640 NAVY, U. 8., OPERATIONS OF. 



steamers Calhoun, Estrella, Kinsman, and Di- 

 ana, and the transport St. Mary's, having on 

 board the 21st Indiana regiment, was sent to 

 the Atchafalaya river, La., to cooperate with a 

 land force under General Weitzel. On Nov. 

 1, near Brashear City, he captured the Con- 

 federate despatch boat A. B. Seger, and the 

 next day had an engagement with an iron-clad 

 gunboat and some land batteries on the Bayou 

 Teche. The batteries were silenced, but the 

 gunboat, being behind a row of obstructions 

 across the channel, escaped up the river. Lieu- 

 tenant Commander Buchanan then returned to 

 Brashear City to repair damages. On the 6th, 

 the Kinsman discovered and burned two steam- 

 ers in one of the small bayous in the neighbor- 

 hood. 



5. Western flotilla. Nearly all the opera- 

 tions of this squadron, which was fitted out 

 and, until October, was controlled by the "War 

 Department, have been mentioned in the article 

 ARMY OPERATIONS, and the first attack on 

 Vicksburg has been described in the account 

 of Captain Farragut's movements. When the 

 attempt to reduce Vicksburg was, for the time, 

 abandoned, Flag-Officer Davis withdrew his 

 fleet to the mouth of the Yazoo. 



On June 13, a detachment from the squadron, 

 under Commander Kilty, with the 46th Indiana 

 regiment, under Col. Fitch, left Memphis for 

 White river, Ark. (See ARMY OPERATIONS.) 



Early in August, an expedition was concert- 

 ed between Flag-Officer Davis and General 

 Curtis, which moved up the Yazoo, and cap- 

 tured a battery of heavy guns, field pieces, 

 munitions of war, &c., besides taking the Con- 

 federate transport Fairplay, loaded with 1,200 

 Enfield rifles, 4,000 new muskets, 4 field guns, 

 mounted howitzers, small arms, a quantity of 

 fixed ammunition, &c. 



On the 26th of September, the ram Queen 

 of the West and t\vo transports having been 

 fired into by the Confederates at; Prentiss, 

 Miss., the town was shelled and burned. 



On December 13th the gunboat Cairo, while 

 ascending the Yazoo, was blown up by a tor- 

 pedo, and sank in 15 minutes after the ex- 

 plosion. It is remarkable that none of the 

 crew were killed, or even seriously hurt. 



6. Potomac Flotilla. The operations of this 

 force, except in checking contraband traffic, 

 were comparatively unimportant. On Jan. 2, 

 the gunboats Anacostia and Yankee had an en- 

 gagement with the Confederate batteries at 

 Cockpit Point, which they silenced. 



After the evacuation of the Confederate 

 batteries on the Potomac, in March, and the 

 removal of General McClellan's army to the 

 peninsula, the Rappahannock was added to the 

 waters intrusted to this squadron ; but, beyond 

 a few skirmishes with batteries on the shores, 

 the capture of some small craft, and an at- 

 tack, on December 10, upon the Confederate 

 batteries at Port Royal, below Fredericksburg, 

 the flotilla had little opportunity for action. 



7. James Itiver Flotilla. After the removal 



NELSON, WILLIAM. 



of General McClellan's army to the James river, 

 a new squadron was organized (July 6) for 

 operations on that stream, and intrusted to the 

 command of Commodore Charles Wilkes, who, 

 on August 28, shelled and destroyed City 

 Point, from which place the Confederates had 

 fired upon the TJ. S. transports in the river. 

 The removal of the army to the Potomac ren- 

 dered the flotilla no longer necessary in the 

 James river, and it was accordingly disbanded, 

 August 31. 



The vessels thus placed at the disposal of 

 the Government were then organized as a fly- 

 ing squadron, to cruise chiefly in the West 

 Indies in search of ships engaged in running 

 the blockade. Commodore Wilkes was retain- 

 ed in the command. 



Several other vessels were engaged during 

 the year in pursuit of the privateers Sumter 

 and Alabama, the former of which after being 

 tracked to Gibraltar, was there blockaded by 

 a Federal gunboat so closely that her com- 

 mander was obliged to sell her. 



According to the annual report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy, Dec. 1, 1862, the blockading 

 squadron had captured and reported to the de- 

 partment, since the date of the previous annual 

 report, 390 vessels attempting to violate the 

 blockade, a few of which were destroyed. Of 

 the large number of prizes sent in for adjudi- 

 cation, in only 45 had the proceedings at that 

 date been brought to a close. 



NELSON, WILLIAM, major-general of vol- 

 unteers in the U. S. army, born in Maysville, 

 Mason co., Ky., in 1825, was killed at Louis- 

 ville, Ky., Sept. 29, 1862. He entered the 

 naval school at Annapolis at the age of fifteen, 

 and, upon graduating, was appointed a mid- 

 shipman in the U. S. navy. He was first 

 attached to the sloop-of-war Yorktown, in 

 commission for the Pacific, and soon after 

 joined that squadron under Commodore T. Ap 

 Catesby Jones. In 1846 he received his com- 

 mission as passed midshipman, and was order- 

 ed to the frigate Raritan, attached to the home 

 squadron, and flag ship of Commodore Conner. 

 In 1847 he was made acting master of the 

 steamer Scourge, under the command of Com. 

 Perry. At the siege of Vera Cruz, during the 

 Mexican war, he won a high reputation in 

 command of a navy battery. In 1854 he was 

 promoted to the rank of master, and ordered 

 to the frigate Independence, stationed in the 

 Pacific. In 1858 he was ordered to the Ni- 

 agara when she carried back to Africa the 

 negroes taken from the steamer Echo. At the 

 commencement of the present war he was on 

 ordnance duty at the Washington navy yard, 

 and was detailed to command the Ohio river 

 fleet of gunboats, having received the rank of 

 lieutenant commander, but was soon after 

 transferred to the army for the purpose of 

 influencing volunteers in Kentucky, his native 

 State. He organized " Camp Dick Robinson," 

 between Garrardsville and Danville, and an- 

 other camp at Washington, in Mason co. He 



