The US Naval War College: The Navy's 'Home of Thought'

摘要

The origins of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, can actually be found in Charleston, South Carolina, during the Civil War. The war had begun in Charleston, and the city soon became one of the most active blockade-running ports on the Atlantic seaboard. For both symbolic and practical reasons, it became a priority target for Union naval forces. For three years, the Navy besieged and blockaded the city, involving more than sixty warships and 40,000 men. Yet in January 1865, Charleston still stood defiant, having resisted the Navy's best efforts. Why had the Navy failed? William T. Sherman thought he knew, and he told anyone who would listen. While occupying Savannah after his famous "March to the Sea," Sherman met with the young commander of USS Pontiac, Stephen B. Luce, to coordinate the coming operations in South Carolina. Sherman told Luce that the Navy had been going about attacking Charleston all wrong. By cutting Charleston off from the interior, he could cause it to fall into Union hands "like a ripe pear," without a battle.~1 To the amazement of Luce, that was precisely what happened, bringing an anticlimactic end to the longest siege in American military history.