Star of the West
The Star of the West was an American civilian steamship launched in 1852 and grounded by Confederate forces in 1863 while defending Vicksburg in the Civil War . It had been chartered by the US government in January 1861 to carry military supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter . A coastal battery on Morris Island manned by cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel ) opened fire on the ship in what was practically the first shot in the American Civil War.
The ship was later captured by the Confederates and then used, among other things, as a hospital ship and blockade breaker until it was sunk near Vicksburg in 1863.
Construction and pre-war history
The Star of the West was a 1172 ton sailing steamer built by Jeremiah Simonson of New York City for Cornelius Vanderbilt and launched on June 17, 1852. It was almost 70 meters long and 10 meters at its widest point. She was powered by two wooden paddle wheels on each side of the hull and had two masts. It served the line between New York and San Juan de Nicaragua from October 20, 1852 and stayed here until March 1856. From June 1857 she drove in the service of the US Mail Steamship Company from New York to Aspinwall and from September 1859 served the lines between New York, Havana and New Orleans . In January 1861, she was chartered by the US Department of War .
In the civil war
On January 9, 1861, several weeks after the declaration of secession from South Carolina but before the secession of another of the southern states , the Star of the West arrived in Charleston Harbor to strengthen the garrison commanded by Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter. The South Carolina Military Academy cadets fired multiple rounds and scored three hits. Although the ship did not suffer any serious damage, her captain, John McGowan, considered it too dangerous to continue and turned to get out of port. The mission was canceled and the Star of the West returned to her home port of New York.
The ship was later put into service as a troop transport under Elisha Howes, for which was paid $ 1,000 a day. It set course for the Texas coast to pick up seven companies of Union troops that had gathered in Indianola . On April 18, 1861, while at anchor off Matagorda Bay , it was captured by Galveston militia forces under Colonel Earl Van Dorn . Two days later the ship entered the port of New Orleans , where the Governor of Louisiana , Thomas Overton Moore , changed his name to "CSS St. Philip ". The original name prevailed and the Star of the West served as a station and hospital ship until the capture of New Orleans by Admiral David Farragut .
Still under Confederate control, the Star of the West escaped recapture when it was dispatched to haul millions of dollars worth of gold, silver and paper currency. After delivering her cargo in Vicksburg , she drove on to Yazoo City . When Union Navy Lieutenant Commander Watson Smith attempted to lead two ironclad ships and five smaller ships through Yazoo Pass into the Tallahatchie River to attack Vicksburg from the rear, the Confederate defenders hurriedly built Fort Pemberton, and Major General William W. Loring ordered the Star of the West to be grounded across the river in Tallahatchie near Greenwood in order to block the Union flotilla. In a battle on April 12, 1863, the Union forces suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw.
After the war ended, the owners of the Star of the West received $ 175,000 in compensation from the US government for the loss of the ship.
reception
The Star of the West Medal is awarded annually to the “best drilled” cadets of the Citadel . In June 1893, the academy's superintendent, Colonel Asbury Coward, led his cadet corps to Aiken for the annual training and graduation camp . Confederate veteran Benjamin H. Teague suggested donating a commemorative medal to the Citadel for the winner of the Best Drilled Cadet competition . He had a piece of wood left over from the Star of the West , among many other curiosities , and he sawed off a small piece that he filed into a star and mounted it on a gold medal. The recipient of the award would wear the medal for one year and then pass it on to the next recipient. The names of the winners are engraved on the Star of the West Monument on the college grounds. However, the original medal no longer exists today.
In popular culture, the 1861 incident was picked up by John Updike in his 1992 novel Memories of the Ford Administration . Although the protagonist in the book tries to write about the mid 1970s, his thoughts constantly slide back to the 19th century, with one of the many events mentioned being the ship's mission to Fort Sumter.
Web links
- Shots at the Star of the West . (January 10th is given as a different date)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 152nd anniversary of the Star of the West - The Citadel - Charleston, SC .
- ^ Gary R. Baker: Cadets in Gray: The Story of the Cadets of the South Carolina Military Academy and the Cadet Rangers in the Civil War . Palmetto Bookworks, Lexington SC 1989, ISBN 0-9623065-0-9 .
- ^ Steamships on the Panama Route - Both Atlantic and Pacific . Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ↑ Star of the West . Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ^ Russell Horres: Brief History of Morris Island . Archived from the original on January 23, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
- ^ Tony Horwitz : Confederates in the Attic , 1st Vintage Departures. Edition, Vintage Books, 1998, ISBN 0679439781 , p. 65 .