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25 The revolving Door March–May 1863 a year to the day after orders carried him away from savannah, commander richard Page’s path brought him back. after the battle of Port royal he had been posted to the great naval manufacturing and repair facility at Gosport navy yard. When norfolk was lost he salvaged most of the yard’s heavy equipment and built a new naval foundry at charlotte. While isaac Brown was winning glory on the Mississippi and raphael semmes and John Maffitt were raiding at sea, Page forged propeller shafts in north carolina. it was important work, but richard Page wanted a command afloat. now it would be his. he was coming back to savannah to captain henry Willink ’snewironclad.1 shewasstillfittingout,sohemovedaboardlieutenantPelot’s old side-wheeler Savannah. arthur sinclair was already quartered there. Both men had families and homes to support, and neither could afford to rent rooms in town. They’d live aboard ship and dine on their navy rations to save money. sinclair’s circumstances were desperate. his wife, leila, and the children were still in the family home in occupied norfolk, and he couldn’t get gold or yankee currency to send them. leila was selling the furniture to survive. soon they’d be forced out of norfolk, she wrote, and she didn’t know where to go. richmond was a possibility: it was close and friends were there. But living in the capital was stunningly expensive. a good navy wife, she didn’t ask him to come home to help them, but her plea was there between the lines.2 To counter the invasion Beauregard feared, every available soldier was being sent to the coast, either to Pocotaligo on the charleston & savannah railroad, or to savannah. on March 3, as the Montauk again attacked fort Mcallister, revolving Door / 199 2,500 north carolina troops arrived. George Kollock wrote his wife that “if the enemy wait a little longer, there will be some sixty thousand troops between the two cities. The only thing we now lack around savannah is heavy guns. What we have are not heavy enough to make an impression on the iron clads.”3 With the influx of troops into the area, prices on everything went up again. and there was a smattering of pilfering. soldiers broke into the Kollock’s smokehouse . But they took only what they needed, leaving most of his meat (and all of his corn).4 When George dropped by cousin Josiah’s office, they talked about the new ironclad. Tattnall liked her build: he appreciated the effort Willink had put into her detail finish. she had real officers’ apartments in the wardroom, with raised panel doors and finished woodwork. she was a complete warship, he said, worth two or three of the Atlanta. The commodore had John Tattnall take his uncle George on a tour of the ship. she looked “as solid as wood and iron can make her,” George told susan. “Willink deserves great credit for the excellent manner in which she is built.”5 Mechanics came from columbus to install the propeller shaft and set bedplates for the engines. The shaft, cast in sections, was fitted under the wardroom deck, running in three bearings bolted through bedplates to great turned oak pedestals attached to the keelson. her engines, from howard’s west florida gunboat, were ganged to the shaft.6 a few weeks after George Kollock’s tour, eddie Kollock told his uncle he’d heard they were mounting the ironclad’s guns. People said she’d probably be ready for service in a few days.7 They were mistaken, of course. Work often came to a halt while basic items were sourced from somewhere in the naval supply system— augusta, Montgomery, atlanta, charlotte, or richmond. The search, the requisition , and delivery all took time. and Paul Jones was ill. he was still on duty, but asking for medical leave. in mid-March five of the old paddle wheeler Savannah’s blue jackets deserted while on picket duty, capturing the master’s mate who commanded them. several of them had pulled the commodore’s barge down st. augustine creek a few weeks earlier and had heard Tattnall talking about taking the Atlanta out through Wassaw sound when the monitor left.8 The deserters’ story went to John rodgers, who sent the tale to Du Pont. it was one more alarm for the admiral, who was trying to marshal his ironclads for the attack...

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