SACHEM ScStr: t. 197; l 121'; b. 23' 6"; dph. 7' 6"; dr. 6' 4"; cpl. 60; a. 2 32-pdr., 2 24-pdr. SACHEM was built in 1844 at New York, N.Y., and was sold to the U.S. Navy in 1861 for use as a gunboat. On 8 September 1863 she participated with other Federal gunboats besieging Fort Mannahasset at Sabine Pass, Tex. A shot from the fort blew up her boilers, and she was run down and captured by the Confederate steam gunboat UNCLE BEN. At the time of her capture Sachem was armed with four 32-pounders an one 30 pounder Parrott rifle, which were immediately removed by the Confederates. SACHEM became part of the Texas Marine Department [See Annex III] and served the Confederate army at Sabine Pass. In the spring of 1864 she was fitted out to run the blockade and placed under the command of a noted blockade runner John Davisson. ST. FRANCIS NO. 3 SwStr: t. 219 ST. FRANCIS NO. 3, built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1858, served as an Army transport in western waters. In April 1862, while commanded by Captain Clendening she participated in a cotton burning expedition to prevent the capture and use of the valuable product by the Federals. Records of early 1863 indicate that she had been outfitted with cotton- cladding. ST. FRANCIS NO. 3 was lost in 1863. ST. MARY SwStr: t. 60; l. 89' 9"; b. 16'; dph. 6'; dr. 4'; s. 3 k.; a. 1 24-pdr., 1 12-pdr. ST. MARY, a small cotton-clad river steamer, was built at Plaquemine, La., early in 1862, and presented to the Confederate Government. Under the command of Lt. F. E. Shepperd, CSN, she operated in the Yazoo and Tallahatchie Rivers in 1863. She was captured at Yazoo City, Miss., on 13 July by a joint Army-Navy expedition consisting of four Federal ships and 6,000 troops. She was taken into the United States Navy under the name of ALEXANDRIA and commissioned in December at Cairo, Ill. ST. MARY's see under JAMES BATTLE ST. NICHOLAS, see RAPPAHANNOCK ST. PATRICK TB: l. 30'; cpl. 6; a. 1 torpedo ST. PATRICK, a submersible torpedo boat which could "be sunk and raised as desired " was built privately at Mobile, Ala., by John P. Halligan in 1864. She was transferred to the Confederate States Army on 24 January 1865, but placed under the command of Lt. J. T. Walker, CSN. An hour after midnight on 28 January this little vessel struck the Federal ship OCTORARA abaft her wheelhouse with a torpedo which misfired and did no damage. When the Federals returned artillery and musket fire ST. PATRICK escaped to the protection of the Confederate batteries at Mobile. ST. PHILIP SwStr: t. 1,172; l. 228' 4"; b. 32' 8"; dph. 24' 6"; s. 11.5 k.; a. 2 68-pdr., 4 32-pdr. ST. PHILIP was originally SAN JUAN, built for $260,000 by Jeremiah Simonson at Greenpoint, N.Y., in 1862, brigantine-rigged, with two vertical beam engines, and sailed as the noted passenger steamer STAR OF THE WEST which operated between New York and the California coast. In January 1861 she was chartered by the Federal Government to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. Within sight of the fort, she was greeted by fire from harbor defense guns manned by cadets from the Citadel Military Academy, and was compelled to return to New York without accomplishing her mission. The Federal Government Page 564 again chartered her 3 months afterwards to carry troops from the coast of Texas to New York, but on 17 April she was captured by the Confederate Army steamer GENERAL RUSK and sent to New Orleans. There the Confederate Navy employed her as a receiving ship and renamed her ST. PHILIP. With the impending surrender of New Orleans in April 1862 ST. PHILIP was sent up the Yazoo River with Confederate specie on board. In March 1863, when Rear Adm. D. D. Porter attempted to outflank Vicksburg by a naval expedition through the Yazoo Pass, the Confederates sank her to obstruct the channel of the Tallahatchie River, above the Yalobusha's mouth at Fort Pemberton. SALLIE WARD, see SALLIE WOOD SALLIE WOOD StwStr: t. 256 SALLIE WOOD, also referred to as SALLIE WARD, was built in 1860 at Paducah, Ky. She operated as a Confederate transport but was laid up above Eastport, Miss., when captured on 8 February 1862 by USS CONESTOGA at Chickasaw, Alabama. SAM KIRKMAN StwStr: t. 271 SAM KIRKMAN was built in 1867 at Paducah, Ky. She operated on the Tennessee River, and may have served the Confederate Army, probably as a cargo ship. At the approach of Federal gunboats, Confederate troops