A cannon barrel manufactured 164 years ago again belched fire and smoke Sunday. The cannon, manufactured in 1862, was part of the popular artillery display during the 48th annual Ohio Civil War Show at the Richland County Fairgrounds in Mansfield. Fans packed the demonstration area as cannons (and a mortar) from the Civil and Revolutionary wars exploded with loud roars, setting off car alarms in a parking lot. The show included full-size cannons, limbers and caissons. -- Article
Monday, May 4, 2026
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Compelling Civil War artifacts are among 100 objects the Atlanta History Center is highlighting to mark its centennial. Among them: USCT flag, ammo crate, a girl's diary, Sherman calling card, Cleburne sword, a Union map and a revolver
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| Solomon Luckie, Union map of Atlanta, detail of 127th USCT flag, sketch for Cyclorama (Courtesy AHC) |
The AHC, celebrating
its 100 anniversary this year, is inviting visitors to examine artifacts in
galleries, rooms and exhibits across its 33 acres. There is a big variety, from
a disco ball and Peachtree Street sign (below right, AHC) to a letter from the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. and an Atlanta Crackers baseball jersey.
Officials say
visitors will see photographs of the Civil War objects being unveiled during
the summer. That exhibition will feature
breathtaking artifacts and a broader discussion of issues that engage the
republic to this day: our belief systems, victory, defeat, reconciliation and
the evolving meaning of freedom.
The finely produced volume offers just a snippet of what's at the history center. There are thousands of items in the history center's collection, including those pertaining to Reconstruction and civil rights.
Here’s a closer look at the “Atlanta in 100 Objects” artifacts that are directly related to the Civil War.
Much of the information is from the AHC book, while other portions are from previous Picket reporting on these artifacts, many of which have been at the museum for some time.
Adapting the first map of Atlanta for military use
British-born
engineer and cartographer Edward A. Vincent made a map for the young city of
Atlanta in 1853. Of course, Atlanta was a much smaller town (about 2,600
residents) and Vincent created a circle with a one-mile radius.
“Vincent
beautifully illustrated the curved lines that gave Atlanta streets their
unusual layout,” a caption in the book states. The Western & Atlantic’s
Zero Milepost was in the center (more on that below).
Sherman’s
army adapted Vincent’s creation (he also designed Union Station). The one held
by the AHC was made July 25, 1864. It was drawn and printed in the field by the
topographical engineer office for the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas.
The map is currently on exhibit in McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.
The other two
large Federal armies in Georgia were the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the
Tennessee. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center; click to enlarge)
Solomon and
Nancy Luckie
Among them were successful barber and bathhouse owner Solomon Luckie,
his wife Nancy (left, courtesy AHC) and their three children. The AHC has portraits of the couple;
in his, Solomon wears a waistcoat, jacket and gold pinkie ring.
Luckie’s success story ended on Aug. 9, 1864, when one of
thousands of Union artillery shells raining on besieged Atlanta hit a lamppost.
Shrapnel struck the businessman, who was conversing with white businessmen at
the intersection of Whitehall (Peachtree) and Alabama streets. He died hours
later.
The lamppost for years was at the Underground Atlanta venue. It was moved to the AHC nearly a decade ago. It can be seen in an upstairs gallery associated with the Cyclorama.
Nancy and
their children survived the war. “His descendants would live to see decades of
success and struggles for Black Atlantans,” the book says of Solomon.
The two original portraits are not on display but copies are displayed with the lamppost.
Zero Milepost
Zero Milepost (Picket photo, right) was placed in the 1850s at the southeastern
terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in what is now downtown
Atlanta, near Georgia State University. “It was this railroad that provided the
impetus for the beginning and subsequent growth of the city of Atlanta and
marks the center of the city from which the Atlanta city limits were measured,” says the National Park Service.
The Western & Atlantic was vital for the Confederacy,
sending both supplies and troops to the front.
For 70 years, the marker sat in the open, but the growth of
the city’s viaduct system led to the Central Avenue Bridge above it and the
feature was enclosed in a building in the 1980s. With the exception of a few
groups, the marker had not been visible to the public since 1994.
