While it was ever so critical for the Confederacy to maintain control of New Orleans, events elsewhere, especially in Tennessee, resulted in the city having inadequate defenses and naval support. 

There was no formal naval intelligence system established during the American Civil War. While a few examples exist of Northern sympathizers, free Blacks, like Mary Louvestre of Portsmouth, sent messages to various Union commanders about the Confederate ironclad construction effort.

Samuel Chapman Armstrong was the founder of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University). A native of Hawaii, he fought with the Union army during the Civil War.

Brigadier General Ambrose E. Burnside’s invasion of the North Carolina inland seas was a major success. In seven days, Burnside, with the support of Flag Officer L.M. Goldsborough’s naval forces, had captured Currituck, Albemarle, Roanoke, and Croatan Sounds. This placed Burnside’s army in a position to capture his next objective, New Bern, North Carolina.

In this edition of Beyond the Frame, we'll explore Samuel Ward Stanton's narrative dual-ship portrait from 1909 featuring steamships Trojan and Rensselaer as the ships steam along the Hudson River under the light of a full moon. Explore the influences of the passionate artist's life and learn about the "Searchlight route" as we step into this scene in the summer of 1909.

Something we seldom mention here is the time we spend doing maintenance on large tanks in the Wet Lab as well as in the “Tank Farm”. This summer, we took care of three large tanks located outside and two large tanks inside the Wet Lab.

This particular bay watershed education and training grant, known as B-WET, is an environmental program for K-12 students that is focused on hands-on, place-based watershed learning. Our program works with 9th-grade high schoolers in the Newport News Public Schools.