burned SAM KIRKMAN at Florence, Ala., on 8 February 1862, to keep her from falling into Union hands. SAMPSON SwStr: dr. 8'; cpl. 49; a. 1 32-pdr. sb., 1 12-pdr. CSS SAMPSON, sometimes spelled SAMSON, was employed as a tugboat, prior to her purchase by the Confederate Government in 1861. On 7 November 1861 this ship, SAMPSON, Lt. J. S. Kenard, CSN, stood out with other gunboats of Commodore Josiah Tattnall's squadron to engage the heavy ships of Rear Admiral DuPont at the battle of Port Royal, S.C. The Confederates finally were forced to withdraw to Skull Creek. After the naval bombardment and evacuation of Port Royal's defensive works, SAMPSON helped transport a number of the retreating garrison to Savannah. Later in the month she exchanged shots with Federal forces off Fort Pulaski, Ga., and in January 1862, with two others of Tattnall's squadron, ran past the Federal ships in the Savannah River to provision Fort Pulaski. SAMPSON received considerable damage in this encounter. Thereafter she served as receiving ship at Savannah and on 16 November 1863 returned to combat duty, patrolling the Savannah River with the defense force of Flag Officer W. W. Hunter, CSN. In early December 1864 she joined with MACON and RESOLUTE in an expedition to destroy the Charleston and Savannah Railway bridge spanning the Savannah River, and sustained considerable damage. Prior to the capture of Savannah by General Sherman on 21 December 1864 SAMPSON was taken up the river to Augusta, remaining there until the end of the war. SAMSON, see SAMPSON SAMUEL HILL Str SAMUEL HILL, a transport, served Confederate forces in the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. SAMUEL ORR Str SAMUEL ORR was a steamer in use as a hospital boat on the Tennessee River at the time Fort Henry was surrendered to Union Forces on 6 February 1862. She was burned the following day at the mouth of the Duck River to prevent her capture by the Federal Gunboats. SAND FLY Launch SAND FLY, together with the launch MOSQUITO and the schooner MANASSAS, was assigned to the command of Lt. W. H. Murdaugh on 27 August 1861, by Flag Officer S. Barron, CSN, commanding the naval defense of Virginia and North Carolina. On 29 August 1861 Lieutenant Murdaugh was seriously wounded in the attack on Fort Hatteras and unable to assume his command. SANTA MARIA IrcScFR: t. 3,200 gr.; l. 270'; b. 60'; dph. 22' SANTA MARIA, also known as GLASGOW or FRIGATE NO. 61 while on the ways at Clydebank, never received her Confederate name: To Secretary Mallory, Commander Bulloch and their circle, she was simply "North's ship," after Comdr. James H. North, CSN, who selected and was largely responsible for her. The British Government, under diplomatic pressure from the United States, canceled the 182,000 pound contract of 21 May 1862, arranged through intermediaries by Commander North, and sold her to the Danish Navy, where she was long known as HDMS DANMARK. SATELLITE Gbt: t. 217; l. 120' 7"; b. 22' 9"; dph. 8' 6"; cpl. 40; a. 1 8", 1 30-pdr. r. SATELLITE, a wooden sidewheeler bought by the U.S. Navy in July 1861, was commissioned 27 September 1861 and assigned to the Potomac Flotilla. She enjoyed a successful career, capturing five ships and aiding in the capture of four others. On the night of 23 August 1863 she was surprised, boarded, and captured at the mouth of the Rappahannock River by a Confederate boat expedition led by Lt. J. T. Wood. SATELLITE aided in capturing three Union schooners in Chesapeake Bay before being sent into Port Royal, Va. There 9 days after her capture she was stripped and scuttled amidst bombardment from Union forces. SAVANNAH SwStr: t. 406; a. 1 32-pdr. SAVANNAH, later called OLD SAVANNAH, was formerly the steamer EVERGLADE built in 1866 at New York, N.Y. She was purchased early in 1861 by the State of Georgia and converted into a gunboat for coast defense. With Georgia's admission to the Confederacy, SAVANNAH, under Lt. J. N. Maffitt, CSN, was commissioned by the Confederate States Navy. She was attached to the squadron of Flag Officer J. Tattnall, CSN, charged with the naval defense of South Carolina and Georgia. Page 565 On 5 November, SAVANNAH, flying Tattnall's flag, in company with RESOLUTE, SAMPSON, and LADY DAVIS, offered harassing resistance to a much larger Union fleet, under Flag Officer S. F. Du Pont, USN, preparing to attack Confederate strongholds at Port Royal Sound, S.C. On 7 November