U S S Galena...The Forgotten Ironclad That Almost Fought CSS Virginia

U S S Galena...The Forgotten Ironclad That Almost Fought CSS Virginia

If we're going to talk about the ironclads of The Battle of Hampton Roads we can't forget the...well the forgotten ironclad...USS Galena. OK, true, she was just barely even involved in The Battle of Hampton Roads and as an ironclad she wasn't exactly a resounding success, but Galena was still the Navy’s second iron armored ship even if she did finish the war without her armor. And even though she wasn't successful as an ironclad, she did teach naval architects and Navy Brass some valuable lessons RE: Armor...what works and what doesn't work. This may be a 'spoiler' of sorts but one of the things that doesn't work is a wooden hulled ship masquerading as an ironclad.

If things had happened just a little bit differently back in 1862, that epic first battle between ironclad warships in the waters of Hampton Roads just might have been known as The Battle Between The Galena  and the Virginia/Merrimack rather than The Battle Between The Monitor and The Virginia/ Merrimack, and had that actually been the case, the battle just might have ended far differently because CSS Virginia just might have had USS Galena for lunch. All it would have taken for that to have happened was Monitor not being built. And all it would have taken for that to have happened would have been Cornelius Bushnall signing off on Galena's plans and blueprints without visiting John Ericsson to discuss any possible problems with the ship's design.



USS Galena at anchor, probably shortly after arriving in Hampton Roads. Note that most of her her masts and rigging have been unstepped and stowed as she relied on steam alone while on station. Also note the her wooden conning tower, just aft of her funnel.  Pic courtesy Wikipedia.

 Had Bushnall signed off on the plans for Galena with out consulting Ericsson, he wouldn't have seen Monitor's plans, Monitor wouldn't have had the support she enjoyed, and given the U.S.Navy's undeserved low opinion of Ericsson at that time, she very likely would have never been built. Then the blockade of Hampton Roads just might have been broken, because Galena wasn't commissioned until April 21^st, 1862 and didn’t arrive in Hampton Roads until April 24, almost two month after Virginia sank Cumberland and Congress...two months that CSS Virginia would have inevitably spent running roughshod over the rest of the blockade fleet. In that scenario, BTW, Virginia would have very likely continued to turn the blockade fleet's ships into kindling even after Galena's arrival...as I noted earlier when USS Galena finally did arrive and inevitably tangled with CSS Virginia she just might have met more than her match.

But Bushnell didn't just sign off on the plans and he did pay Ericsson a visit, and Monitor did end up being built. And, on the day Cornelius Bushnell visited John Ericsson and saw the model of and plans for The Ship Soon To Be Known As The Monitor he was getting ready to submit the plans for Galena, which he and his shipbuilding company were backing, to the Ironclad Board.

 USS Galena's plans showed her to be an otherwise conventional wooden hulled steam/screw powered six gun broad side gunboat that just happened to be encased in about 200 tons of iron armor. Bushnell visited Ericsson because he wanted him to take a look at the plans and give him his opinion of whether or not she'd stay afloat and right side up with that 200 extra tons of armor bolted to her hull. There was good news...the armor likely wouldn't, and indeed didn't affect her stability and sea-keeping ability, and yet to be discovered bad news...it didn't offer much protection from heavy shells, either.

Bushnall submitted Galena's design to the Ironclad Board and it became one of three designs accepted by the  Board, the other two being 'New Ironsides' and, of course, Monitor'.  Bushnall had actually commissioned her design well before the Ironclad Board was even formed because he was anticipating the need for just such a warship. She definitely had the pedigree for success. Her design was penned by Samuel Pook, who would go on to design 'Pooks Turtles'... Also known as the 'City' class of ironclads...a class of river ironclad that that would dominate the war's Mississippi River battles in 1862-63.

 Statistics, weights, measures, and armament wise, Galena was about as typical as they come. She was wooden hulled and 210 feet long with a 36 foot beam, a draft of 11 feet and a displacement of 738 tons. She mounted six guns... a quartet of 9” Dahlgrens and a pair of 100 pounder Parrot rifles. One thing her designers did get right from the gitgo was her engine. She had a larger, more powerful version of the Monitor's revolutionary vibrating lever engine. The more conservative members of the Ironclad board and the Navy Brass did get their way with her secondary propulsion, though...she was also sloop-rigged with a full suite of sails. Under either steam or sail her top speed was about 8 knots, a speed she reached under both forms of propulsion during both her sea trials and her trip from Connecticut to Hampton Roads.

