|
William Ronckendorff
William Ronckendorff (November 9, 1812 – November 27, 1891) was an officer in the United States Navy who served in the Pacific Squadron during the Mexican-American War, the Paraguay expedition of 1859, and the Gulf Squadron and West Indian Squadron during the American Civil War. He served in the North Atlantic Squadron from 1872 to 1873 and was promoted to commodore in 1874. Career He entered the Navy, became passed midshipman on 23 June 1838, was commissioned lieutenant on 28 June 1843, and in June 1845 was bearer of despatches to the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Squadron, with which he served during the Mexican–American War. He was in the ''Savannah'' at the capture and occupation of Battle of Monterey and points on the coast of California, and returned to New York in September 1847. He commanded the steamer ''M. W. Chapin'' in the Paraguay expedition of 1859 and on coast survey duty in 1860, was commissioned commander, 29 June 1861, and had charge of the steamer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican-American War
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United States, though they make up 53% of the total population of foreign-born Latino Americans and 25% of the total foreign-born population. The United States is home to the second-largest Mexicans, Mexican community in the world (24% of the entire emigration from Mexico, Mexican-origin population of the world), behind only Mexico. Most Mexican Americans reside in Southwestern United States, the Southwest (over 60% in the states of California and Texas). Many Mexican Americans living in the United States have assimilated into Culture of the United States, American culture which has made some become less connected with their culture of birth (or of their parents/ grandparents) and sometimes creates an i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CSS Alabama
CSS ''Alabama'' was a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England by John Laird Sons and Company. ''Alabama'' served as a successful commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never docked at a Southern port. She was sunk in June 1864 by at the Battle of Cherbourg outside the port of Cherbourg, France. History Construction ''Alabama'' was built in secrecy in 1862 by British shipbuilders John Laird Sons and Company, in north west England at their shipyards at Birkenhead, Wirral, opposite Liverpool. The construction was arranged by the Confederate agent Commander James Bulloch, who led the procurement of sorely needed ships for the fledgling Confederate States Navy. The contract was arranged through the Fraser Trenholm Company, a cotton broker in Liverpool with ties to the Confederacy. Under prevailing British neutrality ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, and the 94th-largest city in the nation. Norfolk holds a strategic position as the historical, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads region, which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the thirty-third largest Metropolitan Statistical area in the United States. Officially known as ''Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA'', the Hampton Roads region is sometimes called "Tidewater" and "Coastal Virginia"/"COVA," although these are broader terms that also include Virginia's Eastern Shore and entire coastal plain. Named for the eponymous natural harbor at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads has ten cities, including Norfolk; seven counties in Virginia; and two counties in No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CSS Virginia
CSS ''Virginia'' was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the razéed (cut down) original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate . ''Virginia'' was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads. USS ''Merrimack'' becomes CSS ''Virginia'' When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important federal military bases threatened was Gosport Navy Yard (now Norfolk Naval Shipyard) in Portsmouth, Virginia. Accordingly, orders were sent to destroy the base rather than allow it to fall into Confederate hands. On the afternoon of 17 April, the day Virginia seceded, Engineer in Chief B. F. Isherwood managed to get the frigate's engines lit. However, the previous night se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Squadron
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic and Gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably New Orleans and Mobile. Those blockade runners fast enough to evade the Union Navy could carry only a small fraction of the supplies needed. They were operated largely by foreign citizens, making use of neutral ports such as Havana, Nassau and Bermuda. The Union commissioned around 500 ships, which destroyed or captured about 1,500 blockade runners over the course of the war. Proclamation of blockade and legal implications On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln issued a ''Proclamation of Blockade Against Southern Ports'': Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commander (United States)
