Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey sent confidential orders to the commander of the Norfolk Naval Yard in Virginia that the naval steam-powered frigate Brooklyn be "filled up with provisions, water, and coal." Rumors abounded that local southern sympathized were organizing to prevent the warship going to sea but she did sail on the morning of January 9, 1861, Captain William S. Walker in command, with orders to support the Star of the West in landing reinforcements and supplies at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. When the mission failed, she returned to Norfolk, arriving in the evening of January 14, 1861. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
United States Naval War Records Office, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series 1, Volume 4 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1896), 220.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Battles/Soldiers