She may have been almost ho-hum typical weights, measures, and dimensions wise, but her hull design and armor scheme were both pretty revolutionary, and more than a few people didn't like what they saw. The very first thing about her design that raised red flags in some peoples' minds was her unusual 'tumble home' hull design...the sides of her hull curved inward as they rose, making her deck narrower than her beam, and almost giving her the appearance of a floating aircraft hanger forty years before there even were any aircraft.

Profile and overhead line drawing of USS Galena. Drawing by Robert McBride

As for her armor, it was both skimpy and of a design that just did not set well with a slew of old salts...in fact her armor scheme had skeptics, including some Navy brass, looking at the plans with a suspicious, squint-eyed scowl right off the bat.  Originally she was to have had 2 1/2 inches of armor consisting of interlocking ½ inch iron plates backed by 1 ½ inches of rubber. (Keep in mind here that one of the designs rejected by the Ironclad Board was a ship clad completely in rubber with the theory being that shot and shell would bounce off of the rubber. My thoughts when I read that and and the thoughts of The Ironclad Board as they read over the design proposal were probably about the same...'Say What???)

The Ironclad Board suggested that the inch and a half of rubber backing Galena's armor be changed to an additional 5/8 of an inch of iron, giving her a tad more than three inches of armor. The change was made, but this still gave her far less armor than that of any of the other ironclads. Even worse, she may have actually been built with even less armor on some portions of her hull because of fear that the additional 5/8s inch of armor would make her unstable. Concerns over her stability at sea caused her armor scheme to be modified at least once more while she was being built, making it possible that she was launched with as little as a half inch of armor at her bow and stern. 

Cross section and armor detail. You can really see the 'Tumble Home hull design here...the design seriously reduced the amount of open deck space. The deck itself wasn't armored, so a shell fired on a trajectory that brought it downward onto the deck would punch through like it was made of cardboard. On the right you can see the armor scheme...it was a rail and plate scheme using interlocking iron plates. The armor would prove to be seriously lacking.

, The Ironclad Board...probably because they approved the design...was sure she'd be successful no matter which armor scheme her builders ended up using. According to her designers her armor would stop a 6 inch shell cold, and The Ironclad Board agreed whole heartedly that her armor would simply laugh at said 6 inch projectile. Many of the officers who were out in the midst of the fighting had an entirely different opinion of her armor and it's probable effectiveness. Her first commanding officer, Captain John Rogers, in fact, was firmly convinced that she'd be turned into Swiss cheese the first time she engaged an enemy vessel or fortification mounting heavy guns. Sadly, his prediction would be right on the money.

Funds had already been earmarked for her construction so as soon as her design was approved construction started at the Maxson, Fish & Co shipyard in the then huge shipbuilding town of Mystic, Connecticut. Her construction was watched with interest by the community at large and by the time she was launched on Feb 15^th of 1862 the Navy had hyped her up to be the Be All End All of Naval warfare. The Rebs had cobbled together some floating iron monster? Bring it on! Our new Super-ship'll make mincemeat out of the Virginia! Yeah...right.

A profile view of Galena, again likely at anchor in Hampton Roads

Deck view on board Galena, looking forward. This was probably taken after the Battle of Drewry's Bluff...notice the shell hole in the upper portion of the funnel.  The wooden conning tower allowed the Galena's  captain and other command staff to view the battle's progress from on high and give commands to the gun crews and helmsman...it was actually not a true conning tower in the literal meaning of the word as there was no ships wheel to steer her. It could also be used as a battle station for Marine sharp shooters, though there's no record of it actually being used in this capacity.

Interior view of Galena's  gun deck...the inward sloping sides of the hull are very evident here. The guns, of course were muzzle loaders that had to be run back in to reload.  While recoil ran the gun most of the way in when fired, the guns had to be manually pulled back for enough for the reloading process to be accomplished and they were not lightweights...The 9 inch Dahlgrens mounted on board Galena weighed in at 9000 lbs and were probably pulled back all the way using block and tackle that is not shown in this illustraion. The damping mechanism was also far more robust and complex that the single length of rope shown restraining the guns form being shoved all the way across the gun deck by the recoil. With that in mind, I don't believe the gun carriages illustrated in this wood cut are accurate, but are of a much earlier design that the gun carriages actually used on board civil war era warships on both sides of the conflict.

