Trapped By Their Own Torpedo

The CSS Savannah was burned December 21^st 1864 by the Confederates when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s force threatened the city of Savannah, Georgia.

The CSS Savannah was an ironclad ram built by H F Willink at the Savannah Shipyard in 1863.  It was 172.5 feet long with a 34 foot beam and 12.5 foot draft.  The four inch thick iron armor covering her wooden haul was made in Atlanta.  The Savannah was armed with among other guns, two 7 inch rifled cannon and two 6.4 inch Brook guns.  Her top speed was about 6 knots and she carried a crew of 180.

The Savannah was launched February 4^th 1863, and by June was in the Savannah River under Flag Officer William Hunter.  She wasn’t engaged in battle until Union General William T Sherman moved on the city of Savannah, Georgia at the end of his March to the Sea in December 1864.  She was unable to stop Sherman’s capturing the city.  The Savannah stayed there on the river covering Confederate General William Joseph Hardee’s retreat from the city on a pontoon bridge.

The Savannah engaged in an artillery duel December 20^th 1864 with Union guns.  When she tried to escape the river she wound up trapped by one the Confederacies own torpedo mines.  On December 21^st 1864 in order to keep the Savannah from being captured her commander had her run aground on the South Carolina side of the river, and set afire.

Killed Over A Twenty Year Fight

Confederate General St John Richardson Liddell was killed February 14th 1870 near his home .


St John Richardson Liddell was born September 6th 1815 on his families plantation near Woodville, Mississippi. He attended the local school, where he was a classmate of Jefferson Davis. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1837, but resigned before graduating. Liddell set up his own plantation “Llanda” near Harrisonburg, Louisiana.

After the Civil War started and Louisiana secessed, Liddell enlisted in the Confederate Army as a Colonel. During the early part of the war Liddell served as a staff officer for Generals William Joseph Hardee and Albert Sidney Johnston. He was promoted to Brigadier General July 17th 1862 and given command of the Arkansas Brigade in Cleburne’s division of the Army of Tennessee. They saw action during the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, where his son was mortally wounded. Liddell turned down a promotion to Major General in hopes of getting a command closer to his plantation. After Chattanooga Liddell was transferred to District of Northeastern Louisiana, where he commanded during the 1864 Red River Campaign. In December 1864 he wrote to Confederate Senator Edward Sarrow suggesting emancipation of slave in order secure foreign assistance with the war. Liddell took on Union Major General Edward R S Canby in the Battle of Spanish Fort, where he was captured April 9th 1865.

After the war Liddell began writing a memoir in 1866 which was critical of Confederate leadership. The memoir was a collection of letters and battlefield records, which he hadn’t brought together at the time of his death. On February 14th 1870 while having dinner on a steamboat, Liddell was shot to death by Confederate Colonel Charles Jones. The murder was the ending to a twenty year real-estate dispute.