SAVANNAH fired on the heavy Union ships as they bombarded Forts Walker and Beauregard. Driven finally by the Federal gunboats into Skull Creek, Ga., Tattnall disembarked with a landing party in an abortive attempt to support the fort's garrison, and SAVANNAH returned to Savannah to repair damages. On 26 November 1861, SAVANNAH, in company with RESOLUTE and SAMPSON, all under Flag Officer Tattnall, weighed anchor from under the guns of Fort Pulaski, S.C., and made a brave but brief attack on Union vessels at the mouth of the Savannah River. On 28 January 1862 the same three vessels delivered supplies to the fort despite the spirited opposition of Federal ships. SAVANNAH later assisted in the unsuccessful defense of Fort Pulaski on 10-11 April 1862, and for the remainder of the year served as a receiving ship at Savannah. Her name was changed to OCONEE on 28 April 1863 and in June she was loaded with cotton and dispatched to England to pay for much-needed supplies. After some delay she escaped to sea only to founder on 18 August during bad weather. A boat with four officers and 11 men was captured 2 days later; the remainder of her crew escaped. IrcRam: l. 150' bp.; b. 34', dph. 14'; s. 7 k.; dr. 12' 6"; s. 6 k.; cpl. 180; a. 2 7" r., 2 6.4" r.; type RICHMOND CSS SAVANNAH was an ironclad steam sloop built by H. F. Willink for the Confederacy at Savannah, Ga., in 1863. On 30 June 1863 she was transferred to naval forces in the Savannah River under the command of Flag Officer W. W. Hunter, CSN. Under Comdr. R. F. Pinkney, CSN, she maintained her reputation as the most efficient vessel of the squadron and was kept ready for service. She remained on the river and was burned by the Confederates on 21 December 1864 when Savannah, Ga., was threatened by the approach of Gen. W. T. Sherman, USA. SCHULTZ SwStr: t. 164 SCHULTZ, also known as A. H. SCHULTZ, was built at New York, N.Y. She served the Confederates in the James River, Va., as a flag-of-truce boat, and was probably armed. SCHULTZ was accidentally blown up in the James River by a Confederate torpedo which may have drifted from its original position. SCORPION StTB: l. 46'; b. 6' 3"; dph. 3' 9"; a. 1 5"-dia., 18' spar with percussion torp.; cl. SQUIB CSS SCORPION was procured late in 1864 by the Confederate States Navy and armed with a spar torpedo fitted to her stem. She performed picket duty in the James River under command of Lt. E. Lakin, CSN. On 23-25 January 1865 torpedo boats SCORPION, HORNET and WASP, under overall command of Lt. C. W. Read CSN, joined Flag Officer J. K. Mitchell's James River Squadron in the abortive attack on General Grant's main supply base at City Point Va. Attempting to rejoin her consort, ironclad RICHMOND, aground above Trent's Reach, SCORPION ended up fast ashore also and was severely damaged by the magazine explosion which destroyed nearby gunboat CSS DREWRY, 24 January. Abandoned, she fell into Federal hands. SCOTLAND SwStr: t. 567; l. 230'; b. 27'; dph. 7' SCOTLAND was built in 1855 at Jeffersonville, Ind. She served the Confederates as a transport in the Mississippi River area, and she was part of the force under Comdr. L N. Brown CSN, commanding Confederate vessels in the Yazoo River. In July 1863 SCOTLAND was burned by Commander Brown and her hulk sunk in the Yazoo River, 15 miles below Greenwood Miss., to block the channel and delay the advance of Union forces under W. T. Sherman, USA, towards Vicksburg, Miss. SEA BIRD SwStr: t. 202; cpl. 42; a. 1 32-pdr. sb., 1 30-pdr. r. CSS SEA BIRD, built at Keyport, N.J., in 1854, was purchased by North Carolina at Norfolk, Va., in 1861 and fitted for service with the Confederate States Navy. She was assigned to duty along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts with Lt. P. McCarrick, CSN, in command. SEA BIRD served as the flagship of Confederate Flag Officer W. F. Lynch's "mosquito fleet" during the hard-fought battles in defense of Roanoke Island on 7-8 February 1862, and Elizabeth City, N.C., on the 10th when she was rammed and sunk by USS COMMODORE PERRY. SEA KING, see SHENANDOAH SEABOARD SwTug: t. 59 SEABOARD was a wooden towboat built at Philadelphia in 1859 and first owned in Norfolk, Va. Confederate military authorities acquired her in 1861 and turned her over to the Engineer Corps, CSA, for operation most of the war. She was captured by the Federal army and USS LILAC at the upper or Tree Hill bridge over the James below