The American Civil War is famous for many reasons, but one of the most important is the many new innovations in warfare that developed during this time. For the first time new and sometimes-fledgling technologies were tested on the battlefield often with devastating results. One man who assisted in this revolution of warfare was Hunter Davidson, and his specialties were torpedoes and electronics.

Hunter Davidson was born in Washington DC in 1827 and early on in his life Hunter Davidson moved to Virginia, which he always considered his home. (Current, 1993) A member of the second graduating class of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis MD, and serving in the US Navy for 20 years. Hunter Davidson was considered one of the most promising naval officers at the outbreak of war, and was held in high regards by many, including Jefferson Davis. (Perry, 1985)

One of Lieutenant Hunter Davidson's first assignments was to serve as on officer on the ironclad CSS Virginia, and Davidson was present during the historical battle of Hampton Roads. A very interesting twist of fate would result from this battle. History showed that the USS Monitor saved the USS Minnesota from the wrath of the CSS Virginia however, time would prove that the Minnesota was not safe from Hunter Davidson.

After the destruction of the CSS Virginia Davidson's work with Torpedoes began as he worked as an assistant for Captain M. F. Maury, who started the initial work in torpedo development, but primarily focused on what were known as drift torpedoes. Maury was an aging officer and tended to take unnecessary risks and endanger himself, so the Confederate Navy had him transferred to Spain where he could continue his research under more safe conditions. It was at this time that Hunter Davidson became the head of the Confederate Torpedo Service. (Perry, 1985)

Hunter Davidson was promoted to First Lieutenant Commanding on and was given the CSS Teaser as his headquarters. The Teaser was a small tug boat, lightly armed but was designed to fulfill a very interesting purpose. The front end of the Teaser was modified to raise and lower hot air balloons for observation purposes, making the Teaser one of the first aircraft carriers. (Drury, 1993) The Teaser was captured on July 4^th 1862 and was replaced by the CSS Torpedo. The Torpedo was nothing more than a tugboat armed with two Parrott rifles "for emergencies". (Stern, 1990)

With the CSS Torpedo and a small group of selected men Hunter Davidson lead the Torpedo Service, also known as the Submarine Battery Service, in their mission to defend the vital James River in Virginia. Torpedoes also defended other rivers in the Confederacy, but these were done under the guidance of Brigadier General Gabriel Rains of the Army Torpedo Service. Rains developed the most common type of Confederate Torpedo, a simple beer keg filled with powder and set off by impact detonators. These were cheep and easy to build, but not very dependable. As a result of this many failed to detonate and many more were captured. Hunter Davidson on the other hand took the art of torpedoes to a new level and accomplished what Captain Maury had previously attempted, electronic detonation. (Stern, 1990)

Davidson's torpedoes consisted of iron boilers filled with powder and armed with a simple electronic, or galvanic, fuse. The heat generated from the electrical current was enough to set off the fuse and detonate the torpedo. Many tests were performed in order to determine the ideal charge and depth for these new torpedoes, and the results showed that "two thousand pounds of cannon-powder was sure to destroy utterly any ship of any size at a depth of not more than thirty feet." (Stern, 1990) The Submarine Battery Service continually thwarted the Union Navy's attempts to sail up the James River, and many ships were lost as a result of Davidson's Torpedoes. Among the most famous were the Commodore Barney and Commodore Jones; the latter was thrown over fifty feet in the air when she hit a torpedo. (Davis, 1994)

In the spring of 1864 Hunter Davidson went of the offensive. Using the recent development of the David class submersibles in Charleston SC as an example Hunter Davidson built his own submersible torpedo boat. At twenty feet long, five feet wide and drawing only three feet of water, this new vessel named the Squib was fitted with a single impact detonated spar torpedo. (Stern, 1990) Hunter Davidson would soon live up to his name, and his target was nothing less than an old foe, the USS Minnesota. The Minnesota was at the time the largest vessel in the Union Navy, and was still stationed off Hampton Roads as part of a Navy task force. Fear of Davidson's torpedoes had kept the Union Navy in Hampton Roads for some time, and now Hunter Davidson would sail down the James and engage them.

On April 9^th the Squib attacked. Sailing around the entire Union fleet Davidson searched for the Minnesota. Once the Minnesota was located the Squib headed straight towards her. The resulting explosion of the fifty-pound spar torpedo did not sink the Minnesota, but managed to cripple her so severely that she was out of commission for the rest of the war. This attack was valuable for many reasons. First was the size and power of the target the USS Minnesota. Another was the simple fact that this was the first successful attack on a Union vessel by a torpedo boat, in which both the torpedo boat and crew made it back to safety. As a result of his attack on the Minnesota Hunter Davidson was promoted to the rank of Commander in the Confederate Navy for "gallant and meritorious conduct". (Current, 1993)

Near the end of the war Hunter Davidson was given one more important task. He became the commander of the blockade-runner City of Richmond and was sent to Europe to assist in the safe transportation of ironclads purchased and built in Europe. (Wells, 1971) When the war was finally over Hunter Davidson, like many other of his Confederate comrades decided to flee the country and went to South America. Serving in the navy in South America Davidson latter "settled in Paraguay, where he died in 1913". (Current, 1993)

Bibliography

Current, Richard N. "Hunter Davidson". Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Vol. 2 pp. 447- 448. 1993

Simon and Schuster. New York.

Davis, Burke. The Civil War Strange and Fascinating Facts. 1994. Wings Books. New York.

Drury, Ian, and Gibbons, Tony. The Civil War Military Machine. 1993. Dragon's World Ltd. New York.

Perry, Milton F. Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare. 1985.

Louisiana State University Press. Baton Rouge.

Spencer, Warren F. The Confederate Navy in Europe. 1983. University of Alabama Press.

Stern, Philip Van Doren. Secret Missions of the Civil War. 1990. Wings Books. New York.