Galena was towed to New York for installation of machinery and fitting out, and after far more extensive sea trials than Monitor had been put through she was commissioned on April 21st and assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She departed New York for Hampton Roads on the same day, arriving on the 24^th of April...almost two months after the Battle Of The Ironclads. Her crew immediately began spoiling for a fight with CSS Virginia but despite their enthusiasm that battle just wasn't going to happen. The closest Galena would come to fighting the Confederate ironclad occurred during one of Virginia's several attempts to draw Monitor out for a rematch. When Monitor, as usual, decided not to come out and play, Virginia withdrew and when her gun crews spotted Galena in the distance, they let fly with a single shot that was fired more in contempt than anything else. The two ships never even got within sight of each other again after that one fleeting encounter.  Of course Monitor, which was in my opinion a far more capable warship than Galena, just broke even when she fought CSS Virginia so it was possibly a Very Good Thing for Galena and her crew that she never actually got to fight the ship she was built to help neutralize.

 By the eighth of May it was more than obvious that Monitor's crew had no intention of engaging CSS Virginia in a rematch and that Virginia's crew could care less about taking on USS Galena. With these thoughts in mind the U.S.Navy brass decided that they had far better things for Galena to do than hang around Hampton Roads waiting for a battle that would never happen. So on May 8, 1862 Galena was detached from her assignment at Hampton Roads and, along with the gunboats Port Royal and Aroostook, reassigned to support General George McClelland's Army of the Peninsula's advance on the Confederate capitol of Richmond by heading up the James River and harassing retreating Confederate forces. 

Galena's crew kicked serious butt on the 8th, silencing an 11-gun Confederate battery at Rock Wharf Point, Virginia that morning; and engaging a 12-gun battery on Mother Tynes' Bluff in the early afternoon,  silencing all but one of that battery's guns and keeping the remaining gun busy while the unarmored Port Royal and Aroostook slipped past. Yep, it was truly an awesome day for her crew...until she ran aground just off of Hogg Island, luckily out of sight or range of any Confederate fortifications. And when I say she ran aground, I don't just mean her keel touched the bottom...I mean she pretty well embedded herself in the bottom mud of the James River. It took a day and a half of concerted effort by the crews of all three of the small task force's ships before she was freed, luckily without damage. After she was freed Galena was joined by Monitor and Naugatuck, and the quintet of warships steamed for City Point, arriving on May 13^th. Galena's Waterloo...as an ironclad at any rate...was only two days away.

About six miles up river from City point (And less than a mile from where I'm typing this) at Drewry's Bluff the Confederate forces built a good sized fort called Fort Darling. The fort was situated on a bluff a good 80 feet above the James Raver and featured hardened gun emplacements mounting a trio of big navel cannon...a ten inch Columbiad as well as a pair of 8 inchers, as well as a couple of guns from the recently scuttled CSS Virginia. On top of that another battery just down river from Fort Darling mounted five guns. If the guns weren't enough, obstacles (Including the sunken sidewheel gunboat Jamestown) had been sunk mid-channel to prevent any Union ships from steaming upriver. These batteries and obstacles entire reason for being was to defend the Confederate capitol, Richmond Va, and they became a true thorn in the U.S. Army and Navy's sides because they were very good at that job.

Fort Darling acted as a very effective deterrent against a navel advance on Richmond. The Union brass was well aware that those big Columbiads could rain shot and shell down on any vessels heading up river towards Richmond with near bore-site accuracy so when they sent Monitor and Naugatuck...also an ironclad, owned by the Revenue Cutter Service and loaned to the Navy... to join Galena's three ship task force their main goal was pounding Fort Darling into splinters, dirt, and scrap metal so that Richmond could be advanced upon and occupied. The Navy Brass figured the three ironclads' armor would allow them to pound the fort with impunity.Thing is, that wasn't going to happen for a number of reasons.