Richmond, 4 April 1865. As a prize of war, passing the obstructions at Drewry's Bluff, SEABOARD hit a snag and had to be run aground to prevent her sinking in deep water. By July the little tug came to be remembered as the storm center of interservice acrimony when Col. J. B. Howard, local Army Quartermaster raised and sent her to Norfolk for repairs; Admiral William Radford, USN, claimed her as "original captor." SEGAR, see A. B. SEGER SEGER, see A. B. SEGER SEGUR, see A. B. SEGER SELMA SwGbt: l. 252'; b. 30'; dr. 6'; dph. 6'; s. 9 k.; cpl. 65 to 94; a. 2 9" s.b., 1 8" s.b., 16.4" r. CSS SELMA was a coastwise packet built at Mobile for the Mobile Mail Line in 1856. Little doubt now remains that she was originally named FLORIDA. As the latter, she was inspected and accepted by Capt. Lawrence Rousseau, CSN, 22 April 1861, acquired by the Confederacy in June, cut down and strengthened by hog frames and armed as a gunboat-all, apparently, in the Lake Ponchartrain area. Her upper deck was Page 566 plated at this time with 3"-iron, partially protecting her boilers, of the low pressure type preferred for fuel economy and greater safety in battle. CSS FLORIDA is cited on 12 November 1861 as already in commission and serving Commodore Hollins' New Orleans defense flotilla under command of Lt. Charles W. Hays, CSN. The Mobile Evening News editorialized early in December on the startling change "from her former gay, first-class hotel appearance, having been relieved of her upper works and painted as black as the inside of her smokestack. She carries a jib forward and, we suppose, some steering sail aft, when requisite." Although much of FLORIDA's time was spent blockaded in Mobile, she made some forays into Mississippi Sound, two of which alarmed the U.S. Navy's entire Gulf command: On 19 October FLORIDA convoyed a merchantman outside. Fortunately for her the coast was clear of Union ships and batteries, for FLORIDA fouled the area's main military telegraph line with her anchor and had no sooner repaired the damage than she went aground for 36 hours. Luck returning, she tried out her guns on USS MASSACHUSETTS, "a large three-masted propeller" she mistook for the faster R. R. CUYLER. Being of shallower draft and greater speed, she successfully dodged MASSACHUSETTS in shoal water off Ship Island. The havoc caused by one well-placed shot with her rifled pivot gun is described by Commander Melancton Smith, USN, commanding MASSACHUSETTS: "It entered the starboard side abaft the engine five feet above the water line, cutting entirely through 18 planks of the main deck, carried away the table, sofas, eight sections of iron steam pipe, and exploded in the stateroom on the port side, stripping the bulkheads of four rooms and setting fire to the vessel ... 12 pieces of the fragments have been collected and weigh 68 pounds." The first sortie by FLORIDA caused consternation. Capt. L. M. Powell, USN, in command at Ship Island-soon to be main advance base for the New Orleans campaign-wrote to Flag Officer McKean, 22 October, "The first of the reported gun steamers made her experimental trial trip on the MASSACHUSETTS, and, if she be a sample of the rest, you may perhaps consider that Ship Island and the adjacent waters will require a force of a special kind in order to hold them to our use.... The caliber and long range of the rifled cannon from which the shell that exploded in the MASSACHUSETTS was fired established the ability of these fast steam gunboats to keep out of the range of all broadside guns, and enables them to disregard the armament or magnitude of all ships thus armed, or indeed any number of them, when sheltered by shoal water." Protecting CSS PAMLICO, in contrasting white dress and laden with some 400 troops, "the black rebel steamer" FLORIDA on 4 December had a brush with USS MONTGOMERY in Horn Island Pass that caused jubilation in the Southern press. Comdr. T. Darrah Shaw of MONTGOMERY, finding his 10-inch shell gun no match for FLORIDA's long-range rifles, signaled Comdr. Melancton Smith for assistance, and when it was not forthcoming, ran back to safety under the guns of Ship Island. Shaw saved MONTGOMERY and lost his command for fleeing from the enemy: Commodore McKean promptly sent Lieutenant Jouett to relieve him and forwarded Shaw's action report to Secretary Welles, noting, "It needs no comment." Crowed Richmond Dispatch on 14 December, quoting Mobile Evening