Warriors

Ohio from Robert N.Dennis' collection of stereoscopic views

Some families have a strong military tradition. That wasn't true of mine - a cousin who served in Vietnam, an uncle by marriage who was a medic in the Pacific during WWII and another who was gassed in France during WWI. When I started doing family history research I discovered more collateral relatives: four great granduncles from my father's side who served in the Union army, one of whom died in the second battle of Wilderness, VA. On my mother's side there was a brother of my great grandfather who served in the Civil war but the closest to action he had was guard duty in Washington DC. Then I began to research a clue from my mother who vaguely remembered that her grandmother Mary Shea Corbett had received a military pension. Her sister, my aunt,  7 years younger, strongly denied that.

My great grandfather Dominic Corbett had enlisted in the US Navy in Boston in what is now the Boston ship yard. He had trained there perhaps on the relic of the war of 1812 the Ohio .

Massasoit

a sister ship to "old Ironsides" still visible today in the navy yard of Boston. He was assigned to the Massasoit - a river gun boat an early steam powered vessel see in the photo to the right. Such vessels were used to blockade river ports. At that time he became the ship's carpenter. In the summer of 1864 the navy was refitting a captured Confederate blockade runner in the Charleston navy yard. .The Tristram Shandy built in 1864 in Scotland was iron hulled and steam powered. The USS Kansas had pursued the British ship for two hours capturing it trying to take a cargo of cotton, tobacco and turpentine from Wilmington NC to fund the Confederate states When the refitting was finished Dominic was assigned to the Tristram Shandy starting again as a landsman -  a person with less than a year's sea service but soon became the ship's carpenter. .

Officer with artillery 

Looking at the Navy records using Google books to find correspondence and histories, Dominck’s movements during his Navy career can be followed. His pension record includes a record of wounds received around Dec 5 and of his treatment on Dec 7-10 on board the Tristram Shandy. It is possible that Dominic was injured during an incident which began on Dec 3 when a blockade runner ran aground near Wilmington near Fort Fisher. The Tristram Shandy, armed with a Parrott rifle and 3 pounders , destroyed the disabled ship before she could be used again. The report of the incident said that although the ship was in range of Fort Fisher guns and was bombarded it escaped injury. Injury on a vessel of this trip in such an engagement could come not only from enemy guns but as a result of  steam burns and injury on board his own vessel. The Navy report in his personnel record gives no indication how Dominic was injured..His wife noted he was wounded in left thigh and side and she attributed his later heart disease to this war experience. (since his father and at least two of his brothers appear to have died before the age of 50 probably from heart disease  the cause was probably genetic) 

A Parrott Rifle

The medical record from the log of the Tristram Shandy quoted in the pension record says that the cause of the illness was not noted. His wife indicated that they were wounds not just an illness, The treatment appears to have been only a cathartic pill and another medication which is hard to read and may be “doveri or Dovers grx with the notation “at nightly rush”. After three days the notation is “much improved, Whiskey duty”. 

A sidewheeler ship similar to the Tristram Shandy

A study of the movements of the ship Tristram Shandy show that it is part of the North Atlantic Squadron which blockaded the North Carolina coast and was situated off Wilmington, NC.  Navy correspondence during this time including some from the Tristram Shandy captain and from other ships mentioned the capture of a blockade runner. In the pension records it is noted that Dominic received “prize money” and the incident that led to this, capture of the blockade runner Bleinheim coming from Nassau to Wilmington, is described in the Navy reports.. The Blenheim was active Oct. 1864 to Jan 1865, 4 for 5 in successful trips; and captured by the U.S.S. Tristram Shandy at Wilmington on Jan. 25, 1865 Although it does not say how much Dominick received another sailor (John Dunlap alias Isaac Babb a former Confederate soldier) who also served on the Tristram Shandy as a Landsman received $18.26. This sailor also enlisted in Boston and served on many of the same ships as Dominick Corbett.  

In the diagram of the battle the Tristram Shandy is third from the top in the outermost ring of ships

      

        The diagram of ships for the 2nd assault on Ft. Fisher shows the ship as part of the “reserves” behind the main warships. This second battle of Fort Fisher NC was designed to totally cut off the crucial Confederate port of Wilmington, North Carolina and was successful. The Atlantic blockade which Dominic's vessel participated in made expansion of the Navy from a small fleet of about 90 vessels to a large fleet of "hybrid" vessels that used both steam and sail, gunboats that patrolled the rivers and the beginning of the US submarine service. See this link for more information  
More about the development of Naval warfare in the Civil War
For more about the ship Tristram Shandy see Google Books on Tristram Shandy history

Dominic return to Vermont after the war, married and had five children. My grandmother, Kathryn was the youngest of the four girls. Although she had little memory of her father since he died when she was a toddler, she did remember her mother getting a military pension which led me to research Dominick's military service.