Bill,
Thanks for pointing out my error. I made the same mistake made by Lt. Catesby Jones, Commander of the Virginia on March 9, 1862, when he assumed the USS Minnesota had been ". . . .entirely disabled. . . ." and thus he ". . . .ceased firing at 12 [o'clock] and proceeded to Norfolk. . . ."
Checking my files again this morning, I see the Minnesota did indeed remain in service, and on 9 April 1864 ". . . he [Hunter Davidson] took the small torpedo boat Squib on a daring mission to Newport News, where he attacked the U.S. frigate Minnesota with a spar torpedo. . . ." It was for this fete that Davidson was promoted to Commander. As for the Minnesota, she stubbornly kept on going, and in Jan 1865, was active in the 2nd assual of Fort Fisher, NC, where ". . . a landing force of 240 men from the vesssell assisted in the attack upon the fort. . . . ". She was decommissioned a month later in Portsmouth,Hampshire.
Yes, the site with the info about Hunter Davidson is pretty real. It belongs to the US Navy. It is also the source for much of my information about the battle between the Ironclads. Thanks again for pointing out a guide for researchers I continually forget: Never make assumptions ... at least not until you hit the brick wall.
Joanne
Bill Davidson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Joanne, maybe I am confused, but I think we are talking "apples and
oranges" here. Per the website that I provided, Hunter Davidson attacked
the Minnesota with the boat the Squib in 1864 with a spar torpedoe. That
attack had nothing to do whatsoever with the CSS Virginia. Hunter was
promoted to Commander for THIS attack in 1864, not for anything he
specifically did while assigned to the CSS Virginia earlier. Perhaps you
thought the author of that website was talking about the CSS Virginia
doing something in 1864? I guess it was just "fate" that the Minnesota
had encounters with both the CCS Virgina and the Squib, and that Hunter
Davidson was associated with both vessels.
Based on the above, I assume that the author of the website has the
correct date, unless someone has other information. Since the author
provided the specific day of the above event, I suspect that the
information came from some documented source.
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