Sunday, September 2, 2012

Captain Porter’s Atlantic Mortar Expedition -- The Rendezvous At Key West


(Key West Correspondence Boston Journal.)

The steamer Harriet Lane, Lieutenant, Wainwright commanding, arrived here on the 27th, bringing Commander Porter of the mortar flotilla.  On her passage from New York she captures a brig called the Joanna Ward, with a cargo of coffee and cigars, from Matanzas, and bound into any Southern port where she could run the blockade.  Her officers and crew were taken prisoners, and a prize crew placed on board the brig, which was sent to Philadelphia.

All but one of the mortar schooners of Commander Porter’s flotilla have arrived here, and all but one have come into port in excellent condition.  The schooner “Norfolk Packet” fired her mortar on the passage to try its range and effect upon the vessel.  With a full charge of twenty pounds of powder, a thirteen inch shell weighing two hundred pounds was thrown two-and-a-half miles, and exploded with a bursting charge of six pounds, the mortar having an elevation of forty-five degrees.  The hull of the vessel was not affected the least, but the shock of the discharge was so great as to shatter the light wood work and cause considerable commotion among the furniture and other portable articles.  A few doses of these thirteen inch pills dropped into a rebel fortification or town will be likely to produce something of a sensation among the confederates.

There have been several fine exhibitions of boat practice since the fleet arrived here. – Forty were out at one time under Lieutenant Queen, commanding the second division, and drilled in the necessary movements for attacking the enemy.

Since the arrival of Commander Porter the Greatest activity has prevailed in the squadron.  The commander has worked earnestly and unceasingly in perfecting the details of the expedition, visiting all the vessels and personally inspecting the men at the mortar and broadside guns.  The flotilla is a most complete navy in itself, and everything pertaining to the vessels and their armament is trim and neat as if the officers and men had a naval experience of years instead of weeks.  I have no desire to raise false hopes in the public mind, but I have every reason for re-affirming what was intimated in a former letter, that a terrible blow, the greatest yet dealt, is soon to be struck against the rebels on the Gulf coast. – The flower of the United States navy is now concentrated in these waters, and all that fine  ships, formidable and effective batteries, skillful and gallant officers and brave seamen can do, will soon be done to crush out this infamous and already too long-lived rebellion.

As I stated in my letter of yesterday, the mortar flotilla is all in the harbor, and expected to have left this morning (5th inst.)  We had a fine breeze during the night, but when the signal gun was fired at 6 o’clock this morning ordering the fleet to weigh anchor and get under way, it was perfectly calm, and consequently the vessel did not sail.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 3

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