The article was published in Polish. Below is an English translation of its opening. Wersja polska
The naval Civil War is often associated with technical innovations: ironclads and submarines, mines and rifled artillery. Yet it also saw clashes that belonged to earlier ages, when ships were taken by boarding after bloody hand-to-hand fighting. One such episode was the capture of the gunboat USS Underwriter.
On 2 January 1864, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, sat down to write to President Jefferson Davis. “The time is at hand when, if an attempt can be made to capture the enemy’s forces at New Berne, it should be done. I can now spare troops for the purpose, which will not be the case as spring approaches,” the general began. He went on to list the advantages of taking the port town on the North Carolina coast, lost in March 1862, where the Federals had established supply depots. The garrison was supported by several US Navy gunboats.
