17,000 pounds each and fired shells weighing 136 pounds which were propelled by 15 or 20 pounds of powder. Their range, when elevated 15 degrees, was some 3600 yards. McDougal, who assumed command early in 1861, was then fifty-four and a veteran of thirty-two years service including, of course, the Mexican War.
Fearful that the British-built Confederate privateers might extend their depredations to the eastern seas, the Wyoming was ordered to the Pacific where the Alabama had already destroyed some whalers.
While Japan became known to Europe through Marco Polo in the 13th Century, she was exclusive and nonprogressive and there had been little intercourse with other nations until Perry's visit to Yedo (now Tokio) ten years before the Wyoming's exploit. Japan was still hostile to "barbarians" and the Mikado Koméi was determined to again close the ports, drive all aliens from the islands and return to the former hermit-like existence. The situation in Japan seventy-five years ago was not unlike that in China at the beginning of the present century when the "Boxers" rose against the "foreign devils." A wave of assassination and incendiarism swept the island empire and in April, 1863, while at Hong Kong, McDougal received word from the American minister at Yokohama urging him to bring the Wyoming and "be ready to use her guns for the protection of the Legation and American residents in Japan." Upon arrival McDougal found that a state of terror existed and the Wyoming afforded a safe haven for French, British and other nationals as well as Americans.
Japan was governed dually by the Mikado and a Shogun (Tycoon or military ruler), but the various provinces were largely controlled by daimios, or feudal nobles, who frequently acted independently of the Tokio government. Such was Choshiu, lord of Nagato and guardian of the Straits of Shimonoséki, who determined to wage an anti-foreign crusade on his own hook. These straits lie between the islands of Hondo and Kiushiu and form the western entrance to the inland sea. They are three miles long and vary in width from half a mile to a mile and a half, though the navigable channel is but a few hundred feet wide. The straits are crooked with numerous submerged rocks and shoals and the tides rush through at a rapid rate. Shimonoséki, the town at the entrance, has been called the "Gibraltar of the Japanese Mediterranean." To close these straits, the Choshiu men had fortified the bluffs overlooking them, erecting seven batteries each consisting of from two to seven guns. In all there were about 30 pieces which were mounted on ho-dai (cannon platforms) 50 to 100 feet above sea level. These guns were mostly modern, foreign ones of large caliber. A few were 12- and 24-pounders but most of them were 32-pounders and there were several 8-inch Dahlgrens. These American cannon had been presented to Japan by the United States as a gesture of friendship.
To augment these defenses, the Japanese had purchased and armed three ships. One was the iron steamer Lancefield of 600 tons obtained from an American firm. Another was the Lanrick, a clipper-built brig formerly used in the opium trade, while the third was the Daniel Webster, an American bark. The Lancefield was rechristened the Koshin while the Lanrick became the Kosei. The combined armament of the three men-of-war was 20 guns—mostly brass 24-pounders. The artillery then, of both ships and shore batteries, was about 50 guns and the combined personnel—the crews of the ships and the gunners ashore—probably totalled fully 1200 men. This was the force which McDougal was later to attack
