Meet Civil War Union Navy Captain Percival Drayton (USN – Deceased)
Event Date
03/01/2017
Event Time11:30 am;
Location
Chart House Restaurant, Penns Landing
555 South Columbus Boulevard
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Captain Percival Drayton, (US Navy Deceased) will be speaking, in first person, at the West Point Society of Philadelphia at 11:30 AM on Wednesday, March 1. He will discuss his exploits upon the high seas and his unfortunate, imperceptible chance military encounter with his brother, Confederate Brigadier General, Thomas Drayton, at the Battle of Port Royal.
He was promoted to Captain, US Navy in 1862, and was assigned to Admiral David Farragut’s West Gulf Squadron, and commanded Farragut’s flagship USS Hartford in the celebrated Naval assault and capture of Mobile Bay, Alabama on August 5, 1864. Mobile was the Confederacy’s last major seaport open, on the Gulf of Mexico. The bay was heavily mined (tethered mines were known as torpedoes at the time). Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When one of the Union Monitors struck a mine and sank, the other Union ships began to retreat. Farragut could see the ships pulling back from his high perch, where he was lashed to the rigging of his flagship, the USS Hartford. “What’s the trouble?” he shouted through his megaphone. “Torpedoes!” was shouted back by a forward lookout. “Damn the torpedoes!” said Farragut, “Four bells – CAPTAIN DRAYTON, Full Speed ahead! The bulk of the fleet then succeeded in entering the bay.
The PowerPoint presentation will last approximately 45 minutes. There will be a short period for questions and answers and then refreshments. Location: Chart House Restaurant – 555 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Please RSVP – http://philadelphiawps.com/
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