President's Message
Once again, I will be telling little known stories of
the American Civil War at our next meeting.
Gerridine LaRovere
December 11, 2024 Program:
Gerridine will
present
How soldiers celebrated
Christmas.
November Meeting
The story of the steam screw sloop
USS Wyoming
The “opening of Japan” by Commodore Mathew Perry in 1854,
with steam warships and shell guns, did not meet with universal acclaim
among the daimyo (feudal lords) of Japan.
For the first time in centuries, the emperor became actively
involved in the affairs of state as the Tokugawa Shogunate lost face and
power as a result of acceding to Perry’s demands.
In the spring of 1863, with the U.S. pre-occupied by the Civil
War, Emperor Komei issued an “expel the barbarians” order.
On the night of 25-26 June 1863, in defiance of the Shogunate,
but in accord with the emperor’s edict, ships of the daimyo fired on the
American merchant ship
Pembroke
at the entrance to the Shimonoseki Strait (which
connects the Inland Sea with the East China Sea).
Choshu guns from six forts overlooking the strait subsequently
fired on and hit French and Dutch ships in the next days. (Five of the
guns were 8-inch Dahlgren guns, courtesy of the United States.)
Although the emperor’s order applied to all Western Nations, the
United States was the first to react.
On 16 July 1863, the steam screw sloop
USS Wyoming
was the only U.S. ship in the Far East at the time and
under the command of Commander David McDougal.
The ship entered the Shimonoseki Strait ready for battle and
expecting to be fired on.
The Choshu did not disappoint.
As soon as
Wyoming
was in range, all six forts opened with a tremendous
cannonade. McDougal had
noted the range stakes in the Strait and deduced that the Japanese had
calibrated their guns to hit shops in the channel.
Instead, McDougal steered so close to the shore that Japanese
cannon balls missed 10-15 feet above the deck, tearing up the rigging
and perforating the smokestack, but doing no serious damage.
McDougal headed toward the three armed Choshu ships at the far
end of the channel, a sail bark, a sail brig, and a steamer (all
previously purchased from the United States).
The ship passed the bark starboard to starboard at pistol-shot
range as both ships emptied broadsides into the other.
The heavier U.S. weapons were far more effective, although the
Japanese got off three broadsides.
Wyoming then did the same to the brig, leaving her in sinking
conditions.
The following is a detailed account of the battle given by a
member of the
Wyoming crew.
Wyoming planned to get underway from Yokohama at 0500 on 13 July
1863, but tarried an hour awaiting the arrival of the Tokugawa Foreign
Minister, who was supposed to embark in order help with any
negotiations. However, the
Foreign Minister missed ships movement, later reportedly due to a severe
case of diarrhea.
Wyoming anchored off the island of Hime Shima, east of the
approaches to Shimonoseki Strait, on the evening 15 July 1863.
In discussions with a Japanese national who worked for the
American legation, McDougal was informed (and convinced) that the Choshu
would not negotiate and would fire on his ship.
As a result,
Wyoming’s crew made all preparations to be ready for battle.
At 0500 16 July
1863, Wyoming was underway from Hime Shima.
At 0900, the crew went to general quarters, with the pivot guns
loaded and cleared for action, although the guns were kept under tarps
in attempt to give the ship an appearance of being a merchant.
At 1000, Wyoming commenced an approach to the channel, sighting the two
Choshu sailing ships and one steam ship at the far end of the channel.
The vessels were noted flying the Tokugawa and Choshu banners.
Wyoming entered the channel at 1045, at which point Japanese signal
guns ashore fired.
Wyoming then hoisted her colors.
As soon as
Wyoming was in range, the Japanese forts opened fire with an
intense bombardment.
McDougal correctly deduced that stakes in the channel indicated that the
Japanese had already calculated the range for ships in the channel and
aimed their guns accordingly.
As a result, McDougal steered so close to the north shore that
the forts’ guns could not depress enough, and numerous Japanese rounds
whizzed by 10–15 feet overhead through the rigging.
(The Japanese pilots aboard Wyoming had essentially gone catatonic by this point.)
As Wyoming passed through the narrowest point of the channel, McDougal
aimed directly for the Choshu ships, which were still at anchor, and
were heavily manned by what appeared to be highly motivated Japanese
trying to get underway. The
bark was anchored just off the town of Shimonoseki and the brig
Kosei about 50 yards beyond.
The steamer Koshin was anchored beyond the two sail ships, anchored a bit
further south in the channel.
McDougal aimed to engage the two sail ships to starboard and the
steamer to port.