 Drewery's Bluff, the site of Fort Darling, was (And is) situated on the outside of a sharp bend in the James River, with the barrels of two of the three big guns the fort mounted in hardened emplacements pointed eastward, right down the river's center line. This is what the five vessels in Galena's task force faced when they steamed up river on the morning of May 15, 1862.  Galena anchored about 600 yards down river from the fort and opened fire at about 7:45 AM, to be quickly answered by the fort's big Columbiads. Fort Darling's big ten incher spoke with such fury that windows rattled eight miles away in Richmond...and the gun's carriage cracked on the first shot, putting it out of commission for the rest of the battle. The remaining two eight inchers were more than equal to the task however, pounding the small task force relentlessly for three solid hours. The wooden hulled gunboats retired down-river early on to avoid being pounded into kindling, leaving the three ironclads to exchange blows with the fort. Monitor could get in far closer than Galena...she drew less water and her heavy armor shrugged off the fort's shots like they were so many mosquitoes...but her guns couldn't elevate high enough to hit the fort. Naugatuck's fixed forward firing 100 pounder had the same limitation as Monitor's guns...it couldn't elevate high enough to effectively shell the fort either. On top of that, her single big gun burst during the bombardment, putting it out of action and damaging Naugatuck's pilothouse. Her two 12 pound howitzers continued to harass the fort's gunners by firing canister at them.

Galena taking fire from Fort Darling's big 8 inch Colombiads. Note that her conning tower's unmanned and that her funnel's been riddled. Another fact worth noting is the lack of trees...Fort Darling's site on Drewry's Bluff was far more wide open in the 1860s than it is today...the site is heavily wooded today. The painting is by the very talented Paul Bender

Galena's guns were able to elevate and fire on the fort, but the limitations of her armor were quickly and graphically demonstrated when heavy shells punched through it thirteen of the forty four times she was hit, killing 14 of her crew while injuring ten.  She stayed on station for the entire three hours of the battle, pounding the fort ineffectively while being seriously damaged her self.  The sunken Jamestown's sister ship, CSS Patrick Henry, even drew blood when one of her gun crews scored a penetrating hit at Galena's waterline late in the battle. Galena's dead and injured included most of the crew of  one of her big Parrott 100 pounders. and at least one of her Dahlgrens. Corporal John F Mackie called out 'Come on Boys...here's our chance to show 'em what The Marines can do!' 

The gun deck was cleared of dead, wounded, and debris and the guns put back in service. One of the Marines' first shots from the big Parrot took out the only Confederate.gun that the Union bombardment would claim. Corporal Mackie would become the first Marine to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. His wouldn't be the only Medal of Honor awarded to Galena  crewmen due to actions during the battle...Fireman Charles Kenyon and Quartermaster Jeremiah Regan were also awarded the Medal of Honor.

  Such gallantry couldn't overcome the limitations of her armor or the expertise of Fort Darling's gunners, though. By eleven AM, Galena's ammunition was nearly exhausted and her gun deck was running with the blood of dead and injured sailors. Shortly after 11AM, the task force withdrew to City Point while Fort Darling counted it's casualties and damage...eight killed, ten injured, and minor damage. Richmond was still well defended from attack via The James River and Fort Darling would remain a major factor in that city's defense right on up to the end of the war...enough so that no other attempt to take the city via The James River would ever be mounted, and the fort's guns would never have to fire in anger again.

The best known photo of USS Galena. Her unusual tumble-home hull design is shown to good effect here as is her interlocking armor. Also notable is a shell hole just above the water line in the lower middle of the pic, diagonally below the nearest gun...this may be the hit that CSS Patrick Henry's gun crew scored late in the battle. From Wikipedia.

Galena's damage was patched temporarily, her injured and dead replaced, and she was kept on the James River until September, utilized to shell Confederate installations near City Point as well as harassing ground troops. On June 30^th she also shelled Confederate troops pursuing General McClelland when he was forced to withdraw down the James. The remainder of her time on the James was spent escorting transports and supply ships. She returned to Hampton Roads in September 1862, and she and Monitor were stationed there specifically to protect Hampton Roads and the installations ringing it from the ironclads that were being built in Richmond. The expected sortie by those vessels never happened, though...and the U.S.Navy brass was doing some pondering.

