In the Woolsey Cemetery at the Naval Air Station lies a young 23-year old sailor, far from his home and family. He was not a Pensacolian by birth but certainly became one by death. His name was Henry R. Hankinson, born in Mannchawkin, NJ on August 22, 1843, the son of Dr. Gustavus Adolphus Hankinson (1804-1866) and Deborah Bertine (1821-1915). Henry enlisted Army during the Civil War and transferred to the Union Navy on September 20, 1864 and was assigned to the USS Muscoota. His ship was a 1,370 ton steam driven ironclad gunboat, commissioned in January 1865. They saw very little combat, if any, since the war was all but over by the time the ship and her crew sailed. Anchored off of the Union held city of Norfolk, Virginia in May of 1865, she received orders to sail immediately for Key West. Their mission was to prevent the possible escape of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Washington thought that Davis may try to escape to Europe or elsewhere and wanted to seal all escape routes. However, Davis was actually captured on May 10th in Irwinville, Georgia by Union cavalry.
Following the war, the Muscoota remained in the Gulf of Mexico until around June of 1866 when she was sent back to the states due to an outbreak of Yellow Fever among the crew. One of the infected sailors was Seaman Henry R. Hankinson from New Jersey. Upon arriving in Pensacola, he and the other infected seamen were admitted to the US Naval Hospital on June 20, 1866 with an initial diagnosis by Dr. J. Wesley Boyden of "dysenteriae acute."
However, by the time Hankinson arrived in Pensacola, he was already emaciated with extreme weakness and blood in his stool. The cause of his condition was most likely the bacteria "shigella", but the symptoms did not appear to be Yellow Fever. The condition is caused by food or water that has been contaminated by feces due to poor sanitation. Hankinson's condition worsened, ending in his death on June 28, 1866 and subsequent burial in Woolsey Cemetery.
Ironically, one of Henry's recent shipmates was a man by the name of George Westinghouse (1846-1914) who was destined to become a household word in Pensacola and all over the world. He was one of the Muscoota's engineers who had enlisted in the New York National Guard at the age of 15 during the war. Due to his young age, he was allowed to return home until he reenlisted in the 16th New York Cavalry. In 1864, he left the army to join the Navy where he became an engineer aboard the Muscoota. He was the third son of his parents to join the Army of which only two returned after his brother Albert was killed in action in 1864. George was discharged in 1865 and shortly afterwards he invented the rotary steam engine followed by the "air brakes" that was considered the greatest railroad invention since steam. To demonstrate his airbrakes he mounted his invention on a passenger train and took his interested investors out for a short trip. As luck would have it, a wagon pulled by two horses was crossing the tracks ahead of the train. The horses panicked at the trains approach trapping the wagon wheels in the tracks. The train engineer hit the newly invented air brakes, bringing the train to a lurching but impressive stop only four feet from the wagon. The investors ordered for the new brake system were initiated immediately. Prior to this, a brakeman had to tighten a hand brake on each individual car in the train to bring it to a halt. At one time, the railroads were loosing 5,000 brakeman killed a year due to this practice. One after another his inventions kept coming forth from the ingenious Westinghouse, to include a new alternating electric current system.
Ironically, Pensacola would again enter the world of Westinghouse in 1967 when his company purchased eighty acres off Scenic Highway just north of Interstate 10. There, they spent $30 million to build a plant that dealt with turbines and nuclear plant components. Ultimately, the plant was shut down, due to nuclear component work being transferred elsewhere and the decision to consolidate gas turbine and generator manufacturing at other plants. Following the Siemens acquisition of Westinghouse Power Generation in 1998, the property was sold once again to General Electric Company for manufacturing and service work on large electric generators.
As for the USS Muscoota, it was sold in June 1869 and remodeled as a merchant ship by the name of the SS Tennessee. However, Henry's ship had a short civilian career, because it was destroyed by fire in 1870 near Little River, North Carolina.
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