From Theron Kuntz: I wanted to make sure that members who read my article about American Civil War naval action, a Follow Up with Coombe and Campbell, both who have written books about the subject. The authors of THUNDER ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI and SOUTHERN THUNDER created assymetrical \textual accounts of the situation about the CSS Arkansas as the ram proceeded past the Union squadrons beseiging Vickburg on July 15, 1862. As the account is mentioned by author Jack Coombe, there is a Lancaster, the steam sloop, but not a Lancaster, the riverboat ram. The account by Coombe may leave no doubt: "By this time the Union fleet was alerted there was a tiger in their midst. Among the first to respond was the 3,000-ton screw sloop Lancaster, of Farragut's squadron, . . .." (157) According to Silverstone in WARSHIPS OF THE CIVIL WAR NAVIES, the service record of the steam sloop, Lancaster, lists the Lancaster as part of the Pacific Squadron between 1859-1866. In SOUTHERN THUNDER, Campbell mentions the same incident, but says that the engagement was with Lancaster, the riverboat ram, one of Charles Ellet's steamboat paddlers, usually identified by the word "timberclads." During this incident, one of the Lancaster's boilers were struck by a shell from the CSS Arkansas. This disabled the Ellet riverboat ram, killing and wounding 28 men. In my article, I hadn't address this differentiation. The differences are naturally relational when trying to deduce from available accounts what vessels were involved with the CSS Arkansas. With such alvariation, obviously there's a difference in options and information. Back to Dispatch June 2001 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com