Heavy Action Encountered in Virginia Waterways
Mount Washington saw heaviest action in 1863 in the Siege of Suffolk, Virginia. She towed USS Ossipee to Washington 8 January, joining the campaign in April. She found USS Cohasset aground at the mouth of the Nampony River 13 April and learned that the Confederates planned to cross the river to attack the Union's rear forces at Suffolk, Virginia, and to silence the gunboats for this purpose. In the subsequent Battle of Suffolk at the Norfleet House Battery, Mount Washington exchanged artillery fire with the Confederates at Hampton Roads, 14 April, meeting sharp musketry. Four sailors temporarily assigned to Mount Washington were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during this battle: Coxswain Robert Jordan, Seaman Henry Thielberg, Coxswain Robert B. Wood, and Seaman Samuel Woods. Later in April, she and Stepping Stones were fired on at Norfleet's Point. Towing West End downriver, Mount Washington ran aground but moved off with the next high tide. Four Negroes boarded her a few days later, reporting no sign of Confederates; nevertheless, Mount Washington was fired on moments later, and a severe engagement ensued.
Read more about this topic: USS Mount Washington (1846)
Famous quotes containing the words heavy, action, encountered and/or virginia:
“Whenas the Chill Sirocco blowes,
And Winter tells a heavy tale;
When Pyes and Dawes and Rookes and Crows,
Sit cursing of the frosts and snowes;
Then give me Ale.”
—Thomas Bonham (d. 1629?)
“Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“His singing carried me back to the period of the discovery of America ... when Europeans first encountered the simple faith of the Indian. There was, indeed, a beautiful simplicity about it; nothing of the dark and savage, only the mild and infantile. The sentiments of humility and reverence chiefly were expressed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue, I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)