In 2018, the milepost was moved to the history center, sparking criticism by preservation and civic groups. A replica was left in the remote site. The museum and state officials said the original needed protection from planned construction work
At the time, an official with the Atlanta
Preservation Center said news of the move was a dark day for preservation. “It
is always better to leave things in their original location,” said David
Mitchell.
The replica milestone as of this writing is inaccessible because of some kind of project being done ahead of the World Cup.
Battle of Atlanta revolver
In 2006,
descendants of Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress discovered a small pocket
revolver (Picket photo, below) that their great-grandfather carried into the Battle of Atlanta on
July 22, 1864.
DeGress, already a respected veteran, is about to become a folk hero to the Northern cause. He retakes the four 20-pounder Parrott guns
that briefly fell into Confederate hands.
“He is an example of the sort of mid-level officer who was a
natural leader, on whom the troops really came to depend. On whom the battle
depended,” said AHC senior military historian and curator Gordon Jones.
The 1863
weapon was made by L.W. Pond Machine & Foundry Company in Worcester, Mass.
It has been on display with other artifacts in the Cyclorama galleries.
According to
“100 Objects,” descendants found a letter by artist Theodore Davis, a witness
to the battle, friend of DeGress and a historical adviser to the Cyclorama
painters. “The letter revealed that it was Davis who recommended DeGress’s
dramatic pose with this revolver.”
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| Capt. Francis DeGress gallops behind Maj. Gen. Logan (Picket photo) |
There’s a lot
that can be said of the immense painting, which was made in the 1880s by mostly
German artists with the American Panorama Company. Photos are helpful, but you
really have to see this depiction in person to appreciate the artistry and
chaos of battle.
The book
includes a foldout, 360-degree view of the painting and a preliminary sketch of
the focal point – the furious fighting at the Troup Hurt house.
The
Cyclorama, which was painted in Milwaukee to show a Union victory, was
later modified and misinterpreted in Atlanta as showing a Southern triumph –
however brief.
“Through the
Cyclorama (visitors) can explore the larger question of how our memory and
knowledge about the past can be shaped or mis-shaped, in the convergence of
history, art, entertainment and myth,” says the book.
Patrick Cleburne’s presentation sword
One of the
most compelling items in the former “Turning Point” exhibit was a sword presented by Rebel troops to Irish-born
Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne. It is expected to come back on view.
An unknown maker produced the sword in Solingen, Prussia, circa 1864.
Hammond Marshall of Atlanta, a dentist and jewelry maker, engraved the weapon.
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| (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center) |
Cleburne was among six Confederate generals killed later that year at
Franklin, Tenn. Before he set out, the officer uttered, “Well if we are to die,
let us die like men.”
The “100 Objects” book features this postscript:
“Cleburne
staff sent the sword to his fiancée, Susan Tarleton, in Alabama. It remained in
the Tarleton family until 1944. It was discovered in an umbrellas stand in a
New England antique store in the 1950s, after which it was purchased and
donated to Atlanta History Center.”
The sword will be back in the public eye in July when "More Perfect Union" debuts.
Sherman’s
photographer George N. Barnard
The AHC in 2024 purchased a rare copy of
George N. Barnard’s “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” thought to
belong to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and signed in 1886 by his son Philemon.
Barnard traveled twice in 1864 to Atlanta following the Confederate
surrender. The volume -- featuring 10 x 13 inches images -- includes scenes of
the occupation of Nashville, the 1864 battles around Chattanooga and Lookout
Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign, Savannah, Ga., and South Carolina. In May 1866,
Barnard traced the route of Sherman's North Georgia campaign, taking
pictures at Resaca and elsewhere.
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| (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center) |
Charlie
Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said
Barnard's contract with the Army called for him to principally take photos of
fortifications, and he took many.
“We're
lucky that he had time to take photos of the Ponder
house,
car shed, etc.” says Crawford, who has led many tours of key sites in Civil War Atlanta.