Wyoming passed the bark at pistol-shot range, as Wyoming’s Marines picked off Japanese with musket fire.
The muzzles of the big 11-inch guns were so close to the Japanese
they almost touched. The
parrot gun and 32-pounders blew holes in the bark.
The bark put up a spirited fight, getting off three broadsides
as Wyoming passed.
Wyoming then did the same to the brig.
It was during these exchanges that Wyoming suffered most of her casualties.
The forward gun had six men down, including one dead, and a
Marine was killed by shrapnel.
As Wyoming opened the range from the brig, aiming for the
steamship, the brig was already starting to sink, but kept on firing.
Wyoming then fired into the steamer with her portside guns.
As Wyoming passed the steamer, she turned to port to make a second
pass at greater range and to bring the 11-inch guns to bear.
At this point, Wyoming ran aground.
As Wyoming tried to back off, the steamer Koshin slipped her anchor and made a run at Wyoming in an apparent attempt to either ram or board.
Wyoming freed herself before the on-rushing steamer could get too
close. McDougal gave
repeated orders to the closest 11-inch to fire, which the gun captain
seemed to ignore. Finally,
the gun captain fired, and an exquisitely aimed round hit the steamer
right at the waterline into her boiler (and out the other side), but the
boiler exploded, sending the steamer Koshin to the bottom in less than two minutes.
Having reversed
course, Wyoming engaged the sinking brig Kosei with the 11-inch Dahlgrens, hitting her twice in the hull
and expediting her trip to the bottom.
Wyoming then inflicted more punishment on the bark, which was still
afloat at the end of the engagement, but effectively destroyed.
Wyoming then bombarded the forts with accurate fire until all were
silenced.
Wyoming ceased fire at 1220 and steamed out without further
interference from Japanese guns.
During the one
hour and 10-minute engagement, Wyoming fired 55 rounds of shot and shell (actually with very
judicious and well-aimed fire, as it was still necessary to conserve
ammunition in the event of an encounter with a Confederate raider).
The Choshu had fired 130 rounds, of which only 22 were damaging; Wyoming had been hit in the hull 11 times without serious effect,
although her rigging was extensively shot up and her smokestack
perforated.
Wyoming suffered four killed and seven wounded, although one of the
wounded subsequently died.
McDougal initially considered burying his dead ashore, but decided
against it, and all were buried at sea.
It should be noted that almost none of Wyoming’s crew had any
combat experience, yet performed with
great coolness under fire.
McDougal’s astute tactical judgment in avoiding the worst of Japanese
shore-based fire and in defeating three ships at once got him absolutely
nothing in the way of commendation or promotion, with this battle being
fought only three days after Gettysburg.
President Theodore Roosevelt would later write, “had that action
taken place at any other time than the Civil War, its fame would have
echoed all over the world.”
In McDougal’s after action report to Gideon Welles, he wrote, “the
punishment inflicted…will I trust teach him a lesson that will not be
forgotten.”
Wyoming was the first foreign warship to respond to the Japanese
violation of treaties (that the Japanese had mostly signed under duress,
viewing them as “unequal”).
A few days later, a French force showed up to respond to the attacks on
their shipping. Led by
French admiral Constant Jaures aboard his flagship, 34-gun steam frigate
Semiramis, accompanied by gunboat Tancrede, the French bombarded the forts and put troops ashore while
under fire. The French
destroyed an ammunition magazine and burned the nearby village.
Wyoming, in particular, taught the Japanese a lesson they did not
forget; however, the Japanese, being Japanese, did not give up.
The two sunken ships were raised in 1864, the forts repaired, and
shelling of foreign ships continued, effectively blocking the strait for
another 15 months.
The British
Royal Navy took its own unilateral action in August 1863, as a delayed
reaction to the killing of a British merchant by samurai of the Satsumo daimyo. On 15 August
1863, a Royal Navy squadron entered the harbor of Kagoshima (on southern
Kyushu), the Satsumo capital, to extract reparations by force, seizing
several Satsuma ships. The
Satsuma fired on the British, who in turn bombarded Kagoshima (which the
Japanese had evacuated).
Three Satsuma steamships were sunk and about 500 houses destroyed, but
the British actually suffered more casualties, with 11 dead. A single
Japanese cannonball decapitated both the captain and second-in-command
of Acting Vice Admiral Augustus Kuper’s flagship, screw frigate HMS Euryalus. The British
essentially ran out of ammunition and left, leaving the Satsuma to boast
that they had driven the British off without paying anything.
Last changed: 12/07/24 |
