Category:Civil War/War Between the States

Civil War's last shots were fired in the Bering Sea. By MIKE DUNHAM mdunham@adn.com Published: April 18th, 2011 12:55 PM Last Modified: April 18th, 2011 12:57 PM A unique battle flag hangs in the Confederate Museum in Richmond, Va. It's the flag of the only ship in the southern navy to have circumnavigated the globe. The one that fluttered as cannons fired the final volleys in the war. The last to be lowered in surrender...

Shenandoah history • The Civil War began with the siege of Fort Sumter, S.C., on April 12, 1861. Major hostilities ended with the surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox, Va., on April 9, 1865. • The Shenandoah sank its last ships on June 28, 1865, and surrendered to the British Royal Navy on Nov. 5 of that year. • No lives were lost in combat either at the siege of Fort Sumter or in the raids of the Shenandoah. But between those two bloodless bookends, marking the first and last shots of the war, an estimated 600,000-700,000 Americans were killed. • After receiving the Shenandoah from Capt. James Waddell, the British gave it back to the Untied States. The United States sold the ship to the Sultan of Zanzibar. It was reported destroyed in a storm in the 1870s. • The USS Waddell DDG-24, built in Seattle in 1962, saw service in Vietnam, guarding aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin and conducting search and rescue missions. It was sold to Greece in 1992 and sunk in target practice in 2006. • Capt. Waddell is not the only Confederate naval commander to have a U.S. Navy ship named for him. Another destroyer was named after John Mercer Brooke, a marine scientist who did not take part in any combat operations. Two destroyers have been named after Josiah Tattnall, a hero of the War of 1812, Second Barbary War and Mexican War. • Books by Lynn Schooler: “The Blue Bear”; “The Last Shot”; “Walking Home”; “Heartbroke Bay” (as Lynn D’Urso)

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