The “100 Objects” book includes this summary of the difficult work:
“Working with glass negatives, Barnard required a portable field
darkroom and time to set up, chemically prepare the plates, expose the image,
and develop the negative – all performed on site. Transported in wagons over
dirt roads, the glass negatives were always at risk for breakage. His
photographs are not enlargements, they are the same size as the glass negative,
some as large as 12-by-15 images.”
The volume will be displayed in July. Visitors will be able to use a digital display to flip through its pages.
Civil War diary –
Carrie Berry
“We were fritened almost to death last night. Some mean
soldiers set several houses on fire in different parts of the town. I could not
go to sleep for fear that they would set our house on fire. We all dred the
next few days to come for they said that they would set the last house on fire
if they had to leave this place.”
Thus read the Nov. 12, 1864, journal entry of Carrie Berry, a 10-year-old girl living in Atlanta during the fall and
occupation of the city. Hers is a very personal account of the shelling of her
neighborhood, hiding in the family cellar and taking care of younger siblings.
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| (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center) |
The Berry family lived on Harris Street about a mile from the
heart of downtown.
“Berry records her desires, reminding us that she is still a
child,” according to the book.
In August 1864, she writes, ‘How I wish the federals would quit shelling us so that we could get
out and get some fresh air. “Days earlier, she shared that it was her birthday,
“But I did not have a cake – times were too hard so I celebrated with
ironing.’”
Berry, who later married and had three children, died in
1921. She is buried at Oakland Cemetery, the resting place for Civil War
soldiers and civilians alike.
The diary will go on display in July when “More Perfect
Union” opens.
Confederate
ammunition crate
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| (Photo courtesey Atlanta History Center) |
According to the history center, the find is known in local tradition as
the “Expressway Cache.” (I was unfamiliar with the term). It was at a site that
was near four railroad lines during the Civil War. Buried in the mud of a
collapsed underground timber and earth supply depot were hundreds of muskets,
projectile, railroad tools and other supplies.
The Atlanta Journal said “a mad scramble” of workers, highway department
employees and onlookers looted the site.
This well-preserved crate, likely made in 1864, has a shipping address
on one side: “To Gen’l Johnston / Atalanta (sic) / GA.”.
Look for it in July when the new Civil War exhibit opens.
Locomotive Texas
A line of
text in “100 Objects” makes a pretty grand assertion:
“Given
Atlanta’s establishment as a railroad hub, the 1856 locomotive Texas is perhaps
the most significant object in the city.”
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| The Texas is lit up at night and is visible from the road (Civil War Picket photo) |
While it is
most famous for the Andrews Raid in 1862, the steam locomotive – which was at
Grant Park before it was restored in 2017 and relocated to the AHC – symbolizes
something else about the city.
AHC officials
have long stressed the engine tells a much larger story of the postwar growth
of the city, and they decided to paint it in an 1886
scheme, rather than
the bright colors it wore at Grant Park -- in part because its surviving parts
date closer to that year than the Civil War.
Like the
locomotive General, the object of the chase, the Texas was saved (in 1907) from
the scrap heap. The General presides at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Marietta, Ga. The Texas and General are the sole
surviving locomotives of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which played a
large part in Atlanta’s early development.
Silk regimental flag
of the 127th USCT
A prize artifact acquired in 2019 by the Atlanta History
Center captures the essence of why about 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the
Union army during the Civil War. It will go on display in July, officials said.
“We Will Prove Ourselves Men” reads the motto on the
striking flag that belonged to the 127th Regiment, U.S. Colored
Troops, which was formed in Pennsylvania of free men and some who had escaped
bondage. The reverse side features a bald eagle and the national motto, “E
Pluribus Unum” –out of many, one.
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| (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center) |
The 127th trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in
1864. It took part in combat during the siege of Petersburg and the surrender
at Appomattox. USCT units -- which helped turn
the tide in several campaigns and battles -- were led by white officers and it
took time for soldiers to receive pay equal to their white counterparts.
