Little is know of Albert Pierce. He was a ships pilot in Grants Pass between Pascagoula and Mobile Bay. The silty bay was rapidly changing due to the sheer volume of river water that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and was a regularly assaulted by massive tidal surges from Hurricanes. This knowledge gave him a unique feel for the hazardous bay and its barrier Islands.
The Battle of Mobile Bay
Fast forward to the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 1864. Union Admiral David Farragut and 18 modern ships had blockaded the isolated Confederate port city and decided to close the harbor. The Mobile Bay area was home to a number of improvised Confederate vessels including the one of a kind ironclad CSS Tennessee, three paddle wheel gunboats and the like. The Bay had also been home to a submarine development program that produced several small submersibles including the hand-cranked HL Hunley and Pioneer II, the steam powered Saint Patrick, and other mystery craft of mixed success.
During the Battle’s most intense day, August 5, 1864, the huge 225-foot Canonicus class monitor USS Tecumseh, met its fate. As she turned to engage the CSS Tennessee, the monitor suddenly suffered an underwater explosion. The new and modern ship capsized, turned turtle and sank in less than a minute. Most of her crew was taken to the sandy bottom of Mobile Bay with her. Her killer was never positively defined. Theories include a lucky shot from the large cannon at Ft. Morgan, a floating underwater mine, and possibly a secret submarine.
Pierce and the Mystery Submarine
Captain Albert Pierce was plucked from the water that morning by one of the other Union ships. He was wounded and alone. When interrogated, Captain Pierce reported that he was commander of a small three man Confederate submersible that had been engaged in the battle. The submersible was steam powered for surface running and used a hand crank while submerged. He stated that they had attached an underwater mine to an unidentified Union ship and had suffered an explosion of the submersible’s boiler that had killed the other two men in the craft and doomed it to a watery grave. Harpers Weekly reported a wrecked Confederate submarine of a similar description captured during the battle.
While Pierce himself never stated that his craft had attacked the USS Tecumseh, several historians have drawn the conclusion that he may have been the proverbial ‘gunman on the grassy-knoll’ of the Battle of Mobile Bay. Pierce lost his leg to the battle but not his life. He later moved to Clearwater, Florida where a local street was named in his honor.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp Number 1318 was named after Albert Pierce in the 1960s when his story gained popularity. The secret of Captain Pierce lies now with the USS Tecumseh whichistoday buried under the river silt of Mobile Bay and has never been salvaged.
Sources:
Bale Joanna American Civil War submarine found A unique boat from 1864 may have inspired Jules Verne to create Captain Nemo's vessel Nautilus, The Times London June 6, 2005
CartmellDonald The Civil War up close: thousands of curious, obscure, and fascinating facts about the war America could never win. Career Press, 2005
Chaffin, Tom The H.L.Hunley McMillian 2008
DANFS- Dictionary of Naval Fighting Ships Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center, Washington Naval Yard.
Delgado James and Cussler Cliver Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks Douglas & McIntyre, 2004
Department of Maritime Archaeology Western Australian Museum, Report on the wreck of the Sub Marine Explorer (1865) at Isla SanTelmo, Archipielago de las Perlas, Panama, and the 2006 fieldwork season. Report—No. 221. 2007
Owen David Anti-submarine warfare: an illustrated history Naval Institute Press, 2007
Ragan Mark K Submarine warfare in the Civil War. Da Capo Press, 2003
VeitChuck Submarines in the Civil War
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