They had realized (some might say 'finally realized') that Galena's alleged armor was all but a joke and that she could perform all of the tasks she was being utilized for just as effectively...possibly even more effectively...without a couple of hundred tons of essentially useless iron hanging off of her wooden hull. She was ordered to return to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in May, a year after her disastrous pounding at Fort Darling, leaving Hampton Roads on May 19^th 1863 and arriving in Philadelphia on May 21^st. She was decommissioned and refurbishment and repair work began immediately.

The first thing that the Navy Yard did was strip her of most of her armor, just leaving armor around her engine and boiler rooms. She was rerigged as a ship rigged (Also known as full rigged or square rigged) three masted sloop, and her armament was increased from six to nine guns...eight nine inch Dahlgrens and a single 100 pounder Parrot Rifle.

A shot of Galena after her1864 refurbishment at Philadelphia Navel Yard, Her armor's been removed and a full ship-rig has been installed. She was far more successful in this configuration than she was as an ironclad.   You get a good idea of her size from the crew members standing on her bowsprit. From Wikipedia

She was recommisioned on Feb. 15^th 1864, placed under command of Lt Commander C.H.Wells and assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. She set sail for the Gulf of Mexico on February 18^th, but she wouldn't make it there. Remember this was winter in The Mid-Atlantic states, which means ice. She became icebound at New Castle Delaware on her way out to the Atlantic, had to be chiseled and towed out before she could make it to the Atlantic, and when she made it to open water her crew found that the ice had damaged her hull, causing numerous leaks. Luckily her pumps were able to stay ahead of the flooding as she limped to Norfolk for repairs. Her assignment to The Gulf of Mexico would have to wait.

She was dry-docked at Norfolk for repairs to her hull that would keep her out of the war until early May. She finally set sail for The Gulf of Mexico on May 10, 1864, arriving on May 20^th and was immediately put to work on Blockade duty. She exchanged shots with several blockade runners while working the blockade of Mobile Bay. She also fired on Fort Morgan...The Confederate installation at the mouth of Mobile Bay that defended the bay and provided covering fire for blockade runners leaving and entering the bay. It must have been pretty effective covering fire at that...thanks to the fort's guns and the expert seamanship of the Blockade runners' crews all of the vessels that attempted to leave Mobile Bay and all but two that attempted to enter did so successfully

Of course the U.S forces weren't overly happy at all about Fort Morgan's guns, effectiveness or the fact of it's very existence and plans to do something about it were being devised. August fifth 1864 was chosen as the day those plans were executed. It wouldn't be an even vaguely easy battle. Not only did Fort Morgan have a formidable battery of it's own, Mobile Bay's defenses also included the equally formidable Confederate casement ironclad Tennessee and her battle hardened crew as well as tethered mines, which were called 'torpedoes' back then. The U.S.Naval forces had their work cut out for them.

The U.S. Forces were under command of Rear Admiral David Farragut, who had devised a game plan to counter the Confederate defenses. He had four Monitor' class ironclads that he tasked with shelling the fort as well as engaging ...and hopefully sinking...the Tennessee while his wooden ships formed another column, steaming past the fort while it was busy with the U.S. Ironclads. Once they were in the bay and out of range of Fort Morgans guns, they would engage the Confederate Navy's gunboats while bottling all of the Confederate ships up and taking possession of the bay, and ultimately if things went their way, Fort Morgan as well as Mobile Bay's other two forts. Before the battle was more than a couple of hours old U.S.S. Tecumseh...one of the U.S.Navy Ironclads ...would fall victim to a torpedo, one of the Civil War's best known and most misquoted quotes would be coined ('Damn the torpedoes...full speed ahead' ) and three more of Galena's crew would win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A period post card showing the Battle of Fort Morgan...there's a lot going on in this painting. Tecumseh's  just struck a torpedo and is rolling over, taking her captain and 93 of her crew with her, and the wooden ships are passing behind her. CSS Tennessee  is in the lower middle of the pic. Galena and Onieda are not visible, hidden behind the smoke from the ships' cannon fire . Both distance and the timing of events is greatly compressed here, but it's still a pretty awesome painting.