They had limited opportunities and faced racism within the Union army. Some
freed men captured by Confederate units were sold into slavery and in some
instances, such as at Fort Pillow, black troops were victims of racially
motivated atrocities.
Carpetbag
In the South, two terms of derision came to the fore in the years
following the Civil War.
A scalawag was a white Southerner who did not conform to postwar
expectations. They backed Reconstruction policies and, usually, the Republican
Party.
Carpetbaggers were outsiders and, as the AHC says, “travelers from the
North who came to the South to profit off the war; ravage local populations;
and take advantage of efforts to rebuild the region’s economy, politics and
social order.”
The AHC has a small carpetbag in its collection and describes such items
this way:
“As the network of railways spread in the US during the prewar period,
trains were connecting peoples and places quickly and efficiently. As a result,
small industry developed to supply cheap travel bags. The bags were made from
secondhand carpet scraps and sold for one or two dollars.”
The carpetbag currently is displayed in the "Gatheround" gallery.
Grand Army of the Republic reunion pot
This commemorative Boston bean pot was presented to GAR members in
Savannah, Ga., by veterans from Beverly, Mass. Three sides are adorned with the
coats of arms of the states of Georgia and Massachusetts, as well as that of
the Grand Army of the Republic. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)
According to the AHC, the pot was given in gratitude for the care of a
grave of a Beverly veteran, Erastus B. Davis, who died in Georgia in 1887.
Savannah veterans decorated his unmarked grave, pledging to “keep it in proper
order and mount it with the flag for which he offered up his life.”
A chaplain at one graveside service for a veteran said, “The blue and
the gray … now lie side by side. All strife has been ended and only the olive
branch prevails.”
The GAR pot will go in display in July.
Gen. William T.
Sherman’s calling card
In the 19th century, these small items were the
equivalent of today’s business cards, though most did not include contact
information.
Such was the case in January 1879, when William T. Sherman returned to Atlanta for the first since he vanquished his foes there. Over three days, Sherman met with local and state officials and gave out cards.
“Sherman received a warm welcome. Atlantans gathered at the train
station to welcome the Commanding General of the United States Army, with only
the occasional sly comment about fire,” says “Atlanta in 100 Objects.”
The card is currently on display at McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.
Other items with ties
to the Civil War
-- Death mask of railroad engineer Lemuel P. Grant, who designed Confederate
fortifications protecting Atlanta. It is on display in the AHC lobby atrium.
-- Wallet, library card and driver’s license for Margaret Mitchell
Marsh, author of “Gone With the Wind”
-- Wilbur Kurtz’s easel. The artist and historian (right) in the 1930s oversaw the restoration of The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama and the addition of diorama figures. The easel currently is positioned near the locomotive Texas.
The AHC says patrons can enhance their
experience through the Bloomberg Connects app, which offers additional audio
and visual storytelling to enhance the “100 Objects” show.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Quick hits: National Civil War Naval Museum director Brandon Gilland explains work on ironclad CSS Jackson's fantail in four 30-second videos. Check 'em out!
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| Museum chief Brandon Gilland looks over pieces of the Jackson's fantail armor (Picket photo) |
As I wrote last month, the National Civil War Naval Museum is reassembling 28 heavy pieces of iron that made up the fantail of the Jackson.
The precisely built curved rear deck that protected the vessel’s rudder and propellers had sat outside the Columbus venue for decades, waiting for new life. But a 2020 arson fire that raced through a pole barn dashed hopes of conserving the fantail in its original form. While the armor was scorched, it survived. The timbers holding them together were ruined.
I recently paid a visit to the museum and shot videos of director Brandon Gilland explaining the project (please watch them in order as placed below). He and volunteers arranged the iron in the shape of a half moon, in preparation for flipping and placing the pieces onto a cedar base attached to blocks.
When the project is completed in a few months, visitors will be able to get an idea of how the armor built at the stern was constructed and protected the ironclad. (Note: The armor originally was placed above the wood on the Jackson; the videos show the iron pieces upside down; they will be at top in the exhibit.
