In my ongoing research for “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare,” I have made the acquaintance of a number of very interesting people, not only in my current era, but also from the American Civil War period.
The mid-19th Century is one of the most interesting periods of human endeavor.
The Industrial Revolution, filled with promise and with might, was still underway.
During this period, you would occasionally get one spark of intellect and genius that would shine brighter than its neighbors.
Of course like the proverb says, “The spark that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”
Such a spark was a man with the name of William G. Cheeney.
I first learned of William Cheeney from the pages of Mark K. Ragan’s excellent work, “Union and Confederate Submarine Warfare in the Civil War.”
A printer originally from New York State, at the onset of the Civil War, William G. Cheeney to was a citizen of the Confederacy residing in its capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Where his knowledge of underwater explosives and their detonation using electricity was acquired is unknown. Cheeney was given the rank of Acting Master with the Confederate Navy. It is for his work on the development of the submarine that he is most remembered.
In the opening pages of his book, Ragan introduces us to William Cheeney’s handiwork.
Our source is an eyewitness report of a “Mrs. E. H. Baker,” an intelligence agent of Alan Pinkerton’s detective agency who, though ostensibly in Richmond on a social call visiting friends, was also spying for the United States government.
Since April of 1861, Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works had been hard at work on a contract manufacturing a two-man hand-cranked submersible vessel. A unique on-board mechanism allowed the submarine’s crew to breathe via an air hose attached to a green-painted gutta percha float on the surface of the water. The submersible had room for a third crew member serving as an underwater diver, clad in what was termed “submarine armor.”
This activity at the Tredegar Works attracted the attention of Pinkerton, with predictable results.
During the summer of 1861, the Cheeney submarine held its sea trials in the James River, its diver successfully sinking a target scow with an underwater bomb or torpedo. (1)
This was the sea trial witnessed by agent Baker.
Her report on the submersible’s success reached Washington, causing the Department of the Navy to issue orders that all US Navy ships were to “develop anti-submarine practices,” including the posting extra picket boats throughout the fleet’s anchorage. The practice included the suspending of long chains and weighted nets, both hung deep into the water to block the submersible’s access to a ship’s hull.
October 9, 1861 found Cheeney’s first sub and its crew receiving orders to report to its new base at Norfolk, Virginia.
From Norfolk, two attempts by the sub were made on the Union Navy’s fleet anchored at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
The first attempt ended in failure, though for what reason is unclear.
What is clear is that a second attempt was made on October 17th by the submersible upon the Union fleet’s flagship, USS “Minnesota.” This attempt failed as well, as the Rebel submersible became entangled in the anti-submarine defenses surrounding the “Minnesota.”
Only with luck was the crew able to free the submersible from its entanglement, having it escape unharmed. That ended the sub’s operations against the Union fleet at Hampton Roads.
The fate of this first submersible is unknown.
There were rumors that, during the Peninsular Campaign in 1862, US Navy picket boats on the James River spotted a telltale green float on the surface of the river that proved to be the one supporting the submersible’s air tube. The pickets destroyed the float, severing it from its air tube, presumably drowning the sub’s crew in the process.
A second Cheeney submersible is shown on Tredegar’s account books from this period.
This vessel was supposedly larger and more sophisticated that its predecessor.
Although there are several Tredegar Works invoices with accompanying scribbled-in comments and addenda requesting prompt payment, (William Cheeney never being one to hang onto a bill if the government was paying), no record exists for this second submersible being accepted by the Confederate States Navy.
In the winter of 1862, the Confederate Patent Office granted two separate patents for a submarine boat to a William G. Cheeney of Richmond, Virginia.
Tredegar Iron Works again got the contract for both boats, with work beginning immediately on one of them. Though no plans or technical drawings of this third Cheeney submersible remain, a careful study of the Tredegar Works accounts shows a substantial quantity of listings related to this vessel’s fabrication.
Requests for materials and equipment followed by purchases of same show the Tredegar work force doing a great deal of work in the construction of this version of an underwater marvel.
In “Union and Confederate Submarine Warfare in the Civil War,” author Mark Ragan gives us a tantalizing glimpse of the sheer number of the different jobs, items and their associated costs that went into making one of Cheeney’s submersibles a reality:
“False Bow put on boat … $342.75; Boiler makers work on same in shop … 130 days …$457.63; Pattern makers making pattern for propeller…18 days … $63.88; One door plate (a hatch?) …$101.85; Making and fitting four valves to air pumps … $8.00; Grinding four glass lenses for sight … $10.00; 2 brass stopcocks … $5.00; 1 glass globe lantern … $1.50; Cord for trailing torpedoes … $14.00; Paint used in painting boat … $25.25; Painters painting boat … 5 ½ days …$19.25;” (2)
Just a few cents shy of a thousand and fifty dollars (in 1860’s Confederate money, mind you) for parts, materials and labor on a project that wasn’t even complete at this point.
