Chapter XVIII: Story of the New Navy (4)

Vera Cruz, Mexico, siege and blockade of, by Americans, iii. 417–424;
the city captured, 424–427;
the navy’s part in the capture, 424.

Vergennes, Vt., Macdonough builds the _Saratoga_ there, iii. 137.

_Vesuvius_, United States dynamite cruiser, iv. 540.

Veterans of the Peninsular War sent to subjugate America, iii. 135.

Vicksburg, Admiral Farragut’s fleet arrives at, iv. 341;
moves made against, by way of the Yazoo River country, 350;
they failed, _ib._;
General Grant arrives before, 351;
Admiral Porter tries to get in behind, 358–363;
Grant surrounds, 363.

_Victor_, British gun-boat, captures the _Hancock_, i. 185.

_Vigilant_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.

_Vincennes_, American ship, sent to Japan in 1845, iii. 440.

_Vincennes_, Federal war-ship, iv. 129;
misunderstands signals, 133, 134.

_Viper_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.

_Virginia_, American frigate, grounded in Chesapeake Bay, i. 186.

_Virginia_, English frigate, i. 284.

_Virginia_, a name given to the reconstructed _Merrimac_, but not
used, iv. 189.

_Vixen_, American cruiser, in the attack on Tripoli, i. 374.

_Vixen_, American brig, captured by British frigate _Southampton_,
ii. 348.

_Vixen_, American steamer, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.

_Voluntaire_, French frigate, i. 316.

_Wabash_, United States screw frigate, iv. 15;
commanded by Captain Samuel Mercer, 99;
Captain C. R. P. Rodgers, commander, 163.

_Wachusett_, Federal frigate, captures the _Florida_, iv. 424.

Wadsworth, Captain Alexander Scammel, appointed to the
_Constellation_, iii. 327.

“Waggon, The,” a contemptuous term applied to the frigate _President_
by the British, ii. 360.

Wales, Captain R. W., fights a battle with the _Peacock_, iii. 68–71;
surrenders, 71;
his ship is carried into Savannah, 77.

Walke, Commander Henry, in charge of transport _Supply_, iv. 115;
disobeys orders, _ib._;
is court-martialed, 116;
appointed to command the _Taylor_, 250;
convoys General Grant down the Mississippi, 251;
in command of gun-boat _Taylor_, 251;
gallant conduct of, 252;
his timely aid, _ib._;
commands the _Carondelet_ in Commodore Foote’s fleet, 255;
his seeming insolence to Commodore Foote, 266;
commences the attack on Fort Donelson, 268;
diverts the Confederates’ attention from Grant, 271;
successfully runs the _Carondelet_ past the batteries of Island No.
10, 281;
resourcefulness of, 282;
passes six forts, under fire of fifty guns, 283;
aids the _Cincinnati_, 294.

_Walker_, American whaler, captured by the Peruvian cruiser
_Nereyda_, iii. 7.

“Wall-piece,” a gun used in capturing the _Margaretta_, i. 17.

_Wampanoag_, Federal ironclad, iv. 472, 473.

War of 1812, events which led up to, i. 383;
Great Britain fomented discord between the States of the Union, 384;
used every means to harass American commerce, _ib._;
impressed men by force to serve on English ships, 386;
used the press-gang in foreign ports, 387;
demanded right of search on the high seas, _ib._;
used nothing to enforce an order but the cat-o’-ninetails, 389;
American ships stripped of their crews, 397;
five men off the _Baltimore_ impressed in the British service, 401;
the affair of the _Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_, 402–413;
case of the _Spitfire_ and _Guerrière_, ii. 7;
tricky conduct of the officers of two British frigates, 15;
war declared, 28;
justified by the _Trent_ affair, iv. 140.

War-ship, the first submarine, i. 157;
the first Yankee, on fresh waters, ii. 264;
development of the, from 1815–1859, iv. 1–9.

Ward, Fleet Officer James H., his attack on the Acquia Creek
batteries, iv. 81;
killed, 82.

