My duties in connection with those batteries being thus closed, I have the honor to await your further orders.
Respectfully, etc.,
M. F. MAURY,
Commander C. S. Navy.
Hon. S. R. Mallory,
Secretary of the Navy, Present.
Shortly after, Captain Maury was ordered to London on secret service for the Navy Department, and that he might avail himself of laboratories and workshops for experiment and improvement of his new science, in which he was now regarded as supreme authority. He was to report progress and improvement in this new means of making successful war from time to time to the Navy Department, which was constantly done during the next two years, and thus the result of his labours and inventions communicated to the officers in charge of the torpedo stations now established along our Atlantic Coast. His devices and inventions, which have not since been surpassed and some of which are still in use, had reference chiefly to exploding the torpedo; to determining with certainty from a distance the moment when a ship should enter within explosive range, and at all times to test its condition and to verify its location.
Lieut. Hunter Davidson, his valued assistant, succeeded him in charge of the James River batteries, and in time extended the mines some distance below. During the two years when he was in charge he planted many electrical torpedoes in the channel of the river, to be fired from concealed stations on shore. Some of these contained 1,800 pounds of powder.
In August, 1862, the Federal steamer "Commodore Barney" was badly disabled by one of these, and in 1864 the "Comm. Jones" was totally destroyed, with nearly all on board, the first fruits of Maury's electrical torpedo defense. The first vessel destroyed by a submarine torpedo was the gunboat—ironclad—"Cairo," in the Yazoo River. The torpedo was a demijohn of powder enclosed in a box sunk in the river and fired by a string from the shore. Lieut. Beverley Kennon claimed the credit for this but Masters McDaniel and Ewing did the actual work.
Early in 1864 Davidson, in a steam launch, specially constructed for him, called "The Torpedo," having made 120 mile run down James River, all within the enemies' lines, exploded a torpedo against the flagship "Minnesota," at anchor off Newport News. The river swarmed with the enemy's vessels, and the guard boat was lying by the "Minnesota," but her captain had allowed his steam to go down. Davidson hit the great ship full and fair, causing great consternation on board, but the torpedo charge was only fifty-three pounds of powder and it failed to break in her sides, although considerable damage was done. Davidson suffered no injury and returned to Richmond without incident.
On August 9, 1864, there was a great explosion in Grant's lines at City Point, on the James, caused by a torpedo with a clock attached which caused it to explode at a given hour. With daring unexcelled John Maxwell and R. K. Dillard, of the torpedo corps, made their way into the lines, carrying the machine neatly boxed with them, which Maxwell handed aboard one of the boats lying at the wharf, saying that the captain had directed him to do so. In half an hour there was a terrible explosion, killing and wounding fifty men and destroying much property and many stores besides, injuring many nearby vessels, which brave John Maxwell quietly witnessed seated upon a log upon a hillside close by.
Lieut. Beverly Kennon was also most active in this system of defense and personally planted many torpedoes in the Potomac, Rappahannock and the James. He and Lieut. J. Pembroke Jones succeeded Lieutenant Davidson in charge of the torpedo defense of the James. A defense in itself equivalent to a well appointed fleet or army, since, as is well known, it served to keep the enemy out of Richmond till the close of the war, and converted them into earnest advocates of its use.
General Raines, chief of the Army Torpedo Bureau, had early adopted as the best form of torpedo, the beer barrel filled with powder and fitted with a percussion primer at each end. They were set adrift in pairs down the river by the hundred to be carried by current and tide against the enemy's ships below. Though many necessarily failed and drifted out to sea, if but a single one in a great number succeeded the Confederacy was well repaid. At times as many as a hundred a day were caught by the enemy's netting set out for that purpose in the James River alone.