THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605170644
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
If Maryland secessionists had had their way, the USS Constitution, familiarly known as ``Old Ironsides,'' would have become the first warship in the new Confederate navy in 1861.
Built in Boston, Mass., and launched on Oct. 21, 1797, the 44-gun frigate was one of the first six warships authorized by Congress. Winning her spurs in the 1803-04 war with the Barbary powers, the Constitution later became a symbol of American naval prowess during the War of 1812. It was during that conflict with Great Britain that she gained her nickname. Legend relates a sailor seeing shots from the British guns bouncing off her sturdy oaken sides cried out, ``That ship must have sides of iron!''
The name stuck, and the gallant ship was not only known as ``Old Ironsides'' from then on, but was also regarded by her officers and men as ``the gamecock of the U.S. Navy.''
By 1830, however, the Constitution was beginning to show her age, at which time the Navy Department decided to condemn her. Fortunately, Oliver Wendell Holmes, a young Boston physician, came to her rescue. His stirring poem ``Old Ironsides,'' containing the lines:
``Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave,''
aroused public sentiment and the storied vessel was rebuilt and restored to service in 1833.
In 1855, the Constitution was again put out of commission and was assigned to the recently established Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., to be used as a training ship for midshipmen.
In April 1861, however, when Southern firebrands gleefully plunged the nation into civil war with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., the 64-year-old Constitution was again catapulted into the national news. At the same time the Naval Academy was faced with a dilemma. According to one historian:
``The Naval Academy was, geographically and socially, right in the middle of the dividing country. Maryland was Northern economically and Southern in sympathies. Which way the State would go was uncertain. In Baltimore, people were acting to disrupt the sole rail line to Washington from the North. Across the Severn River, what appeared to be a volunteer cavalry troop could be seen practicing formation maneuvers in preparation for joining Southern forces. The local citizenry outside the thin walls surrounding the Academy hurled threats and rocks into the compound - threats that included the capture of `Old Ironsides' to be the flagship of the rebel fleet.''
Faced with this crisis, the Navy Department decided to relocate the Academy to Newport, R.I., for the duration of the war. Hastily packing its records aboard the Constitution, the Academy's commandant ordered the the vessel be towed out to a safer position in the Severn River. Those on board were alarmed when they sighted a rapidly approaching steamer. Believing it to be manned by Confederate sympathizers, the Constitution prepared to attack, but this became unnecessary when it was discovered that the steamer was transporting a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers on their way to relieve the academy authorities.
Even so, the Constitution had a hard time getting underway for it grounded several times on mudbanks in the river before reaching the deep waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Before that happened a report was received that the rebels would be making an effort to block the outer end of the Severn channel before daybreak, but this proved groundless.
On April 26, 1861, 140 midshipmen - those committed to the Union - came aboard with their baggage and some of the educational equipment from the school. After being joined by a company of Union troops, the Constitution sailed down the Chesapeake Bay, reaching New York City a week later.
On May 9, 1861, the Constitution reached Newport where she announced her arrival - and her fortuitous escape from becoming the first Confederate warship - with a 34-gun salute to the Union. by CNB