Ward, Samuel, Rhode Island delegate to Continental Congress, i. 31.

Warren, Fort, Mass., Mason and Slidell confined there, iv. 156.

_Warren_, American frigate, i. 280, 283.

Warrington, Master-commandant Lewis, iii. 66;
attacks and captures the _Epervier_, 66–71;
succeeds Porter in clearing the South American coast of pirates,
338.

_Washington_, American galley, i. 89; on Lake Champlain, 99.

Washington, George, and the Congress of the United Colonies, i. 27.

Washington, D. C., conduct of the British sailors at capture of, ii.
418, 419.

_Wasp_, schooner, of first American Navy, i. 40.

_Wasp_ (No. 2), American sloop-of-war, fight with the _Frolic_, ii.
107–117;
both the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ captured by the British frigate
_Poictiers_, 118, 119;
taken into the British navy and lost at sea, 119.

_Wasp_ (No. 3), American sloop-of-war, cuts her way through British
blockaders, iii. 81;
fights and captures the _Reindeer_, 86–88;
comparison of the two ships, 91;
cuts out the _Mary_ under the convoy of the _Armada_, and is chased
by the _Armada_, 92;
encounters the _Avon_, 93;
fights and disables her, 97;
the _Castilian_ and _Tartarus_ appear and chase the _Wasp_ off, 97;
captures two merchantmen and the _Atalanta_, 100;
mysterious end of, 102–104.

Waters, Captain Daniel, assists in capturing a British troop-ship, i.
203;
desperate fight with two British sloops-of-war, 209.

_Water Witch_, carries an exploring expedition to Parana, iii. 464.

_Water Witch_, Federal war-ship, iv. 129–133.

Watson, William H., Lieutenant, ii. 364;
is cut down and carried off unconscious, _ib._;
captures a pirate schooner off South America, iii. 335.

_Watt_, British privateer, fights with the _Trumbull_, i. 291.

_Webb_, Confederate ram, iv. 352.

_Weehawken_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480.

Weitzel, General, in command of troops at Fort Fisher, iv. 513.

Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, his account of the effect
that the raid of the _Merrimac_ had upon a cabinet meeting at
Washington, iv. 211.

Wellington, Duke of, on the character of the veterans sent to
America, iii. 134.

“Wellington’s Invincibles” invade the Sorel River, iii. 135;
sent to New Orleans under Sir Edward Packenham, iii. 230.

_Wellington_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.

Wells, Clark H., Lieutenant-Commander, iv. 389.

West India pirates, iii. 324.

Western waters, ships of the line of battle on, iv. 249.

_Westfield_, Federal ship, destroyed by the Confederates, iv. 357.

_West Wind_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.

Whaler, an armed British, transformed into a Yankee cruiser, iii. 9,
10.

Whaling fleet, British, taken by surprise, iii. 8–10.

Wheaton, Joseph, one of the capturers of the _Margaretta_, i. 16.

Whinyates, Captain Thomas, ii. 106;
encounters the _Wasp_ in a gale, _ib._;
gives battle to the _Wasp_, 107;
wounded, 112;
surrenders, 116;
his ship recaptured by the _Poictiers_, 118.

Whipple, Abraham, in command of boats attacking the _Gaspé_, i. 9;
commands American ship _Columbus_, 66;
in charge of the _Providence_, 281.

Whiskey demijohns for torpedoes, iv. 350.

White River, Ark., Federal operations on, iv. 307.

White Squadron, formation of, iv. 531–554.

_Whitehead_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 457.

Wickes, Captain Lambert, in the fight with the _Shark_, i. 71;
carries Franklin to France, 114;
captures prizes, _ib._;
goes on a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, _ib._;
captures fifteen prizes, 118.

Wilderness, building war-ships and gun-boats in the, ii. 286.

Wilkes, Captain Charles, stops the British steamer _Trent_ and takes
off Mason and Slidell, iv. 144–160;
sails into Boston, with his prisoners, 148, 149;
his conduct commended by Secretary of the Navy Welles, _ib._

Wilkinson, General, attempts to attack Montreal, ii. 271;
expedition fails, 272;
builds winter quarters on Salmon River, _ib._

_William_, American merchant-ship, captured by the _Java_, ii. 153;
recaptured by Captain Lawrence, of the _Hornet_, 181.