At the end of 130 days, Cheeney’s third submersible was completed.
On May 12, 1862 Acting Master William G. Cheeney accepted the finished submersible from Tredegar Iron Works on behalf of the Confederate States Navy Department.
This act of acceptance by Cheeney on May 12th is responsible for one of History’s “Firsts” that occurred on June 24th, 1862.
Cheeney’s sub was present on the upper James River near Richmond when, on June 24th, the arrival of the US Navy’s submarine USS “Alligator” being towed up the James marked the first time that opposing naval forces in one theater of war were each operating a submarine.
Cheeney never got to experiment further with his submersible. The Yankee’s Peninsular Campaign was underway: Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac was pounding on Richmond’s landward defenses, while Union Navy Flag Officer Louis Goldsborough was sending his warships (including the new ironclad USS “Monitor,”) up the James River, shelling Confederate batteries on the as they went.
With the situation desperate, Cheeney’s skill as an underwater explosives expert was demanded by the Confederate government, more so than his experience with submersibles. Throughout the summer of 1862, Acting Master Cheeney was busy placing his explosive “infernal machines” in the best spots on the James River to fish for Yankee warships.
Though Cheeney was capable and thorough in his new duties, they were not to his liking. It rankled him that the Confederate government was taking him away from the vastly more interesting work and experimentation provided by his latest submersible.
This rankling grew such that, in late summer, 1862, Cheeney suddenly vanished from the James River and Richmond.
Sometime later, Cheeney was in Washington, DC, seeking an audience with US President Abraham Lincoln. Though the reason for the meeting is not given, it may have had to do with Cheeney’s knowledge of the obstructions and torpedoes in the James River, their placement and possible methods of removal, as well as information on the Confederacy’s developments in submarine warfare.
After several unsuccessful attempts to gain an audience with Lincoln, Cheeney left a brief note on the subject with a White House porter and left Washington in September, 1862, returning to New York State.
Back in New York, Cheeney briefly worked as a printer, but soon left for further opportunities to be found out west. (3)
Cheeney settled in eastern Missouri’s “Lead Belt,” starting a lead smelting business there. Though a Northerner by birth, undoubtedly his Southern sympathies sometimes got the better of him, especially at social gatherings and political meetings.
In Missouri, the meanest, hardest, dirtiest-fighting and bloodiest of the Border States, such sympathies being overheard by the wrong set of ears were dangerous.
In June, 1864, Cheeney was arrested by the military government of Missouri on charges that he was a suspected member of the Order of American Knights, a group of Southern sympathizers plotting to remove President Lincoln from office, thereby ending the Civil War.
Like many suspected of harboring Southern sympathies in the “Show-Me State,” Cheeney most likely ended up in St. Louis’ notorious Gratiot prison, kept there “as a security measure and to preserve the peace,” this being the standard reason given for such an action by the Union’s military government.
With his arrest and incarceration, nothing further is known of him.
Like a bright spark, the tale of William G. Cheeney has burned itself out.
Footnotes:
- Ragan, Mark K. “Union & Confederate Submarine Warfare”, Mason City, IA, 1999, Savas Publishing, (ISBN 1-8882810-32-5), page 15.
- Ibid, Page 58
- Ibid, Page 62
For your information, I am including an alphabetically-listed bibliography list used for this article, viz:
Appleton, John H, “A Short Course in Qualitative Chemical Analysis,(3rd ed.) Philadelphia, PA, Cowperthwait & Co. 1878.
Barnes, John Singleton, “Submarine Warfare: Offensive & Defensive,” New York, G.P. Putman & Sons, 1868
Davis, Tenney “The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives,” Hollywood, CA, 1943, Angriff Press
Kochan, Michael P. & John C. Wideman, “Torpedoes: Another Look at the Infernal Machines of the Civil War”, Charleston, SC, 2004, (Self-published by the authors.)
Ragan, Mark K. “Union & Confederate Submarine Warfare”, Mason City, IA, 1999, Savas Publishing, (ISBN 1-8882810-32-5)
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Author: Edward Ostermeyer
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