The Jackson (originally named the Muscogee) was designed to protect Columbus – a critically important industrial center for the Confederacy -- from Union navy marauders and blockaders. Construction on the Jackson began in early 1863. The underpowered vessel never became fully operational. (Picket photo at left; click to enlarge)
Remains of the Jackson and the twin-screw wooden ship CSS Chattahoochee are the star exhibits of the museum.
Both were lost in April 1865 at war’s end -- the Jackson set afire by Federal captors and the Chattahoochee scuttled by its own crew.
Friday, April 17, 2026
Georgia Battlefields Association meets at 'Great Locomotive Chase' depot in Dalton. Nonprofit based there will showcase its importance to commerce, culture and history
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| Iconic Western & Atlantic Railroad depot in downtown Dalton (Picket photo) and locomotive General in town in early 1960s for the Civil War centennial (Courtesy Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia) |
Fittingly,
the gathering occurred at the old Western & Atlantic train depot, itself the beneficiary of a commitment
to honoring the past while looking to the future. The recently restored depot
was one stop along the legendary “Great Locomotive Chase” of April 1862.
The Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia hosted the
event during the GBA’s annual tour of sites, which this year focused on Union
army preparations for the spring 1864 Atlanta Campaign and actions
through the Battle of Resaca on May 15, 1864.
GBA president Joe Trahan said the nonprofit gave $150,000
last year toward Civil War battlefield preservation efforts. Joe Gaskin, who
leads fundraising efforts, said several people have increased their membership
levels and donations to the GBA’s “Limber Chest” fund.
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| Members of the Georgia Battlefields Association at the Dalton Depot (Courtesy CFNWG) |
The
foundation’s community gathering space features 25-foot ceilings, charming brick
and Civil War-era architectural features. But it is a very up-to-date
environment -- from modern furniture to TV monitors that are designed to prompt
collaboration in today’s world.
The
foundation is working with the Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia,
part of Dalton State College, to develop a presentation or two in the building
to provide context to visitors about the role of the depot in the city’s
history and economy.
Andrews Raiders and pursuers rushed by in 1862
The Western and
Atlantic Railroad line
from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tenn., was completed in the early 1850s and the
Dalton depot opened in 1852 to provide passenger and freight service.
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| Union raiders on the General set fire to a river crossing in North Georgia (Wikipedia) |
The 12,100-square-foot brick
building is “a pretty high-style example of Georgia depot architecture” and has
Greek Revival features, with stone lintels, brick pilasters and door
entablatures. (Picket photo, below)
The building had its moment of fame on April 12, 1862, when Northern
raiders (the
South labeled them spies) commandeered the locomotive General in Big Shanty.
They chugged toward Chattanooga, intent on destroying parts of the railroad.
The pursuing locomotive Texas picked up a 17-year-old telegraph
operator who
rushed to the Dalton depot and wired Confederate troops to the north.
Although not all his message got through, Edward Henderson’s
alarm sent troops toward the track. The Andrews Raiders were captured near
Ringgold when the General ran out of steam. They had accomplished little. Many
were hanged while others escaped. Several were the first to receive the Medal
of Honor.
The depot remained in use as a rail stop for more than a century.
Center will help depot showcase area history
Foundation president David Aft (At left, with one of his painting, Picket photo) has communicated with Bandy Heritage Center director Matthew Gramling about ways to convey the depot’s vital role in the development of Dalton.The focus will be
on the cultural and economic networks the Western & Atlantic Railroad facilitated
for Northwest Georgia.
“I am still
in discussion with David regarding the exact display medium he wishes to use in
different areas within the depot,” Gramling said in an email. “We will be
providing him with local historical images on a jump drive for slide displays
on a flat screen television in the main meeting area within the foundation.”
Among those
images are a bank note issued during the Civil War, an old aerial shot and
another of the locomotive General as it visited Dalton during the Civil War centennial.
It is now housed at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in
Kennesaw, Ga., while its pursuer Texas is featured at the Atlanta History
Center.
