February 26, 1942 - Thursday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien: 

O'Brien by the 22nd had finished repairs to the port side and departed for Pearl Harbor on the 20th; arrival at Pearl Harbor would be early in March.

US Carrier Task Forces:

• Task Force 16 (Enterprise) raids Wake Island on February 24th and faces little opposition.  Two Japanese gunboats are sunk and installations on the island are damaged.  Halsey decides to keep TF 16 at sea and move toward Marcus Island (which is nearer to Japan than Wake).
  
• Task Force 11 (Lexington) moved east after the attempted attack on Rabaul.  Vice Admiral Brown requested that another carrier group join with TF 11 to try another attack
• Task Force 17 (Yorktown) remained near Canton Island, but would soon be ordered to join with Task Force 11 to try again to attack Rabaul.. 
  

Japanese naval forces continued to gather at Rabaul for an attack to come soon on New Guniea.  However, the raid on Wake Island and the significant loss of planes from the attack on the Lexington task force caused a postponement. The new plan was to land a Japanese invasion force on the eastern side of New Guinea on March 8th.

More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 159-161
  
• The First South Pacific Campaign, John B. Lundstrom, pp. 32-38.

NEXT POST: MARCH 2ND

February 26, 1862 - Wednesday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Wood's Division

Wood's division, with the 40th Indiana, was moving forward toward Bowling Green, KY and would make it there by the 26th.  Some unassigned regiments, about 2000 men in all, were moving up and would temporarily join Wood's division.

By January 22nd, Buell had gone to the front, and was approaching Nashville with a small force.  His dispatch on that day said that he hoped to be within about 9 miles of Nashville by the end of the day.  By the 23rd, part of Mitchel's division is near Nashville but Buell is still farther behind.

On January 26th, Buell had entered Nashville with Mitchel's division and had sent a congratulatory dispatch to his armies on the capture of the city.  Confederate forces had moved south to Murfreesboro.  Buell expected to soon move forward in pursuit.

 More Information:

•   Link: War Operation, see Volume VII, Chapter 17, pp. 654-670
•  The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 58-59

 NEXT POST: MARCH 2ND

February 22, 1942 - Sunday - 80 years ago today

 Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien: 

O'Brien by the 22nd had finished repairs to the port side and departed for Pearl Harbor on the 20th; arrival at Pearl Harbor would be early in March.

 Other Events:

• February 19th:  Japanese force retiring from Bali is attacked by Allied forces.  A Dutch destroyer is sunk and two other Dutch ships are damaged.  Two Japanese destroyers are damaged.
• February 19th:  A Japanese attack force with four fleet carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu) attack Darwin, Australia and do major damage to the installations, also sinking 3 US ships (including one destroyer).  Darwin will no longer be used as a naval base.  Allied air forces will continue to use the airfields there.
• February 20th:  Task Force 11 (Lexington) is spotted before it can attack the Japanese base at Rabaul.  Japanese bombers attack the Lexington task force but most are shot down.  Pilot Edward H. (Butch) O'Hare shoots down five bombers in six minutes, and received the Medal of Honor.  O'Hare was later killed in action.  In 1949, Orchard Airport in Chicago was renamed O'Hare International Airport in his honor.
• February 20th: Japanese landings on Timor.
• February 20th: Welcome news is received that the aircraft carrier USS Hornet will transit from the Atlantic and arrive in the Pacific by mid-March. It will make the 4th active carrier task force along with Enterprise, Yorktown, and Lexington.  Saratoga is still in port for repairs on the West Coast.
  
• February 19th - 22nd: Shipping losses in the Atlantic continue; 5 tankers and 4 freighters are sunk during these four days.

 More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology
• The First South Pacific Campaign, John B. Lundstrom, pp. 35-38.

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 26TH

 

February 22, 1862 - Saturday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Wood's Division

 The way being open for the capture of Nashville, Buell's divisions were moving forward to take advantage.  By the 22nd, the advance troops (from Mitchel's division) were within a few miles of Nashville.  The main part of Mitchel's division was at Franklin, TN; another division was at Bowling Green.  

