(Image from BCM)
Having served in nuclear submarines during the 1970s, former naval officer Gary Johnson wondered what life was like one hundred years earlier in the Navy during the Civil War. How had the United States Navy in Cincinnati contributed to the Union victory? Today, he is an amateur historian and professor, using his maritime experiences to tell the little-known story of the Civil War Navies.
The Federal Ram “Queen of the West” attacking the rebel gun-boat “Vicksburg” off Vicksburg.
Join Johnson as he explains how tactics and technology used by the United States Navy aided distinguished officers, such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman in NKY History Hour: Webbed feet on the Western Waters at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 8. Register and participate in the free virtual presentation by Behringer-Crawford Museum.
Gary Johnson (Photo from BCM)
Information on how to connect to the Zoom session will be sent after registration. The event will also be streamed live on BCM’s Facebook page.
The Union Navy was America’s first 600 ship navy. It led in technical innovation. It was the first to maintain a steam-powered blockade, leading to the economic strangulation of the Confederacy. It was the first to operate ironclad vessels in combat. Its armed riverboats provided mobility and firepower for Grant and Sherman’s armies in the West. It learned how to fight the first use of submersibles and mines. The approximately 55,000 sailors and officers made an outsized contribution to Union victory.
Gary Johnson is a graduate of the Ohio State University in Chemical Engineering. After five years of submarine duty, he worked in Health, Safety, and Environment for Procter & Gamble and his consulting clients. Now retired from consulting, he and his wife live in Cincinnati, where he is a member of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table. He is an instructor at the Miami University Institute for Learning in Retirement, focusing his lectures on sailors and officers of the Navy during a time of technological transition and stress.
NKY History Hours take place every other Wednesday evening and are currently free to the public but may become a BCM members-only benefit in the future. To support NKY History Hour and access many other entertaining and thought-provoking programs for free, join BCM today.
Behringer-Crawford Museum