Between the 1840s and 1940s, the Dalton Depot was a gathering
place as well as a place of exchanging of information, goods and services,
Jenkins said. “(The foundation) recaptures that opportunity
for the exchanging of information, goods and services for the greater good for
our community and her people,” he added.
The depot fell into hard times after the restaurant closed.
The city contracted with the Georgia Trust
for Historic Preservation to market the vacant and deteriorated building. Officials wanted
$500,000, but eventually sold it to local Barrett Properties in 2018 for $300,000. It took another seven years before
the renovation and reopening occurred.
Last month, I stopped by the depot. People
marvel at the renovated space, Aft said. A large weight scale in the lobby area
is a reminder of the depot’s role in commerce, he said.
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| Depot and other downtown buildings in 1932 (Courtesy of Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia) |
Bob Jenkins,
a local attorney active in Civil War land preservation and head of Save the Dalton Battlefields, said he is impressed with the renovation work on the long building in the heart of
downtown on Depot Street. (Picket photo of depot interior, right)
“For the first 100 years of Dalton‘s
existence, the depot was the entry point for
those traveling here as they would have disembarked a passenger train at
the depot and gone through it prior to entering
the streets into Dalton for the first time.
Today, most travelers enter Dalton via one of
the interstate exits from I-75 and are graded by a multilane road with multiple
fast-food restaurants, gas stations and strip malls,” he wrote in an email.
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| Local bank note issued during the Civil War (Courtesy of Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia) |
Choo-choos add character to meeting spaces
The building’s future was very uncertain just a few years
ago.
Locals remember Dalton Depot, a longtime restaurant and club
which operated in the brick building until about 10 years ago.
The foundation’s five employees work in an office nearly
twice as big as its longtime more traditional offices across town. They facilitate
meetings in a glass-lined board room and smaller “collaboration zones.” (At left David Aft with one of his paintings, Picket photo)
Working with charitable givers, the nonprofit provides grants
and funding for organizations in the area. Some of the endeavors involve mental
health programs, historic preservation, neighborhood revitalization and other
civic projects. It also provides space for outside groups to hold meetings.
Affordable housing is a problem in Dalton and Whitfield
County. That has an impact on charitable giving. “People give where they
live,” said Aft.
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| Northern half of depot is being developed as an English-style pub (Picket photo) |
I asked him whether the building has some particular
characteristics because of its history and proximity to busy CSX and Norfolk
Southern rail lines.
Heating the building on cold days is a challenge, he said.
Employees have gotten used to the train traffic and say it is
not distracting. Aft noted empty trains are louder because they bounce on the
tracks and send out a clickety clack signal.
“It adds novelty to the space,” said Aft.
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| Central meeting area in the refurbished Dalton Depot (Picket photo) |
Monday, April 13, 2026
Legacy of the USS Montauk: Student at the Savannah College of Art and Design believes she has the blueprints for success to produce 3D model of ironclad for park
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| Blueprints are matched with 3D model; illustration of Montauk shelling Nashville |
That’s one of many goals for Grace Stelmaszyk, a senior at Savannah College of
Art and Design (SCAD), who is working to produce and print a
model of the Montauk for Fort McAllister State Park in Richmond Hill, Ga. The Montauk bombarded
the Confederate fort and sank the raider Nashville (Rattlesnake) in February
1863.
The college previously produced interpretive panels about the
Montauk and other Union ironclads for the park. Greg Johnson, interactive
design and game development professor, has worked with students to make a
30-inch version of the Montauk, so it can be placed next to a model of the
Nashville in the park’s museum.
Key to the effort is a discovery made by park staffers several years ago: A matted long tube contained a precious copy of the USS Montauk’s blueprints, manufactured in dozens of sheets.
Johnson, after
learning about the blueprints, used a custom-built rig to slide dozens sheets
under a camera to obtain high resolution.
“Because I had to photograph the blueprints, since they were
way too big to scan, there is a certain amount of distortion. Grace had to fix
the distortion in the blueprints and then adjust the model to match,” Johnson
said in an email.
