Stars
Three silver stars on the Civil War battle streamer represent the fifteen battles and operations of the Civil War.
1. Blockade operations. The Union Navy blockaded some three thousand miles of Confederate coast—from Virginia to Texas—in a mammoth effort to cut off supplies, destroy the Southern economy, and discourage foreign intervention.
2. Capture of Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina (29 August 1861). In the first amphibious operation of the war, Union Army and Navy forces captured Forts Hatteras and Clark, closing off the entrance to Pamlico Sound in North Carolina to Confederate blockade runners and providing the Union blockading squadron with an advanced base for their operations.
3. Capture of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina (7 November 1861). The largest fleet (seventy-seven vessels) ever assembled under the U.S. flag up to that time attacked and captured Forts Walker and Beauregard, providing the Union Navy an advance base in South Carolina. A small Confederate squadron was able to successfully evacuate the troops from the forts before they fell to the Union forces.
4. Capture of Fort Henry, Tennessee River (6 February 1862). Gunfire from Union ships under the command of Andrew Foote was so effective that Sailors were able to capture this key fort without the assistance of Army troops. After the devastating fire from the mixed fleet of wooden and ironclad gunboats disabled all but four of the fort’s guns, the fort’s commander surrendered.
5. Capture of Roanoke Island (7–8 February 1862). A joint Army-Navy expedition captured the strategically important Roanoke Island in North Carolina’s Albemarle Sound, completing the Union’s hold on the Carolina islands.
6. USS Monitor versus CSS Virginia (former USS Merrimack) (9 March 1862). In the first-ever battle between ironclads, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fought to a draw. Tactically, neither ship was able to defeat the other; strategically, the Union blockade was not broken and the James River was denied to Union forces.
7. Battle of New Orleans (24 April 1862). Led by Flag Officer David Farragut, Union Sailors in a fleet of wooden ships bravely endured a gauntlet of heavy fire from fortifications on both sides of the Mississippi River and then soundly defeated a Confederate flotilla, ultimately leading to the surrender of New Orleans, a tremendous strategic and psychological blow to the Confederacy.
8. Capture of Vicksburg (4 July 1863). A combined Army-Navy siege resulted in the fall of this key Mississippi city. Coupled with the Union victory at Gettysburg, this signaled the beginning of the end of the Confederacy.
9. USS Kearsarge versus CSS Alabama (19 June 1864). Hundreds watched from French coastal cliffs as Confederate cruiser Alabama was sunk in a ship-to-ship battle with the screw sloop Kearsarge, ending Alabama’s long and successful worldwide commerce raiding campaign that covered more than seventy-five thousand miles and took sixty-four prizes.
10. Battle of Mobile Bay (5 August 1864). The last major port on the Confederacy’s Gulf coast was closed by Union forces after a naval squadron led by Rear Admiral David Farragut defied gun batteries and mines (called “torpedoes” in those days) to enter the Alabama Bay and defeat a Confederate squadron in a pitched battle. At a critical moment, Farragut made an important tactical decision and uttered the now-famous words: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead.”
11. Destruction of CSS Albemarle (27–28 October 1864). In an act of great courage, William B. Cushing and thirteen other Sailors destroyed a Confederate ironclad by ramming her with a spar torpedo under the cover of darkness while the ship was at her mooring in the Roanoke River.
12. Capture of Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina (13–15 January 1865). In a large joint operation that involved sixty Union ships, eighty-five hundred Army troops, a naval brigade of sixteen hundred Sailors, and four hundred Marines, the fort guarding the entrance to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina was seized. The Soldiers were able to capture the fort from the rear while the defenders were preoccupied by a courageous and costly frontal assault by the Sailors and Marines.
13. Operations on the Mississippi and tributaries. In a giant pincers campaign, river gunboats moved north and south along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, seizing key points and contributing to the economic and military strangulation of the Confederacy.