Admiral Farragut ordered all of the wooden ships to be lashed together in pairs...The larger ships with their starboard guns towards the fort with a smaller gunboat lashed to their port sides so the smaller ship could pull both ships out of danger in case the larger ships' engines or boilers were disabled. Galena was lashed to the sloop Onieda's port side, and they were the last pair of ships in the column of wooden ships attempting to pass the fort. A shell from Fort Morgan took out Onieda's starboard boiler and full ahead was rung on Galena's engine so she could pull them out of range of Fort Morgan’s guns. Things got even more interesting real quick...Oneida's engine room crew was trying to reroute the steam from her remaining boiler to both engines when Tennessee opened fire on her from about 200 yards. Tennessee only got about three ineffective shots off before she was engaged by all of the remaining US Navy ironclads in a battle that would ultimately leave her a defenseless hulk with her engines disabled, and her guns silenced. Galena had taken several hits from Fort Morgan's guns and her rigging had been sliced to ribbons but her damage was still relatively minor and her 800 horsepower vibrating beam engine was pounding along wide open, dragging her and Onieda out of range.

A period illustration from Harper's Weekly showing Admiral Farraguts  wooden ships, with the smaller ships lashed to the larger ships' port sides,  passing Fort Morgan as the remaining ironclads keep the fort's and CSS Tennessee's gun crews occupied. There were seven pairs of wooden ships...Galena and Onieda would be the last set of masts

Once clear of the fort...and once all of the Union Navy vessels were in the bay...Galena along with the rest of the fleet spent a couple of weeks shelling Fort Morgan into submission. The effort payed off...the Confederate flag was struck and replaced with the Stars And Stripes on August 23^rd 1864, closing the C.S.A.'s last major deep water port.

Galena's career was pretty uneventful for the rest of the war. She left Mobile Bay on August 31^st and was assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron out of Key West. This lasted until late October when she was ordered to Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Though she arrived in Philly on November 4^th, repair work didn't start until November 22^nd (Again, gang, some things like the efficiency of Government Bureaucracy, haven't changed much in 150 years). She was in Philadelphia until late March 1865, when repairs were finally completed, and she was reassigned to her original home squadron...the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, based in Hampton Roads. For the remainder of the war she patrolled the Nansemond River as well as the lower part of the James River. She left Hampton Roads for Portsmouth, New Hampshire on June 6^th, 1865, was decommissioned there on June 17^th, and was in ordinary until April 9^th, 1869. She wasn't going back in service though...she was commissioned just long enough to steam to Norfolk Navy Yard where she was again decommissioned on June 2^nd. She was condemned the next year, and moldered at a backwater dock until 1872 when she was finally broken up for scrap...to become the forgotten ironclad.

*********************** Notes, Links, and Stuff***************************

One distinction that USS Galena enjoyed that's often overlooked...While Monitor and Virginia were the first ironclad warships to do battle, Galena, with all of her faults, was the first true sea-going ironclad warship.

<****>

While Galena had what was termed by her crew a 'conning tower', it wasn't a true conning tower. A true conning tower is an armored tower that features a steering position and an engine room telegraph...or, actually, voice tubes back in that era...and gives the ship's commander an elevated view of the battle, allowing him to make well prepared decisions on how to maneuver the ship during the battle. Galena's tower was elevated, but that's pretty much the only resemblance it had to a true conning tower. It was an open frame wooden structure that had no helm station, and no protection at all for it's occupants. And in paintings of the ship during it's only major battle as an ironclad...the Battle of Drewry's Bluff...it's shown to be unoccupied. Her, officers weren't dummies, and they were definitely not suicidal!

<****>

Though Galena's hull was built in Mystic, Conn., her boilers, engines and sail rig were installed at Continental Ironworks in New York City. Her armor was installed at the New York Navy Yard. Despite Ercsson's positive assessment of her stability with armor installed, there was actually some fear that she wouldn't float with her armor bolted to her wooden hull, hence she was towed to New York for engine, sail rig, and armor installation.

<****>

As an ironclad, Galena's masts and sail rig could be and was 'unstepped' and stowed below when she was on station. Her masts and sails were used only for long voyages on the open ocean...then as now fuel prices and conserving fuel were priorities. Once she was on station in Hampton Roads and on the James River, where her engine was her primary propulsion, the masts and sails were stowed...probably on deck. This is why the majority of the pictures of her as an ironclad...be they drawings or photos...show only the lower portion of her foremast, which was permanently mounted. There are a few drawings and paintings of her with her full sail rig though.