Wood's division, with the 40th Indiana, was ordered forward from the Munfordville area to Bowling Green as the divisions were moving southward in sequence.  All divisions would later consolidate in Nashville.

Taking Fort Donelson, combined with the Confederate army's retreat, opened the Cumberland River all the way to Nashville.  Clarksville, TN, the largest town on the river between Fort Donelson and Nashville, was also occupied by General Grant's army.

 Other Events:

• February 20: President Lincoln's son, Willie, 12 years old, dies of typhoid fever..
• February 21: Confederate forces in New Mexico win a battle at Valvarde, NM, and advance on Santa Fe.
• February 22: Inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States of America, in Richmond, VA.  Davis had been the provisional president since the spring of the previous year.
  

 More Information:

•   Link: War Operation, see Volume VII, Chapter 17, pp. 635-655
•  The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 58-59

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY26TH

February 18, 1942 - Wednesday - 80 years ago today

 Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien: 

O'Brien remained at the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs to the port side due to its collision with USS Case. 

 Singapore: 

The Fall of Singapore on February 15th was yet another major setback for the Allies.  Britain was now left without bases in the Pacific and would not be able to give significant help to the war effort in the Pacific in the near future.

• From the link above, page 1:  "In 1937, a major rebuilding of the island’s defences and fortifications had just been completed and the island was now considered impregnable, so much so that it was referred to as “The Gibraltar of the East”.
• Also from the link above, page 3: The Japanese took over 70,000 prisoners at the surrender, comprising British, Australian, Malay and Indian troops. Some were sent to Thailand where many later died building the Burma railway. Some were sent to Japan as slave labour and many were crammed into Changi and Selerang Barracks.  Churchill called the loss of Singapore “shameful” and “the worst disaster” and “the largest capitulation in British history”.

Other Events:

• Japanese forces secure control of oil refineries in Sumatra.
• Two US destroyers are damaged by Japanese aircraft near Sumatra and have to return to Australia for repairs.
• A convoy sent to Timor is recalled as Timor will soon be captured.  The convoy is attacked by Japanese warplanes, but suffers no losses, mainly due to USS Houston's anti-aircraft gunnery.
• Official Navy Chronology: 
• "Operation NEULAND: begins with simultaneous attacks on Dutch and Venezuelan oil ports to disrupt production and flow of petroleum products vital to the allied war effort".  One US tanker is damaged in the first day of this operation.
  

 US Carrier Task Forces:

• Task Force 16 (Enterprise) is moving to raid Wake Island.
• Task Force 17 (Yorktown) is moving toward Canton Island to cover recent landings there, and to act as a support force for the other two carrier task forces.
• Task Force 11 (Lexington) is preparing to attack the Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain.

 

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 22ND

February 18, 1862 - Tuesday - 160 years ago today

 Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Wood's Division

By the 18th, Wood's division had completed the movement by train to the Munfordville area, and remained there until orders came to move forward.

Further west, General Grant had invested Fort Donelson on the 12th, and there were several engagements over the next few days.  The Confederate army had created an escape route on the 15th, but did not take full advantage.  That evening, the generals had decided that the fort would have to be surrendered to the Union army.  Grant demanded unconditional surrender, and captured several thousand prisoners.  This made Grant famous in the North (U.S. Grant was now known as "Unconditional Surrrender" Grant), and morale improved both in the Northern states and in the army as well.

Their losses at Logan's Cross Roads, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson convinced the Confederate leadership that Kentucky could not be held.  Their central force facing Buell's army, was to pull back to Nashville and then soon after, even further south.  The way was open for the Union occupation of Nashville.  

General Mitchel had occupied Bowling Green, and was probing further south toward Franklin, near the Tennessee border.  Another of Buell's divisions had reached Bowling Green.  The 40th Indiana, with Wood's division, remained at Munfordville, ready to move further south on short notice.

The Confederates also had a significant number of troops at Columbus, KY, that would soon move south toward Memphis, TN and Corinth, MS, which were major railroad hubs that they would need to protect.