Stelmaszyk, who is graduating with an
interactive design and game development degree in May, hopes to have the model
ready for printing by early summer.
“My current
list of items to complete for a print-ready model are adding adequate thickness
to all components of the model, combining all components so the model is ‘watertight,’
deciding how many pieces need to be printed separately and assembled (small
things like the thin poles need to be separate since the printer may not print
them right if they're part of a larger piece), and then sizing the model to the
correct in-person length.”
Persistent Union ironclad finally got its prey
 |
| Working 3D Montauk model being produced for printing (SCAD photo) |
Andy Hall, A
Civil War naval expert and author, told the Picket the Passaic monitors were
the first large-class of monitors and many of them served together, such as the
campaign against the earthen Fort McAllister in 1863 and 1864.
The Union navy, as it continued
its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the
Montauk and sisters Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant, supported
by gunboats Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister
in January 1863.
Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister
hit the ironclad 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A
second attack on Feb. 1, 1863, found the vessel, according to histories,
pounded by 48 shells. The Montauk's sister ships also took part in the action.
Its big day came on February 28. The sidewheeler
Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister
for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile
Bend on the Ogeechee River, but apparently ran aground.
The 215-foot blockade runner commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting
duck because of its lack of maneuverability and deep draft in a tight area, and
the Montauk pounced.
“All the monitors were designed for littoral or
riverine operations, and so drew as little water as possible,” says Hall.
“Nashville was built as an ocean-going steamship, so had a fuller, deeper
hull.” That proved to be a disadvantage at McAllister.
Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to
destroy the former commerce raider.
Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this
troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS
Monitor Center in a blog. “However,
Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route
down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad.”
(Quarstein wrote a recent biography of Worden.).
The Union naval attacks on Fort McAllister itself were less successful. The low-profile earthen fort could withstand the shelling and repairs could be readily made. It eventually fell to land forces in December 1864.
The Montauk was scrapped
in the early 1900s; the park grounds and museum have a large number of CSS
Nashville artifacts.
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| USS Montauk (left) and USS Lehigh in Philadelphia in 1902 (Wikipedia) |
SCAD is working from a Montauk
paint scheme described in the work “Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships” by Steven Lund and William Hathaway.
The deck is lead gray, the
turret and pilot house black with a narrow white ring, and the smokestack black
with the upper one third in dark green.
Lots of tasks and challenges during project
SCAD and the park last year
took measurements of the Nashville model and studied vital stats of both vessels, so the
Montauk will be to scale. (Site manager Jason Carter below, Picket photo)
“This makes the USS Montauk model 30 11/16th inches or 780mm in length,” said Johnson. The ironclad, he says was slightly asymmetrical.
I asked the professor about the challenges of such a project.
“To build a complex 3D model like the USS
Montauk and then 3D print it, you first need a solid understanding of 3D
modeling fundamentals, know how to create clean geometry and also accurately
match real-world measurements,” he responded.
“Software like Autodesk's Maya or 3dsMax is generally used -- so a very thorough understanding of that software is required. You must build the model specifically for printing by ensuring it is fully closed (watertight, with no holes in the geometry), has appropriate wall thickness, and accounts for overhangs or tolerances so that parts can be fit together after printing. Once the ship is modeled, it will need to be exported to a file readable by the 3D printer and then loaded into a slicer, where things such as layer height, infill, supports, and other print settings will need to be determined.”
After that is completed, the model must be assembled and painted.
Stelmaszyk said she is using Maya and ZBrush
software.
“I'd say the
most gratifying part of the experience is always working towards that end goal
of printing and being able to hold it in my hands and see it in the world. All
the little steps that are completed along the way also bring me a lot of
satisfaction as I keep going forward. The most challenging part of this project
would be predicting the final print. For example, predicting the thickness and
what that will look like when printed or planning how you want to assemble the
smaller, fragile pieces back onto the main body. But I've always loved solving
puzzles.”
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| SCAD will be working from this paint scheme (Courtesy Steven Lund) |
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