14. Campaigns in the Chesapeake and tributaries. Because the Chesapeake Bay lay in close proximity to both the Union capital at Washington, D.C., and the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, this bay and its many tributaries served as both a “highway” and a barrier as the two sides maneuvered and periodically engaged in one of the major theaters of the war.
15. Atlantic operations against commerce raiders and blockade runners. The Union blockade of Confederate ports led to an ongoing struggle between the two navies to gain some military advantage at sea. The weaker Confederate Navy resorted to sporadic commerce raiding, and the South’s continual attempts to evade the blockading ships caused the Union Navy to expend a great deal of effort in suppressing both of these activities.
Spanish-American War, 1898
On the night of 15 February 1898, the battleship USS Maine was shattered by an explosion that sent the ship and two-thirds of her crew to the bottom of Havana harbor. Bolstered by widespread sympathy for those who were seeking Cuban independence from Spain’s colonial rule, the emotionally charged Maine tragedy forced the already strained Spanish-American relations to the breaking point, precipitating a short war rapidly decided by two major naval engagements.
On 1 May the U.S. Pacific Squadron under Commodore George Dewey steamed into Manila Bay, Philippine Islands, and destroyed the Spanish fleet. Two months later, Admiral William Sampson won an equally annihilating victory over the Spanish in a running battle off Santiago, Cuba.
In addition to Sampson’s and Dewey’s crushing victories, naval operations included a blockade of the Cuban coast; bombardment of Spanish fortifications at San Juan, Puerto Rico, by battleship USS Iowa, armored cruiser USS New York, and other ships; and gunfire support of Marine and Army landings in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The United States emerged from the Spanish-American War as a major naval power.
Stars
Four bronze stars represent the two major battles and two campaigns of the Spanish-American War.
1. Battle of Manila Bay (1 May 1898). Already deployed to the western Pacific, the Asiatic Squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey engaged a Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines. Despite enemy reliance upon the additional firepower of Spanish shore batteries to supplement those of the fleet, the battle proved to be a one-sided affair. The Spanish fleet was destroyed, with six ships sunk and the rest disabled, while U.S. ships were merely lightly damaged. American Sailors suffered only 8 men slightly wounded; Spanish casualties were 91 killed and 280 wounded.
2. Pacific Ocean operations. Following the Battle of Manila Bay, naval forces supported Army operations in the Philippines, and the cruiser Charleston captured the island of Guam on 21 June 1898.
3. Battle of Santiago (3 July 1898). A major naval battle off the southern coast of Cuba ended in another lopsided victory for the U.S. Navy, with an entire Spanish fleet destroyed and just minimal damage to the U.S. ships involved. One American Sailor was killed and another seriously wounded, while the Spanish suffered 323 dead and 151 wounded.
4. Atlantic/Caribbean operations. Besides the victory at Santiago, U.S. naval forces conducted various operations in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The first shots of the war were fired in the Atlantic when the gunboat Nashville captured the Spanish freighter Buenaventura. Dozens more Spanish merchant ships were taken as the short war progressed. Other operations included blockade, reconnaissance, and homeland security patrols; troop support operations in Cuba and Puerto Rico; and several daring raids into Spanish-controlled harbors.
Philippine Insurrection Campaign, 1899–1902
With the close of the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired the Philippine Islands, long torn by strife. Military
action was necessary to bring stability to the troubled area. Landing parties of Sailors and Marines went ashore at various points to quell disturbances and maintain order. Naval ships supported Army operations with gunfire, provided mobility to deploy forces rapidly, and patrolled the waters of the archipelago to prevent supplies reaching the insurgents.
