Port Royal

Thirst for Treasure: Privateer Navies of the New World

By Steven. M. Johnson

The English soldiers stepped out of their pinnaces into the foaming surf on the island of Hispaniola. Read more

Port Royal

American Civil War Timeline: Piecemeal Operations

by William E. Welsh

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had no military experience and discarded most of Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott’s so-called Anaconda Plan, which critics deemed too conservative. Read more

Port Royal

John Freeman Mackie: First Marine Medal of Honor Recipient

By Melanie Savage

On May 15, 1862, a five-ship Union Navy squadron that included the ironclad USS Galena, gunboats Aroostook, Port Royal, Naugatuck, and the famous Monitor neared a bend in the James River known as Drewry’s Bluff, where Confederate Fort Darling commanded the passage. Read more

Port Royal

Oliver Cromwell’s Folly

By Roy Morris Jr.

After successfully concluding the First Anglo-Dutch War, English strongman Oliver Cromwell turned his severe Puritan attentions to Spain or, more accurately, to Spain’s far-flung possessions in the New World. Read more

Port Royal

Medal of Honor Awardee Horace Porter’s Astonishing Career

By Richard H. Owens, Ph.D.

Horace Porter was born April 15, 1837 in Huntingdon, Pa. He traced his ancestry and family motto, “Vigilantia et virtute,” to William De La Grange, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. Read more

Port Royal

Admiral David Farragut and the Battle of Mobile Bay

By Pedro Garcia

On the night of August 4, 1864, in the cabin of his flagship the USS Hartford, Admiral Farragut read his Bible, arriving at ultimate assurance that God was on his side. Read more