General Halleck, after General Grant's recent victories, was thinking about the next move of the army, and began looking to move down the Tennessee River to the Corinth, MS area as well.

 

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 22ND

 

February 14, 1942 - Saturday - 80 years ago today

 Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

O'Brien remained at the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs to the port side due to its collision with USS Case.

Other Events

• Task Force 16 (Enterprise) left Pearl Harbor for a raid in the central Pacific, with its destination still not determined.  
• Task Force 11 (Lexington), now in the south Pacific, was ordered to also conduct offensive operations.  Vice Admiral Brown, who was in command, began to prepare for a raid on the Japanese base at Rabaul, New Britain, which had been significantly built up and provided air cover for Japanese ships in the Bismarcks, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.  
• A transport carrying the occupation force for Canton Island grounded on the surrounding reef.  Troops were able to get ashore.  Canton Island is due north of Samoa, and about two-thirds of the way between Hawaii and Samoa.  It had been a stopover on the original Pan Am commercial flights between the US and New Zealand. and was used similarly by the US military during the war.
• Tankers and other transport ships were continuing to be sunk at an alarming pace.  Commands are established on Aruba and Curacao (terrritories of the Netherlands at this time), to manage port security, convoy routing, and tanker protection in the Atlantic.

 

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 18TH

February 14, 1862 - Friday - 160 years ago today

 Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment 

The 40th Indiana, with the 21st Brigade, received orders to move on February 11th:

February 11, 1862 - General Wood, Lebanon

Trains will be in readiness to transport your division (Twentieth and Twenty-First Brigades) to Bacon Creek, as follows: 10 o'clock a.m.,tomorrow (the 12th), two regiments, baggage and train; 3 o'clock a.m. (the 14th), three regiments, &c; 11 o'clock a.m. (the 13th), two regiments, &c; total 7 regiments.

The utmost punctuality and order must be observed.  The baggage must be on the wagons, ready to be rolled at once on the cars.  Under no circumstances must the baggage be thrown on loose, and the cars must be released as soon as they reach their destination.

Encamp your division at Bacon Creek until further orders, and be always ready to move at a moment's notice.

D. C. Buell    Brigadier-General

 Bacon Creek was located a few miles north of Munfordville, KY, and about 40 miles WSW of Lebanon.  The intent was to replace Mitchel's brigade in this area as Mitchel advanced on Bowling Green.  Unfortunately these things don't always go as planned, as we find from this dispatch on the 14th:

 Lebanon, February 14, 1862 -Capt. J.B. Fry. Assistant Adjutant-General

Want of trains is delaying the movement in a most unlooked-for, uncontrollable manner.  Regiments have been waiting at the depot for nearly twenty-four hours. Must delay occur by such detention for the want of arrangements in the meeting of the trains en route?  One train with troops of my division was detained two hours at the Junction.  Four regiments have gone and the fifth is embarking and will get off, I trust, in a short time.  Railway agent says it will be impossible to have transportation ready for remaining two regiments before tomorrow morning.  Movement will be conducted as rapidly as transportation is ready.

 Th. J. Wood - Brigadier-General, Commanding

 So the division was still in transit as of the 14th. 

Other Events

• General Mitchel, with part of the lead brigade, had reached a point opposite Bowling Green, KY by the 14th.  The Confederate army was evacuating and Mitchel was shelling them to try to prevent them leaving with their supplies.  As the bridge had been destroyed, the Union troops would have to create a temporary bridge to get into and occupy the town.
• On the 12th, Grant had begun moving his army toward Fort Donelson, and had reached there on the 13th. Initial attacks are repulsed by the Confederate garrison.  On the next day, the 14th, the Union gunboats come up.  This fort is has better and heavier guns that Fort Henry.  In the exchange, all four of the Union's ironclad gunboats are damaged and have to return downriver for repairs.  On the night of the 14th, the Confederate generals meet; believing that they cannot hold the fort, they agree to attempt to open a path for a breakout on the 15th.
  

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 18TH

 

February 10, 1942 - Tuesday - 80 years ago today

 

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

O'Brien remained at the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs to the port side due to its collision with USS Case. Mare Island is in the northern part of the Bay Area, near Vallejo.