China Relief Expedition, 1900–1901
The United States had maintained an American naval presence in East Asian waters from 1835, protecting lives and property during the many unrests that shook Imperial China. Chinese dissidents—called “Boxers” by outsiders, from their self-proclaimed name of “Righteous Society of Heavenly Fists”—revolted in the spring of 1900, and in June they surrounded the foreign legations in Peking (present-day Beijing) and began a two-month siege. An international relief force, including U.S. Sailors and Marines, slowly fought its way inland to rescue the beleaguered legations. USS Newark and USS Monocacy landed Marines and Bluejackets to help reclaim the walled city of Tientsin from the Boxers and to provide logistic support to the multinational force fighting to relieve Peking. By late August the uprising was spent and the siege was lifted.
Latin American Campaigns, 1906–20
In response to internal upheaval and European threats of intervention relating to international debts, the U.S. Navy was called upon to help establish political and economic stability in Latin America during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Stars
One silver star represents the five campaigns in Latin America during the early decades of the twentieth century.
1. Cuban pacification campaign (1906–09). Following the elections of 1906, a revolution broke out in Cuba. Sailors and Marines from the cruiser Denver went ashore to help restore order in the capital city of Havana in September. A large contingent of Marines was subsequently landed at various locations in Cuba to protect Americans there and to help maintain order. Marines remained there until 1909.
2. First Nicaraguan campaign (1912). After several previous interventions, Sailors and Marines landed in Nicaragua to assist the government, which was besieged by rebel forces. American forces disarmed the rebels surrounding the government at Granada, defeated another rebel force at Coyotope, and recaptured the rebel-held city of Leon, effectively ending the revolution.
3. Mexican service campaign (1914). U.S. warships stationed off the coast to protect Americans in Mexico during a revolution ultimately landed a force of Sailors and Marines at Veracruz to prevent a German arms shipment from being off-loaded. A naval brigade fought defenders there to capture the city. Fifty-five Medals of Honor were awarded to Sailors and Marines as a result of that action, the largest number ever awarded for a single engagement.
4. Haitian campaign (1915, 1919–20). Revolutionary chaos in Haiti in 1915 led to U.S. intervention. After several engagements with various forces, U.S. Sailors and Marines were able to quell the fighting and establish a U.S. occupation of the country that would continue for several years. Rebellious forces plunged the country into chaos again in 1919, causing U.S. forces there to fight numerous actions until order was restored in 1920.
5. Dominican campaign (1916). U.S. Sailors and Marines fought a series of actions in the Dominican Republic to restore order there.
World War I, 1917–18
Recognizing the dependence of Great Britain on ocean communications, Germany launched an intense submarine campaign to bring the British to terms, and they very nearly succeeded. Indiscriminate attacks on American ships, with accompanying loss of life, led the United States into war.
After America entered the war, the outcome hinged upon a steady flow of troops and supplies across the ocean to the battlefields of France. A vast convoy system of merchant ships, destroyers, and cruisers went into operation and dramatically reduced ship losses. Naval aircraft flying from European bases aided in the antisubmarine effort, including the bombing of Zeebrugge and Ostend. Large U.S. Navy minelayers laid some sixty thousand mines in the great North Sea mine barrier designed to deny German submarines access to the open sea.
Various craft were mobilized in opposition to U-boats, which had deployed to the U.S. Atlantic coast. Escorted by destroyers, the Cruiser Transportation Force and the Naval Overseas Transportation Service participated in carrying more than two million Soldiers and 6.5 million tons of cargo to Europe.
Not one American Soldier on his way to France was lost to submarine action. A division of U.S. battleships joined the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea to contain the German High Seas Fleet and thus prevent its contesting the control of the sea. In the Mediterranean, U.S. subchasers distinguished themselves in protecting Allied ships from submarine attack. And U.S. naval elements fought ashore in France when 14-inch guns, mounted on railroad cars and served by seaman gunners, effectively bombarded enemy concentrations at long range.
In the final analysis, control of the sea approaches to Europe made victory possible.
Stars
One silver star represents the five operations in World War I.
1. Atlantic convoy operations. The U.S. Navy Cruiser and Transport Force moved nearly a million Soldiers across the submarine-infested Atlantic without a single loss of life as a result of enemy action. Convoys continued resupply operations throughout the war, losing merely 8 ships out of 450 by war’s end.
