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Star Of The West (Baháʼí Magazine)
''Star of the West'' was an American merchant steamship that was launched in 1852 and scuttled by Confederate forces in 1863. In January 1861, the ship was hired by the government of the United States to transport military supplies and reinforcements to the U.S. military garrison of Fort Sumter. A battery on Morris Island, South Carolina handled by cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) fired upon the ship, considered by some scholars to have been effectively the first shots fired in the American Civil War. The ship was later captured by Confederate forces, then used for several purposes including as a hospital ship and a blockade runner, and finally scuttled in defense of Vicksburg in 1863. Prewar service ''Star of the West'' was a 1,172-ton steamship built by Jeremiah Simonson, of New York City for Cornelius Vanderbilt, and launched on June 17, 1852. Its length was and its beam , with wooden hullside paddle wheels and two masts. She started servic ...
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trading, water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States. As one of the List of richest Americans in history, richest Americans in history and wealthiest figures overall, Vanderbilt was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family. He provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For his monopoly on shipping and the railroads, facilitated by political manipulation, Vanderbilt is often described as a "robber baron (industrialist), robber baron", including in what may be one of first uses of the term, in ''The New York Times'' in 1859. Ancestry Cornelius Vanderbilt's great- ...
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New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, most populous city in Louisiana and the French Louisiana region, the second-most populous in the Deep South, and the twelfth-most populous in the Southeastern United States. The city is coextensive with Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish. New Orleans serves as a major port and a commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast region. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1 million, making it the most populous metropolitan area in Louisiana and the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 59th-most populous in the United States. New Orleans is world-renowned for Music of New Orleans, its distincti ...
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Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 53,695 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston, or Galvez's town, was named after 18th-century Spanish military and political leader Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez, Bernardo de Gálvez, 1st Count of Gálvez (1746–1786), who was born in Macharaviaya, Málaga, in the Kingdom of Spain. Galveston's first European settlements on the Galveston Island were built around 1816 by Kingdom of France, French pirate Louis-Miche ...
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Earl Van Dorn
Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820May 7, 1863) was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanche. He joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out and was a Major General when he was killed in a private conflict. A great-nephew of Andrew Jackson, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1842. Earl Van Dorn was known for fighting with distinction during the Mexican–American War and in defense of Native-American settlements against the attacking Comanche in the West in addition to his impressive victories as a cavalry commander during the American Civil War. In the American Civil War, despite his efforts to prevent the war from happening, he sided with the Confederacy, fighting in the Western Theater as a major general. He captured the Union transport ship '' Star of the We ...
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Matagorda Bay
Matagorda Bay () is a large Gulf of Mexico bay on the Texas coast, lying in Calhoun and Matagorda counties and located approximately northeast of Corpus Christi, east-southeast of San Antonio, south-southwest of Houston, and south-southeast of Austin. It is one of seven major estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas and serves as the mouth of numerous streams, most notably the Lavaca and Colorado Rivers. The Texas seaport of Port Lavaca is located on the system's northwestern extension of Lavaca Bay. The city of Palacios is found on northeastern extension of Tres Palacios Bay, and Port O'Connor is located on the southwestern tip of the main bay's shore. The ghost town of Indianola, which was a major port before it was destroyed by two hurricanes in the late 19th century, is also found on the bay. The bay is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Matagorda Peninsula. Its shore, especially near the Colorado River delta, provides a habitat for a wide variety of wildlif ...
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Indianola, Texas
Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Victoria, Texas metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, 1875 Indianola hurricane, a powerful hurricane struck, killing between 150 and 300 and almost destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by 1886 Indianola hurricane, another intense hurricane followed by a fire. Indianola was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1963, marker number 2642. The site is also home to a statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Indianola is now the site of a small unincorporated area, unincorporated fishing village. History German immigration port of entry Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, representing the Adelsverein, selected Indian Point in December 1844 as the ...
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Troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels, either Ship's tender, tenders or barges. Attack transports, a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, carry their own fleet of landing craft. Landing ships beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore. History Ships to transport troops were used in antiquity. Ancient Rome used the navis lusoria, a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube. The modern troopship has as long a history as passenger ships do, as most maritime nations enlisted their support in military operations (either by leasing the vessels or by impressing them into service) when their normal naval forces were deemed ...
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Steamship Star Of The West, With Reinforcements For Major Anderson, Approaching Fort Sumter
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 19th century; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the ship prefix, prefix designations of "PS" for ''paddle steamer'' or "SS" for ''screw steamer'' (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is incorrectly assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for ''motor vessel'', so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels. As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as a "major driver of the first wave of trade globalization (1870–1913)" and contributor to "an increase in int ...
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Civil War Trust
The American Battlefield Trust is a charitable organization (501(c)(3)) whose primary focus is in the preservation of battlefields of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War, through the acquisition of battlefield land. The American Battlefield Trust was formerly known as the Civil War Trust. On May 8, 2018, the organization announced the creation of the American Battlefield Trust as the umbrella organization for two divisions, the Civil War Trust and the Revolutionary War Trust, which was formerly known as "Campaign 1776". The American Battlefield Trust also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public about these three conflicts and their significance in American history. On May 31, 2018, the Trust announced that with the acquisition of at the Cedar Creek battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it had reached the milestone of of battlefield land acquired and preserved. Since 1987, the Trust and its ...
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Major Robert Anderson
Robert Anderson (June 14, 1805 – October 26, 1871) was a United States Army officer during the American Civil War. He was the Union commander in the first battle of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter in April 1861 when the Confederates bombarded the fort and forced its surrender, starting the war. Anderson was celebrated as a hero in the North and promoted to brigadier general and given command of Union forces in Kentucky. He was removed late in 1861 and reassigned to Rhode Island, before retiring from military service in 1863. In 1865, he returned to Fort Sumter to again raise the American flag that he had lowered during the 1861 surrender. Early life and career Anderson was born at "Soldier's Retreat," the Anderson family estate near Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Richard Clough Anderson Sr. (1750–1826), served in the Continental Army as an aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette during the American Revolutionary War, and was a charter member of the Society of the ...
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Charleston Harbor
The Charleston Harbor is an inlet (8 sq mi/20.7 km2) of the Atlantic Ocean at Charleston, South Carolina. The inlet is formed by the junction of Ashley River (South Carolina), Ashley and Cooper River (South Carolina), Cooper rivers at . Morris Island, Morris and Sullivan's Islands shelter the entrance. Charleston Harbor forms part of the Intracoastal Waterway. History Charleston Harbor was a major port of entry for slave ships transporting slaves from West Africa. Due to its status as a slave capital, “Scholars estimate that over forty percent of all enslaved Africans sent to North America entered through Charleston Harbor — making Charleston the largest North American point of disembarkation for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” The harbor contains Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots of the American Civil War. Charleston Harbor was also the site of the first successful submarine attack in history on February 17, 1864, when the ''H.L. Hunley'' made a daring Sin ...
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