The Harriet Lane: gets potentially more coercive at Brooklyn Navy Yard
Ship's Namesake: served as First Lady for Uncle James
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The February 14, 1861 issue of The New-York Times included an overview of recent military events (The New York Times Archive):
IMPORTANT MILITARY AND NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
The United States revenue cutter Harriet Lane is to be temporarily converted into a man-of war. She went over, yesterday, to the Brooklyn Navy-yard to receive a new and formidable armament. Four thirty-three hundred weight guns, one 12-pound howitzer, and a quantity of shot and shell will be put on board. It is said that a marine guard is to be detailed for her immediately.
Kirkland: Georgia will at least match Uncle Sam on pay and benefits
We are in a position to state that officers who have resigned in the United States service, are endeavoring to obtain men for the secession armies and navies from Northern arsenals and navy-yards. Lieut. KIRKLAND, late of the marine corps, has written to a marine at this place, asking him to influence “all soldiers who have put up their time in Uncle Sam’s service,” to enter the Georgian army, where they will receive all the extra pay and emoluments that reenlistment in the Federal forces would entitle them to. Lieut. KIRKLAND is a native of North Carolina, and is married to a daughter or niece of Col. HARDEE. His offer will have little effect on the United States troops.
Matters are getting brisk at the Norfolk Navy-yard. The Portsmouth and Germantown are being rapidly prepared for commission. The premises are literally filled with coal; which seems to make the Virginian people expect that Gosport will soon become a great coaling place for United States steamers.
The United States steam gunboat Mohawk, which arrived here a few days since, has been hauled alongside the wharf at the Navy-yard, and will be overhauled at once. Her present officers and crew, it is said, are not to be detached.
Hardee: Old Reliable is another ex-federal employee
In obedience to orders from Washington, the United States ship Supply is not to be put out of commission, as was expected, but will be immediately filled with stores and provisions for the squadron now cruising off Florida. As every exertion is being made to expedite her outfit, she will be ready in a few days. Letters for the Brooklyn, Macedonian, Wyandotte, St. Louis and Sabine, will be forwarded by her, if left at the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum, without expense.
Those sailors and marines whom circumstances render it necessary to retain in the service beyond the specified time, will receive one-fourth their usual pay, in addition to their present wages. The act of Congress which provides for this, expressly reserves, on the part of the Government, the right to hold enlisted men as long as “the interests of the country demand it,” on the condition aforesaid.
Things are ratcheting up. The U.S. military seems to be preparing for some kind of possible military action.
1) William Whedbee Kirkland is said to be “the only former US Marine to serve as a Confederate general”.
2)William Joseph Hardee was career U.S. Army until his home state of Georgia seceded. Hardee’s Tactics was “the best-known drill manual of the Civil War”.
3) Son of the South has a very interesting section on the development of Uncle Sam as a symbol for the United States. During the Civil War Uncle Sam replaced Brother Jonathan as the more widely used character to represent the U.S.A.
Happy Valentine's Day, Harriet!
4) The USRC Harriet Lane was built to be a revenue cutter for the U.S. It saw military action throughout the American Civil War, apparently as the USS Hariet Lane.
5) It seems a poignant coincidence that this story was published 150 years ago today, Valentine’s Day. Harriet Lane was an orphan. She requested that James Buchanan be named her legal guardian. During President Buchanan’s administration she played the role of First Lady for her bachelor uncle. From Wikipedia:
From her teenage years, the popular Miss Lane flirted happily with numerous beaux, calling them “pleasant but dreadfully troublesome.” Buchanan often warned her against “rushing precipitately into matrimonial connexions,” and she waited until she was almost 36 to marry. She chose, with her uncle’s approval, Henry Elliott Johnston, a Baltimore banker. Within the next 18 years she lost her uncle, both her two young sons, and her husband.
President Buchanan counseling caution? – What a surprise!