News "The FLORIDA fought at great disadvantage in one respect, owing to her steering apparatus being out of order, but showed a decided superiority in the effectiveness of her armament. That gun which scared the MASSACHUSETTS so badly, and had nearly proved fatal to her, is evidently a better piece or must be better handled than any which the enemy have." With the advent of cruiser FLORIDA, she was renamed SELMA, in July 1862 Lt. Peter U. Murphey, CSN, assuming command. On 5 February 1863, while steaming down Mobile Bay with 100 extra men in search of a blockader to carry by boarding, SELMA was bilged by a snag in crossing Dog River Bar, entrance to Mobile, and sank in 8 feet of water. Pumped out hastily, she was back in service the 13th. By the following year, SELMA, MORGAN and GAINES, the only ships capable of defending lower Mobile Bay, were having a serious problem with deserting seamen, and intelligence reported SELMA's crew as having fallen as low as 16 men about mid-February. At the crucial battle of 5 August 1864, SELMA particularly annoyed Farragut by a steady, raking fire as she stood off HARTFORD's bow. After passing the forts, Farragut ordered gunboat METACOMET cast loose from HARTFORD to pursue the SELMA. After an hour-long running fight, Murphey, unable to escape to shallows out of reach, had to surrender to faster, more heavily armed METACOMET. SELMA lost 7 killed and 8 wounded, including her captain. She was sold at New Orleans, 12 July 1865, being redocumented as a merchant ship the following month. SHARP Str The Confederate steamer SHARP was employed by the army as a dispatch boat and transport in the Tallahatchie River. She was used to transport troops and ammunition in the Yazoo River in March 1863. SHARP reportedly was burned and scuttled by order of Commander Brown, CSN, in the Sunflower River in August 1863. SHENANDOAH ScStr: t. 1,160l l. 230'; b. 32'; dph. 20' 6"; s. 9 k. under steam; cpl. 109; a. 4 8" sb., 2 32-pdr. r., 2 12-pdr. CSS SHENANDOAH, formerly SEA KING, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged vessel with auxiliary steam power. She was designed as a British transport for troops to the East, and was built on the River Clyde, Scotland, but the Confederate Government purchased her in 1864 for use as an armed cruiser. On 8 October she sailed from London ostensibly for Bombay, India, on a trading voyage. She rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira, with the steamer LAUREL, bearing officers and the nucleus of a crew for SEA KING, together with naval guns, ammunition, and stores. Commanding Officer Lt. J. I. Waddell, CSN, supervised her conversion to a ship-of-war in nearby waters. Waddell was barely able, however, to bring his crew to half strength even with additional volunteers from SEA KING and LAUREL. The new cruiser was commissioned on 19 October and her name changed to SHENANDOAH. In accord with operation concepts originated in the Confederate Navy Department and developed by its agents in Europe, SHENANDOAH was assigned to destroy commerce in areas as yet undisturbed, and thereafter her course lay in pursuit of merchantmen on the Cape of Good Hope- Australia route and of the Pacific whaling fleet. En route to the Cape she picked up six prizes. Five of these were put to the torch or scuttled; the other was bonded and employed for transport of prisoners to Bahia, Brazil. Still short-handed, though her crew had been increased by forced enlistments from prizes, SHENANDOAH arrived at Melbourne, Australia, on 25 January 1865, where she filled her complement and her storerooms. SHENANDOAH had taken but a single prize in the Indian Ocean, but hunting became more profitable as she approached the whaling grounds. Waddell burned four whalers in the Carolines and another off the Kuriles. After a 3-week cruise in the ice and fog of the Sea of Okhotsk failed to yield a single prize, due to a warning Page 567 which had preceded him, Waddell headed north past the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. On 23 June he learned from a prize of Lee's surrender and the flight from Richmond of the Confederate Government 10 weeks previously. Nevertheless, he elected to continue hostilities and captured 21 more prizes, the last 11 being taken in the space of 7 hours in the waters just below the Arctic Circle. Waddell then ran south to intercept commerce bound from the West Coast to the Far East and Latin