In the United States, commander is a military rank that is also sometimes used as a military billet title—the designation of someone who manages living quarters or a base—depending on the branch of service. It is also used as a rank or title in non-military organizations; particularly in law enforcement. As rank History The commander rank started out as "Master and Commander" in 1674 within the Royal Navy for the officer responsible for sailing a ship under the Captain and sometimes second-in-command. Sub-captain, under-captain, rector and master-commanding were also used for the same position. With the Master and Commander also serving as captain of smaller ships the Royal Navy subsumed as the third and lowest of three grades of captain given the various sizes of ships. The Continental Navy had the tri-graded captain ranks. Captain 2nd Grade, or Master Commandant, became Commander in 1838. Naval In the Navy, the Coast Guard, the NOAA Corps, and the Public Health Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Savannah (1842)
The second USS ''Savannah'' was a frigate in the United States Navy. She was named after the city of Savannah, Georgia. ''Savannah'' was begun in 1820 at the New York Navy Yard, but she remained on the stocks until 5 May 1842, when she was launched. She was one of nine frigates to be built from a prototype design by naval architect William Doughty. ''Savannah'', with Captain Andrew Fitzhugh in command, joined the Pacific Squadron as flagship in 1844. As the prospect of war with Mexico became imminent, the Squadron moved into position off the California coast. On 7 July 1846, the Squadron captured Monterey without firing a shot. On 8 September 1847, ''Savannah'' returned to New York for repairs. She served as flagship for the Pacific Squadron again from 1849–52. Repairs at Norfolk, Virginia took her into 1853, and on 9 August of that year, she sailed for a three-year cruise on the Brazil Station. In November 1856 she was inactivated, and in 1857, razeed, or reduced to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passed Midshipman
A passed midshipman, sometimes called as "midshipman, passed", is a term used historically in the 19th century to describe a midshipman who had passed the lieutenant's exam and was eligible for promotion to lieutenant as soon as there was a vacancy in that grade. Royal Navy Passed midshipman was never an official rank or rating in the Royal Navy, but was commonly used to describe midshipmen who had passed the lieutenant examination but were waiting on a roster to be commissioned. Between 1800 and 1815, due to a shortage of officers to command small craft, passed midshipmen were titled sub-lieutenant but this also was not an official rank. Passed midshipmen awaiting promotion often elected to become master's mate, an experienced seaman role as assistant to the master. Though formally the rating did not lead to promotion to lieutenant, master's mates were paid more than any other rating and were the only ratings allowed to command any sort of vessel. A midshipman who became mast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory. Mexico refused to recognize the Velasco treaty, because it was signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna while he was captured by the Texan Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was ''de facto'' an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens wanted to be annexed by the United States. Sectional politics over slavery in the United States were preventing annexation because Texas would have been admitted as a slave state, upsetting the balance of power between Northern free states and Southern slave states. In the 1844 United States presidential election, Democrat James K. Polk was elected on a platform of expand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Sewell's Point
The Battle of Sewell's Point was an inconclusive exchange of cannon fire between the Union gunboat USS ''Monticello'', supported by the USS ''Thomas Freeborn'', and Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point that took place on May 18, 19 and 21, 1861, in Norfolk County, Virginia in the early days of the American Civil War. Little damage was done to either side. By the end of April 1861, USS ''Cumberland'' and a small number of supporting ships were enforcing the Union blockade of the southeastern Virginia ports at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay and had captured several ships which attempted to pass the blockade. USS ''Monticello's'' bombardment of the Sewell's Point battery was one of the earliest Union Navy actions against Confederate forces during the Civil War. While it has been suggested by some sources that the ''Monticello's'' action may have been the first gunfire by the Union Navy during the Civil War, a brief exchange of cannon fire between the U.S. gunboat US ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the ''Monitor'' and ''Virginia'' (rebuilt and renamed from the USS ''Merrimack'') or the Battle of Ironclads, was a naval battle during the American Civil War. It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities and major industrial centers, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.Musicant 1995, pp. 134–178; Anderson 1962, pp. 71–77; Tucker 2006, p. 151. This battle has major significance because it was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, and . The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram ''Virginia'' (built from the remnants of the burned steam frigate , newest warship for the United Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