_William S. Robins_, merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
privateers, iv. 97.

Williams, Richard, reports to the British Government on the _Trent_
affair, iv. 150.

Williams, Captain John Foster, captures the British brig _Active_, i.
206;
fights and blows up the British privateer _Admiral Duff_, 207;
compels the frigate _Thames_ to haul off, _ib._

Williamson, Chief Engineer W. P., assists in the reconstruction of
the frigate _Merrimac_ into an ironclad, iv. 185–186.

_Will-o’-the-Wisp_, blockade runner, iv. 57;
description of, _ib._

_Wilmer_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.

Wilmington, N. C., a favorite resort of blockade-runners, iv. 41.

Wilson, Lieutenant-commander Byron, iv. 363–369.

_Winnebago_, Federal monitor, iv. 386.

_Winona_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.

_Wissahickon_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.

_Wolfe_, British sloop-of-war, ii. 348.

Wood, Lieutenant John Taylor, iv. 189;
boards and destroys the Federal gun-boat _Underwriter_, 452;
his statement on the retiring of the _Monitor_ from the fight, 230,
231.

Woodworth, Lieutenant S. E., iv. 364.

Woolsey, Lieutenant Melancthon, ii. 264.

Worden, Lieutenant John L., causes Fort Pickens to be reinforced, iv.
119;
arrested and held prisoner for seven months, _ib._;
Captain of the _Monitor_, 205;
begins the battle with the _Merrimac_, 219;
gets to close quarters, 222;
has his ship under good control, 212;
disabled, 225;
Lieutenant Greene succeeds him in command, 229;
transferred to a tug and taken to Washington, 230;
letter to him from his crew, 233;
Captain of the _Montauk_, 480.

Wright, Governor, of St. John’s, captured by Captain Selman, i. 203;
released, _ib._

_Wyalusing_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 457.

Wyer, Captain, captures four prizes in the Mediterranean, iii. 343.

Wyman, Captain R. W., at Port Royal, iv. 163.

Yankee squadron, first cruise of the, i. 48.

_Yarmouth_, British ship, attacked by the _Randolph_, i. 162.

Yarnall, Lieutenant, in the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 313;
Perry leaves him in charge, 318.

Yellow fever decimates the crews of the American ships before Vera
Cruz, iii. 418.

Yeo, Sir James L., placed in command of the British naval forces on
Lake Ontario, ii. 348;
captures the American brig _Vixen_ in the West Indies, _ib._;
sends an insulting challenge to Captain Porter of the _Essex_,
_ib._;
captures two schooners and supplies, _ib._;
meets Commodore Chauncey’s squadron, 349;
has some brushes with the enemy, 350–353;
operations on Lake Ontario, iii. 114–126.

_York_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.

Yucatan, Mexico, governed by the Americans during the Mexican War,
iii. 414.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.

The illustration near page 199 includes a numbered key, but some of the numbers in the illustration are hard to find or read. The Transcriber has included two versions of this illustration: the original and an annotated one, in which those numbers appear in red (or gray, depending on the reading device). Two of those numbers, 1 and 18, may be in the wrong places.

The key numbers in the illustration near page 319 are the original ones. They are in ascending sequence clockwise, with the exception of 12 and 11.

The map following page 520 did not have a caption. As it was the only illustration in the book without a caption, Transcriber copied its description from the List of Illustrations and used it as the caption.

The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references. Most of the references are to pages in the other three volumes of this series; all four volumes are available at no charge at Project Gutenberg:

Volume I: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71794
Volume II: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71795
Volume III: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71796
Volume IV: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71797

In the original book, the index entries for "Biddle, Captain Nicholas" referring to Volume II. actually refer to his nephew, "Biddle, James", and some of those are in Volume III. In this ebook, those entries have been corrected, but the index may contain other errors.