Mare Island description from the link above:

The base grew into one of the largest naval facilities in the world during World War II. It expanded to 996 buildings, 20 ship berths, four dry docks, and two shipbuilding ways. Yard employees built 391 ships during the war. It repaired and sent back to battle 1,227 ships. More than 39,000 civilians were employed on Mare Island alone and thousands more in uniform. Mare Island also supervised the work of 28 private shipyards with 40,000 Navy contractors in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Other Events 

•  Admirals King and Nimitz are having discussions regarding the deployment of the three carrier task forces in the Pacific.  King believes the next Japanese move will be into the area around Australia, and orders Task Force 11 (Lexington) to move the the South Pacific (ANZUS command) to defend New Caledonia and the Coral Sea.  Nimitz recommends the remaining two carriers stay in the central Pacific.
• Nimitz initially recommends that the carrier group raids be suspended for now.  King wants to continue.  Raids will soon be planned for the central Pacific.
• Sinkings continue in the Atlantic, a tanker and a freighter are sunk.
  

 

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 14TH

February 10, 1862 - Monday - 160 years ago today

 Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment

 The 40th Indiana, with the 21st Brigade, remained at Lebanon, KY.  The regiment had now been in Kentucky for a full month.  No doubt the soldiers were eager for action (or even some movement), but it would still be a few more days before events began moving faster.

 Events in Kentucky and Tennessee

General Grant's anticipation of a quick capture of Fort Donelson was undone by the continuing heavy rain and its effect on the primitive roads of the area.  As of the 10th, he had been unable to start his army from Fort Henry towards Dover, TN where Fort Donelson was located.  The gunboats had not yet come up on the Cumberland.  The entire operation had been postponed.

It was hoped that the capture of this second fort could be done soon as there was news of Confederate troops leaving Virginia and coming to the West.  Generals Halleck and Buell both were overestimating the size of the Southern army already present, and became greatly concerned that Fort Donelson could be taken at all.  In fact, the commanding Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, was initially happy to have rumors circulate that he had a large army, as it kept the Union armies at bay, but he had not been able to build up his army in the meantime.

In Central Kentucky, Buell had begun to move his divisions toward Bowling Green KY.  The lead division, under General O. M. Mitchel, was in the Mammoth Cave area and scouting toward Bowling Green.

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 14TH

February 6, 1942 - Friday - 80 years ago today

 

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

O'Brien was assigned to a supply convoy bound for Australia and left on the 4th.  Unfortunately, O'Brien had a collision with the destroyer USS Case, and was damaged enough on the port side that it was necessary to leave the convoy and return to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs.

From the Ship History at Naval History and Heritage Command:

O'Brien sailed with a convoy for the western Pacific 4 February, but was forced to return when a collision with destroyer Case damaged her port side. Following repairs at Mare Island, the ship sailed 20 February via San Diego, to Pearl Harbor. 

Other Events

• U-Boats sink more shipping off the US east coast.  Three tankers and two freighters are sunk between February 2nd and 6th.
• As the situation in the Philippines deteriorates further, valuables such as gold, silver and securities, as well as communications and intelligence personnel are removed by submarine.
• The Asiatic Fleet is attacked by Japanese warplanes on February 4th.  Light cruiser USS Marblehead is damaged and has to return to the US; heavy cruiser USS Houston loses battery 3 (the rear 8-inch gun turret) but remains in action.  The Asiatic Fleet is disbanded and reorganized as Naval Forces, South Pacific Area.

More Information:

• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships 
•  Official Navy Chronology pp.149-150
  

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 10TH

Febuary 6, 1862 - Thursday - 160 years ago today

 

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment

 The 40th Indiana, with the 21st Brigade, remained at Lebanon, KY.

 Battle of Fort Henry

As mentioned in the last post, by February 5th, the forces under General Grant and Commander Foote were mostly in position for the attack on Fort Henry.  Due to the poor road conditions that were made worse by recent rains, the army was not able to get to the fort before the gunboats began the battle.

