USS Monitor Legacy Program: Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall: Last Commander of CSS Virginia - National Maritime Historical Society seahistory.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from seahistory.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
1830: The sloop USS Florida, under Lt. Josiah Tattnall, sailed from Key West, bound for Washington, D.C. The Key West Register wrote,” We are happy in stating that the officers
Raleigh and
Beaufort (the latter of which was renamed
Roanoke), joined the squadron from North Carolina early in 1862. In the meantime, at the suggestion of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Virginia-born naval commander who helped to develop torpedoes, the Confederate Congress appropriated $2 million for a large fleet of small gunboats. Two of them,
Hampton and
Nansemond, were completed and joined the squadron.
The squadron’s first commander was Captain French Forrest, who also commanded the Norfolk Navy Yard for the Virginia State Navy and the Confederate Navy. He commanded the squadron again from 1863 until 1864. Six other officers also took turns at command during the war: Captain (later Admiral) Franklin Buchanan, Captain Josiah Tattnall, Captain Sidney Smith Lee, Captain Samuel Barron, Captain John K. Mitchell, and Admiral Raphael Semmes. Like Forrest, they were senior officers who had long pre-war service in the U.S. Navy.