2. Western Atlantic operations. While many naval assets were committed to trans-Atlantic convoys and combat operations in European waters, other American naval vessels (many of them subchasers and other small antisubmarine units) and aircraft (including dirigibles) carried out U.S. coastal patrols and convoy escort operations between New York and Norfolk, Virginia. The destroyer Jouett and six subchasers were also formed into an on-call “naval hunt squadron” operating out of Norfolk.
3. Operations in northern European waters. U.S. battleships, destroyers, subchasers, minesweepers, tenders, armed yachts, and others conducted various operations in northern European waters, including attacking German U-boats, supplementing the British Grand Fleet, and escorting local convoys.
4. Mediterranean operations. American ships provided vital protection of the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, and subchasers organized into a submarine hunting group nicknamed “the splinter fleet” conducted antisubmarine operations in the Mediterranean itself.
5. Operations on the European continent. Large-caliber naval guns were mounted onto railway cars and deployed to France to take part in combat operations on the Western Front; naval aviators joined the battle in the skies over Europe, conducting both fighter and attack missions in this emerging form of warfare; and naval vessels participated in landing operations, including the insertion of troops at Murmansk after Russia fell to the Communist revolution and dropped out of the war.
Second Nicaraguan Campaign, 1926–33
Civil war broke out in Nicaragua during the first months of 1926, and U.S. naval landing parties went ashore to establish a neutral zone for the protection of American citizens.
As the fighting intensified and spread, additional coastal enclaves were formed by the Navy to shelter refugees. By January 1927, two light cruisers and seven destroyers had reinforced the U.S. Special Service Squadron.
When the danger points moved inland, three thousand U.S. Marines, supported by planes from Navy Observation Squadron 3, landed at the request of the Nicaraguan government. Once order was restored, Sailors and Marines monitored free elections and organized and trained an efficient National Guard.
Yangtze Service, 1926–27, 1930–32
Shallow-draft gunboats of the U.S. Navy sailed China’s largest river for more than fifty years before being officially organized as the Yangtze Patrol Force in August 1921.
These ships protected U.S. citizens against bandits and warlord forces in a turbulent China. In the mid-1920s, the internal struggle for power was accompanied by many acts of violence against foreigners. Units of the Yangtze Patrol Force, reinforced by destroyers and light cruisers from the U.S.
Asiatic Fleet, steamed upriver to protect Americans and national interests.
Numerous confrontations occurred. When the situation stabilized, an uneasy peace returned to the Yangtze valley, and the gunboats resumed anti-bandit activities. In the early 1930s, severe floods along the entire river valley brought the gunboats and additional ships of the Asiatic Fleet into action again, this time in the humanitarian cause of aiding the millions of Chinese left homeless by the catastrophe.
China Service, 1937–39, 1945–57
Japanese aggression against China, verified by the move into Manchuria in 1931 and subsequent incidents in Shanghai, surfaced anew in 1937 when a minor clash near Peking erupted into a full-scale invasion.
The area of hostilities spread quickly, and units of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet evacuated American citizens and protected national interests, standing firm against Japan’s increasingly belligerent actions toward neutrals. At Shanghai, U.S. ships were endangered by Japanese aerial bombings and artillery fire. On 12 December 1937, Japanese naval aircraft attacked and sank the river gunboat USS Panay.
After World War II, the U.S. Navy returned to China to repatriate Japanese soldiers and to assist the Chinese central government in enforcing the surrender terms. Seventh Fleet Amphibious Forces provided transport for Chinese Nationalist troops and carried food supplies from Shanghai up the Yangtze to fight near-famine conditions in the interior.
American Defense Service, 1939–41
Two days after the start of World War II in Europe, but before the United States was formally involved, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Navy to organize a neutrality patrol to report and track any belligerent air, surface, or underwater forces approaching the United States or the West Indies.
A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy Page 30