Civil War Round Table to Hear Tim Younkman Feb. 21 at Stein Haus
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Captain's sketch shows USS Saginaw, one of the first U.S. Navy ships, foundering on a reef in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii.
Tim Younkman, recent retiree as reporter for The Bay City Times, has found his father's family down in Kentucky.
As a student of and commentator on the Civil War, visits to Kentucky have opened a new world for him.
"What I found was that half my family was on the Confederate side and the other half Union," he says.
Younkman has contacted many members of his family who are willing to talk, at length in some cases, about their common ancestors. the anecdotes regarding those visits to the mountains are worth the price of admission alone.
Younkman's presentation on the Civil War family feud to the 7th Michigan Cavalry Civil War Round Table will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the Stein Haus. Cost is $5 for non-members and memberships are $20 a year. For information call Dee Dee Wacksman, 892-1136.
The March 14 program will be presented by Mrs. Wacksman and will feature "Women in the Civil War."
The April 11 annual dinner meeting will be moderated by Dr. John Lore and will involve clips from various Civil War films in which local re-enactors had a part, such as "Glory," "Gettysburg," and "Gods and Generals."
Last month Chief Petty Officer Mike Klaczkiewicz, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, retired, and Chief Petty Officer Rick Ahlberg, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, discussed the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service during the Civil War. The revenue service was the forerunner of the Coast Guard.
"At the start of the war Gideon Welles (Secretary of the Navy) shuddered when he thought of the condition of the Navy: worn out old men with no brains, as he put it," said Klaczkiewicz.
There were only 207 Naval enlisted men in 1861 and ships were little different than 100 years before. Union naval forces consisted of 90 ships, 50 of them sailing craft like single masted brigantines, 2-masted schooners and sloops (corvettes), and worm-eaten gunboats.
Interesting to local folks was the USS Saginaw, a sidewheel steamer and major warship. The 155 foot long Saginaw was the first Navy ship built on the west coast. It was used for patrolling piracy on the China coast and to stop Confederate attacks on the west coast during the Civil War.
The Saginaw foundered on Kure Atoll off Honolulu in 1870 and was recently found by archaeologists. A 22-foot lifeboat that carried five crewmen to safety is on exhibit in the Castle Museum, Saginaw. There were three steamers each with 21 guns, the Mohawk, Crusader and Pawnee.
Revenue cutter vessels, designed to make sure that taxable goods were not escaping government scrutiny, and collection, ranged the Southern coast.
"Lincoln and his cabinet were unaware of the naval advantage that actually provided a second front in the war," said the speaker.
Ahlberg reviewed the history of the Coast Guard beginning with the establishment of the Revenue Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790. It was the first of the five branches of service.
Listeners were amused by his descriptions of the origins of naval terms like "ahoy," derived from a Viking battle cry; "aye aye," that means "yes" in old English; "bamboozle," meaning to deceive a passing vessel; "before the mast," meaning the noisy area where the non officer crew slept, literally in front of the ship's mast. ###
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