Merrimac |
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06/11/1862 |
In Richmond, the Confederate Navy court of inquiry into the scuttling of the Merrimac makes its report |
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05/07/1863 |
New paddle steamer launched for the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Yard |
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05/08/1863 |
U.S.S. Canandaiga captures the blockade runner S.S. Cherokee off Charleston |
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05/15/1863 |
U.S. Navy prize caught running the Charleston blockade sinks off North Carolina on its way to Boston |
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05/18/1863 |
U.S. Navy sailing vessel strikes a reef off Haiti and is lost though all the crew survive |
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05/23/1863 to 05/24/1863 |
In Florida, a U.S. Navy small boats expedition cuts out a Confederate blockade-runner |
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05/23/1863 |
A destructive fire in a Jersey City shipyard threatens naval construction there |
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05/27/1863 |
Confederate naval vessel explodes on the Chattahoochie River, killing eighteen of its crew |
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05/29/1863 |
Heavy gale off the Florida Panhandle destroys two Union naval sailing barks |
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06/02/1863 |
Off the coast of Brazil, the Confederate raider, Alabama, burns the New York bark Amazonian |
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06/03/1863 |
Admiral Andrew Foote assigned to replace Admiral Dupont as head of South Atlantic Squadron |
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06/05/1863 |
Off the coast of Brazil, the Confederate raider, Alabama, captures the New York clipper ship Talisman |
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06/08/1863 |
Confederate sailors capture a Union steam tug towing a ship up the Mississippi to New Orleans |
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06/11/1863 |
U.S.S. Florida captures the blockade runner Calypso off the North Carolina coast. |
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06/12/1863 |
Confederate naval units capture the Tacony off the East Coast and convert her into a commerce raider |
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06/17/1863 |
The C.S.S. Atlanta attempts to attack the U.S. Navy off Savannah, Georgia and lasts fifteen minutes |
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06/25/1863 |
Admiral Dahlgren appointed to replace the ailing Admiral Foote as South Atlantic Squadron commander |
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06/26/1863 |
Admiral Andrew Foote dies after a short illness at the Astor Hotel in New York City |
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06/27/1863 |
In Maine, an audacious Confederate attempt to sail away with a Coast Guard cutter narrowly fails |
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07/19/1863 to 07/20/1863 |
U.S. Navy intercepts and destroys Confederate blockade-runner crossing the bar in Charleston Harbor |
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07/24/1863 |
An exchange of wounded prisoners takes place off Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor under a flag of truce |
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08/04/1863 |
In Virginia, a river mine causes heavy damage to Union naval units operating on the James River |
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10/15/1863 |
The experimental Confederate submarine, H.L. Hunley again sinks in Charleston Harbor during trials, drowning eight men |
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11/15/1863 to 11/16/1863 |
In Charleston Harbor, the U.S.S Lehigh runs aground under the guns of Fort Sumter and is badly damaged |
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11/24/1863 |
A few days after arriving from New York, the transport ship "Aquila" sinks at its wharf in San Francisco |
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11/24/1863 |
The newly purchased Confederate ship "Rappahannock" slips out of its English Channel port at midnight |
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12/06/1863 |
U.S. Navy monitor besieging Charleston sinks in heavy weather and over thirty crewmen are lost |
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12/23/1863 |
Off the Indonesian coast, the Alabama captures and burns an American merchant ship |
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02/02/1864 |
In North Carolina, Confederate sailors and marines capture a Union gunboat in a night attack |
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02/11/1864 |
The former C.S.S. Atlanta sails from the Philadelphia Naval Yard to join the Union fleet as U.S.S. Atlanta |
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02/17/1864 |
In Charleston Harbor, the C.S.S. H.L. Hunley attacks and sinks the first ship ever lost to a submarine |
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03/06/1864 |
Famous former blockade runner, now a U.S. Navy patrol vessel, sunk in a collision off North Carolina |
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04/19/1864 |
In North Carolina, Confederate warship clears the Roanoke River near Plymouth of Union vessels |
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06/19/1864 |
The Confederacy's most successful commerce raider meets its end off the French coast |
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06/20/1864 |
The private British steam yacht "Deerhound" lands rescued survivors of the raider "Alabama" at Southampton |
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08/05/1864 |
In Mobile Bay, Alabama, U.S. naval forces win a comprehensive victory over the Confederate fleet |
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08/15/1864 |
The U.S. Navy seizes a Confederate raider, now a British civilian vessel, off the coast of Portugal |
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08/24/1864 |
The U.S.S. Niagara visits Dover on the English coast to drop off a captured British crew |
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09/03/1864 |
Near Norfolk, Virginia, a veteran U.S. Navy frigate burns and sinks at her moorings |
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10/07/1864 |
U.S. naval units controversially capture the notorious raider C.S.S. Florida in neutral waters off the coast of Brazil |
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10/27/1864 to 10/28/1864 |
In the Roanoke River, a daring U.S. Navy night raid sinks the Confederate warship Albemarle |
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11/14/1864 |
In San Francisco Harbor, the U.S.S. Camanche is finally launched into the waters of the Pacific |
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11/28/1864 |
The controversially captured raider C.S.S. Florida sinks off Norfolk, Virginia after a collision |
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03/24/1865 |
Powerful and feared Confederate warship sails away from Ferrol in Spain and U.S. Navy warships decline an engagement |
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03/28/1865 |
Confederate warship departs Lisbon and confusion involving following U.S. ships almost sparks an international incident |
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03/28/1865 |
In the Blakeley River east of Mobile, Alabama, the U.S.S. Milwaukee hits a mine and sinks in three minutes |
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04/01/1865 |
In Alabama, a U.S. Navy stern-wheeler becomes the latest victim of Confederate mines near Mobile |
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04/23/1865 to 04/24/1865 |
On the Mississippi, a Confederate warship makes a bold breakout and almost reaches the open sea |
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05/11/1865 |
In Cuba, a powerful Confederate warship reaches Havana from Lisbon in Portugal and learns that the war has ended |
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06/22/1865 |
Still fighting, the C.S.S. Shenandoah begins its campaign to destroy the American whaling fleet |
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06/23/1865 |
Prominent United States Navy hero Samuel Francis Du Pont dies suddenly in Philadelphia |
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06/28/1865 |
In the far north Pacific, the last Confederate raider decimates the American whaling fleet in a single day |
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07/22/1865 |
Almost three years in the building, the U.S.S. Dunderburg is finally launched into New York's East River |
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12/02/1865 |
Famous navy veteran is laid to rest in the Brooklyn Naval Cemetery |
