CSS Captain Pierce?

[avro202]

Hi all:

A friend of mine who is designing a war-game asked if anyone has any images or any info on the CSS Captain Pierce. The only info I could find was variations on the following:

"On August 5, 1864 occurred one of the more mysterious submarine attacks of the entire Civil War. As is well known to students of the battle of Mobile Bay, the Union ship Tecumseh supposedly veered out of line and into a known minefield – and paid the price for the impetuosity of her captain, going down so quickly that only a handful of its crew survived. Oddly, no other mine in the bay worked that day. Farragut’s brave admonition to “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” was unnecessary, since the detonations of the percussion caps as the Hartford struck mines could not ignite the waterlogged black powder in those devices. Did the Tecumseh unhappily find the one mine that did work? Shortly after the Tecumseh went down, three Confederate sailors were pulled from the Bay. One of them, Captain Albert Pierce, claimed to have attached a mine to an unidentified Yankee ship. Immediately after doing so, the boiler on the submarine he commanded, the C.S.S. Captain Pierce, exploded, killing a number of his crew and injuring his legs. Since Pierce believed the vessel that plucked him out of the water to be the one he had targeted, he assumed that his mine had not worked. But had he instead struck at the Tecumseh? A sunken vessel reportedly lies buried in the sand near the Tecumseh – is it the Captain Pierce?"

I thought I would ask you guys if you know of any images or details.

[Kazziga]

Well, this story is more a myth than reality, but a CS submarine was captured by Union forces following the battle in the Mobile Bay. Here is the drawing of that boat (bottom of the page):
John Morgan Capture and Death

[avro202]

Thanks for the link; I sent it along.