Turtledove
Turtledove
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George Enos
Fictional Character
Southern Victory
POD: September 10, 1862
Appearance(s): American Front;
Walk in Hell;
Breakthroughs
Type of Appearance: Direct POV
Nationality: United States
Date of Birth: 1885
Date of Death: 1917
Cause of Death: Drowned (Great War)
Occupation: Fisherman, Navy Sailor
Spouse: Sylvia Enos
Children: George Enos Jr.
Mary Jane Enos
Military Branch: United States Navy (Great War)

George Enos (1885-1917) was a fisherman from Boston, Massachusetts, and crewing on the F/V Ripple when the Great War began.[1] He continued to fish until the Ripple was captured by a Confederate commerce raider,[2] the CSS Swamp Fox, and was interned in North Carolina[3] until being exchanged.[4] Enos joined the U.S. Navy shortly afterward to avoid conscription in the Army and to fight the Confederacy.[5]

Enos first served on the Spray, a fishing boat converted to tow a submersible. Their towed submersible, the USS Bluefin, succeeded in sinking a Confederate submersible which had surfaced to sink them with its deck gun.[6] However, the publicity resulted in the Confederates being too cautious to be fooled again. Eventually, the Navy discontinued the program and reassigned Enos to other duties.[7]

In 1916, Enos was transferred to the USS Punishment, a river monitor which fought on the Mississippi and Cumberland Rivers. His station was a deck mounted machine gun which he kept busy cleaning and tinkering with.[8] The Punishment was destroyed later that year when a Confederate river boat managed to bombard it by surprise. Enos survived, having been ashore visiting a 'house of ill repute' when his ship was attacked and sunk.[9]

Enos was then transferred to the destroyer USS Ericsson. His first mission was to run guns to Ireland. Given his experience with small boats, Enos operated one of the boats the Ericsson lowered. It was commanded by P.O. Carl Sturtevant who directed Enos to the landing site by Ballybunion. There the crew offloaded crates of arms for Irish insurrectionists who quickly hauled them away in wagons. One Irishman passed a jar of whiskey which Enos took a long swallow. The empty boats then headed back to the Ericsson.[10]

Enos' battle station was at a one-pounder anti-aeroplane gun at the stern of the destroyer by Sturtevant's at the depth-charge launcher. During the encounter with the CSS Snook, the depth-charges forced the submersible to the surface. Enos raked the sailors who raced to the deck-gun with cannon fire and then shot up the conning tower to prevent it from diving again. The Confederates surrendered and the boat's captain turned out to be Ralph Briggs, the captain of the submersible the Spray helped sink.[11]

The Ericsson was sunk illegally after the U.S.-C.S. armistice of 1917 by the CSS Bonefish, captained by Confederate Roger Kimball. Enos, who had just gone to bed, drowned. Enos' widow Sylvia later avenged his death by shooting Kimball to death.

References[]

  1. American Front, pgs. 10-16, HC.
  2. Ibid., pgs. 107-108.
  3. Ibid., pgs. 179-182.
  4. Ibid., pgs. 275-278.
  5. Ibid., pgs. 325-328.
  6. Ibid., pgs. 367-370.
  7. Ibid., pgs. 455-549.
  8. Walk in Hell, pgs. 3-4, HC.
  9. Ibid., pgs. 301-303.
  10. Ibid., pgs. 368-372.
  11. Ibid., pgs. 423-427.
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