↓Take a look↓

A rare view of Galena under full sail as an ironclad...this artwork depicts her as she appeared immediately after commissioning, enroute to Hampton Roads. This is from an engraving that appeared in Harper's Weekly and isn't entirely accurate, especially the elongated gun ports fore and aft of her funnel..but it may well be the only depiction of her under sail as an ironclad.

 

Another engraving, also from Harper's Weekly,  showing her with her masts stepped...technically she was equipped with a two masted schooner rig, though some sources consider it to be a sloop rig. This engraving and the one above it courtesy of civilwarsignals.org

<****>

A quick (And just learned) note about USS Monitor at Fort Darling. Some sources note that her guns were able to elevate enough to shell the fort, however most sources still claim otherwise. Whichever the case may be, it's a given that Galena  fired most of the rounds that found the fort...and suffered the consequences as a result.

<****>

One BIG difference between then and now...the time it took to build a ship, launch her, and get her in commission. Galena was approved and ordered September 16^th 1861, launched just five months later on February 14^th 1862, and commissioned just a shade more than two months after that on April 21^st, 1862. That's a mere 152 days from approval and ordering to sliding down the ways, and around 220 days from ordering to commissioning. She was on station in Hampton Roads about a week after she was commissioned. Lets take a quick look at a couple of more recent ships for comparison. The last battleship ever built and commissioned by the US Navy was the USS Missouri, affectionately known by her crews as 'The Mighty Mo'. Like Galena she was built during wartime, though we weren't actually at war yet when she was ordered. Missouri was ordered on June 12^th, 1940, her keel was laid on January 6^th 1941, she was launched on Jan 29^th, 1944, and commissioned on June 11^th, 1944. Almost 4 years after she was ordered.

A slightly better example would be the carrier USS Yorktown, built almost entirely during WWII. Her keel was laid on December 1 1941...just 6 days before Pearl Harbor...and she was launched on January 21^st 1943, and commissioned on April 15^th of the same year. Still two years between being keel laying and launch, and another three months before she was commissioned, even with the pressure to get more carriers in the water during the war. This is one time that red tape and bureaucracy can't be blamed entirely though...warships had become immensity larger and more complex in the eighty years between The Civil War and World War Two...and the beginnings of that new complexity started with the revolutionary ironclad warships built during The Civil War.

<****>

The hit that CSS Patrick Henry scored on Galena at Drewry's Bluff just might not have been her only victory...of sorts, anyway...against the U.S.Ironclad.  During the engagement with the Confederate batteries on May 8th, Galena's crew spotted the Patrick Henry and another gunboat several hundred yards upriver. Galena  had bigger fish to fry with the shore batteries, and the two Confederate gunboats didn't engage, instead retiring upriver towards Fort Darling...but they likely made a stop on the way.  When  Galena  grounded off of Hogg's Isand, it was suspected that the channel markers had been moved, causing Galena to follow the newly marked 'channel' straight into the mud of a sand bar. It's also seriously suspected that the channel markers were repositioned by none other than PAtrick Henry's crew

<****>

Most of the injuries and fatalities incurred by Galena's crew at The Battle of Drewry's Bluff were not caused by the actual rounds that penetrated her armor...the majority were caused by wooden splinters that became deadly, high velocity shrapnel when the shells punched through the wooden hull behind her armor.

<****>

LINKS

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Galena_%281862%29 Galena's Wikipedia page

http://www.historynet.com/uss-galena-de-evolution-of-a-warship.htm Another good article on the Galena from History Channel.net.

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/uss-monitor-center/uss-galena Another short but informative article about Galena from The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va. Trust me on this...if you're in the Newport News area, the Mariner's Museum is a must-visit. You'll end up spending a couple of days looking over the exhibits.

http://civilwarnavy150.blogspot.com/2012/04/uss-galena-flawed-but-still-standing.html Pretty much the same information from Civil War Navy 150.blogspot.com ..but the link is worth it for civil war buffs and naval history buffs for all the other articles. An awesome blog!

http://connecticuthistory.org/mystic-built-uss-galena-part-of-plan-to-strengthen-union-navy/ Connecticutt History.org article on USS Galena

http://www.factasy.com/civil_war/book/export/html/4954  A more detailed account of Galena's part in The James River campaign, and The Battle of Drewry's Bluff.

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/giants-corps A more detailed account of Corporal Mackie's actions at Drewry's Bluff