As it turned out, the gunboats were all that was needed as they were able to silence most of the fort's guns (in addition, some of the guns in the fort were disabled by a bursting of a large rifled cannon)  and thus received the surrender of the fort before the army came up.  In addition it seems that most of the Confederate troops had transited to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, about 10 miles to the east.  Fort Donelson was more easily defended, and had a large garrison already there.

Union troops occupied Fort Henry, and General Grant began to move toward Fort Donelson, confidently predicting that it would be taken on the 8th.  The gunboats would also be necessary for the next attack, and began to make their way back up river into the Ohio, and back down the Cumberland toward Fort Donelson.

Central Kentucky

General Buell had sent a brigade, and some new regiments from Indiana and Ohio, to aid in the attack on Fort Henry.  With the inability to move effectively toward East Tennessee, he had decided to push toward Bowling Green, KY.  He presumed that he faced a larger force than his, and so did not promise that he could move quickly.

With the capture of Fort Henry, and the potential capture of Fort Donelson, the Confederates could not hold Kentucky and began to fall back toward Nashville.  Buell would not face opposition as he moved toward Bowling Green. 

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 10TH

February 2, 1942 - Monday - 80 years ago today

 

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

On Febuary 2, 1942, O'Brien was in port at San Francisco, having arrived on January 31st. O'Brien was assigned to a convoy bound for Australia that would leave on the 4th.

Navy Attacks in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands

In the eight weeks since the Pearl Harbor attack, there had been a seemingly endless series of bad news; Pearl Harbor attacked with great loss of life, Wake Island lost, the Philippines surrounded, Japanese invasions and conquests all over the Pacific, shipping sunk just offshore on the east coast, and on and on.  Clearly more was coming as there was little hope to retain the Philippines and Singapore was in grave danger.  The Navy and the American public were starving for some good news.

As noted earlier, two carrier task forces had moved toward the Gilbert and Marshall Islands after supporting the convoy of Marines to Samoa.  On February 1st, this force attacked several islands in the Gilberts and Marshalls, both with carrier aircraft and bombardment from ships.  Although only a few small Japanese ships were sunk, and a few others damaged, the attack was a great morale booster for the Navy, and also for the public.  Both carrier task forces returned intact, with only minor damage to one cruiser.

The Navy did not have enough ships to do anything more at the moment than these hit-and-run raids on Japanese outposts. It was clear, though, that there would be Japanese attacks soon in the Coral Sea area to threaten the link between Hawaii and Australia. Carrier task forces could use these attacks as training for the battles soon to come.

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 6TH

 

 

Febuary 2, 1862 - Sunday - 160 years ago today

 

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment

 The 40th Indiana, with the 21st Brigade, remained at Lebanon.

USS Monitor

At Brooklyn, NY on January 30th, the USS Monitor was launched.  This was one of the first iron warships; and that, combined with its novel and unique rotating gun turret (the only noticeable feature on its deck), and other innovations made it the most complex new machine of the age.  It had been built in just 100 days, and would have little time for sea trials, as in just over a month it would do battle with a Confederate iron clad ship, the CSS Virginia (originally named the Merrimack).  

The rotating turret would be the prototype for most gun turrets on future naval ships, and in many ways resembled the 5-inch gun turret on USS O'Brien, which was (at times) the battle station for John Skinner, John Baer's great grandson, some 80 years later.

 In Kentucky and Tennessee

As General McClellan was discussing with President his plans to move the army by water to southwest Virginia, Halleck's army in the west was preparing to attack.  

An army under General Grant, coming from Cairo, IL, through Paducah, KY would move down the eastern bank of the Tennessee River (many by steamboat rather than marching) toward Fort Henry, about 45 miles SSE.  A fleet of gunboats under Commodore Foote would move down the river and meet the army there for the attack.  

Due to weather and road conditions, this coordinated movement would take from the 1st to the 5th of February, with the attack commencing the next day.

 More Information:

• Iron Dawn, the Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History, Richard Snow, 2016, 367 pages.
•  Link: War Operation, see Volume VII, Chapter 17, pp. 572-580

 NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 6TH