It took little more than a dark spring night in 1864, a band of
determined men and gunpowder to turn the placid St. Johns River
into a war zone
That April, one of about a dozen improvised torpedoes seeding
the water exploded, sinking the Union Army steamer Maple Leaf.
Exploding devices such as naval mines were called torpedoes at
that time.
The confrontation sparked a summer of detonations that, while
not changing the course of the Civil War, struck a death knell for
soldiers and ships.
It's the kind of local history some believe shouldn't be
forgotten.
"People coming here, people moving down here don't really know
how involved Jacksonville was in the Civil War," said Calvin Hart,
adjutant of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Kirby-Smith Camp
1209.
The group and Orange Park officials will erect a plaque
Saturday to the history of torpedo warfare on the St. Johns River.
A 10 a.m. dedication at the east end of Kingsley Avenue will
feature historic re-enactments and artillery demonstrations.
Composed of men whose ancestors were Confederate veterans,
Confederate Veterans tries to pick significant and interesting
places to highlight.
For the Kirby-Smith Camp, that has twice meant the wreckage of
the Maple Leaf.
The group previously rescued from storage a National Historic
Landmark plaque for the wreckage that went unplaced for more than
a decade, drawing renewed attention to the Maple Leaf.
Artifacts from a six-year dive project focused on the Maple
Leaf, portions of which are still submerged in the St. Johns
River, sit at the Mandarin Historical Museum near a replica of the
torpedo that sank it.
Many reflect the daily habits of the time, said museum
Executive Director Andrew Morrow. Among the finds were a pencil
and pen set, medicine and a lice comb.
The technology that sank the ship was no less pedestrian - a
barrel and about 70 pounds of gunpowder.
The result was essentially an underwater mine, said Kirby-Smith
Camp historian Larry Skinner, who gathered information from
letters and recollections of the war to place on the marker.
The wooden kegs were anchored by ropes and chains and sat 3 to
4 feet below the surface, designed to blow when a ship's hull hit
them.
Together they sank not only the Maple Leaf, taking four lives,
but also the General Hunter, the H.A. Weed and the Alice Price,
killing another five.
Morrow said the torpedo history is interesting from a military
standpoint, but the camp history buffs suspect it will have
general appeal as well.
"Most people don't have a clue that sort of action took place
here," Skinner said.
