A Fateful Shore Leave Leads to a Trip to Andersonville

Captured on Patrol

Midshipman Frank Beville was taken prisoner during the evening of March 14, 1863. Hostile forces overpowered the 18-year-old…

“Such Men Soon Find Death”

Navy Lt. Francis Winslow was between assignments and with his in-laws near Fayetteville, North Carolina, when…

“The Terror of the Rebels Along the Coast”

One evening in the spring of 1863, a detachment of Union sailors moved stealthily…

Crisis in Pensacola

By early January 1861, mechanic W. Thomas Morrill and other employees of the Pensacola Navy Yard in Florida were caught in a…

Early Defender of His Homeland

The sturdy paddle wheels of the Star of the West beat rhythmically against the waters of the Atlantic as…

A Brilliant Engagement at Hill’s Point

In southeastern Virginia during the spring of 1863, rebel artillerists entrenched on high…

With the Colors at Georgia Landing

On November 10, 1862, from a camp in the vicinity of Thibodaux, Louisiana, Capt. Henry Huse sat…

Crazy Drunk

Lieutenant Sylvanus Backus was crazy drunk. Stumbling around the quarterdeck of the Mohongo after midnight with a drawn sword, his…

Burying the Dead at Antietam’s Cornfield

Heavy cannon fire erupted at daylight on September 17, 1862, and soon after Capt. William…