America and on 2 August received intelligence from a British bark of the war's termination some 4 months before. Immediately SHENANDOAH underwent physical alteration. She was dismantled as a man-of-war; her battery was dismounted and struck below, and her hull painted to resemble an ordinary merchant vessel. Waddell brought her into Liverpool on 6 November and surrendered her to British authorities who turned her over to the United States. SHENANDOAH had remained at sea for 12 months and 17 days, had traversed 58,000 miles and captured 38 prizes, mostly whalers, and two-thirds of them after the close of hostilities. SHRAPNEL CSS SHRAPNEL, a small craft, apparently unarmed, was very actively employed in the James River, Va. with Acting Master J. Trower, CSN, in command. She served to tow fire craft, deliver mail and torpedoes, and as a picket boat in 1864-1866. She was among the ships destroyed by the Confederates after surrender of Richmond, Va., on 3 April 1865. "SINCLAIR's SHIP," see TEXAS (corvette) SKIRWAN Str. SKIRWAN appears to have been one of the smaller river steamers valuable to the Confederates on the Roanoke as a transport and store ship much of the war. She was seized with FISHER, COTTON PLANT and EGYPT MILLS in May 1865 at Halifax, N.C., and became useful to Comdr. W. H. Macomb, USN, as a mail and dispatch boat. SLIDELL Gbt: a. 8 guns SLIDELL was built at New Orleans in early 1862. She was destroyed on the Tennessee River prior to 6 February 1863. SNIPE SwStr: t. [645]; l. 225'; b. 24'; dph. 11'; dr. 6'; cl. CURLEW SNIPE was the last ship christened in what may have been the only quadruple launching for the Confederate Navy. She was Hull No. 180 in the Jones, Quiggin yard at Liverpool on order for Comdr. J. D. Bulloch, CSN, and launched with her sisters the same day in 1865. Her completion could hardly have taken place before the war's close. SOVEREIGN SwStr: t. 336 SOVEREIGN, built in 1855 at Shousetown, Pa., performed transport duties in western waters for the Confederacy until 5 June 1862 when she was captured near Island No. 37 in the Mississippi River by a tug under Lt. J. Bishop. A member of her crew loyal to the Union remained on board after she had been run aground, her machinery set to explode, and abandoned near Memphis. He prevented her destruction and enabled the Federals to seize her for future employment as a storeship for the Mississippi Squadron. SPHINX, see STONEWALL SPRAY StGbt: a. 2 guns CSS SPRAY, a small, high-pressure steamer, operated in the vicinity of the naval station at St. Marks, Fla., during 1863-65, and was the object of much attention by the Federal forces in that vicinity. She was commanded by Lts. C. W. Hays, CSN, and H. L. Lewis CSN. SPRAY surrendered to the Federal forces in May 1865. SQUIB TB: l. 46'; b. 6' 3"; dph. 3' 9"; cpl. 6; a. 5" dia., 18'-spar with percussion torpedo; cl. SQUIB CSS SQUIB, also referred to as INFANTA, was a small torpedo boat in the service of the Confederate States Navy in 1864. She operated in the James River. Her armament consisted of one spar torpedo. On the night of 9 April 1864 Lt. H. Davidson, CSN, the Confederate torpedo expert, sailed SQUIB through the Federal fleet off Newport News, Va., and exploded 53 pounds of powder against the side of flagship MINNESOTA before returning up the James River to safety. The torpedo was exploded too near the surface to achieve maximum effect, and MINNESOTA escaped without serious damage. For his gallant and meritorious conduct in the performance of this exploit Hunter Davidson was promoted to the rank of commander in the Confederate States Navy. Final disposition of SQUIB has not been established. Page 568 STAERKODDER, see STONEWALL STAG SwStr: t. 600 [771]; l. 230'; b. 26'; dph. 9' 6" [10' 9"]; dr. 7' 6"; sp. 16 k.; cl. OWL STAG was a fast, modern, steel paddle-steamer built for the Confederate Navy at Liverpool as Jones, Quiggin & Co.'s Hull No. 169 in 1864 to the order of Comdr. James D. Bulloch, CSN. A superior ship, "one of a number of steamers to be run under the direction of the Navy Department," she sailed from the Mersey on her maiden voyage in August, getting away from Nassau about 1 September. She was busily running out of the Carolinas- Charleston and Wilmington-the rest of the year, to Nassau or Bermuda. Secretary Mallory wrote Lt. Richard H. Gayle, Provisional Navy, C.S., 6 December 1864, "It is understood that the new steamer STAG, now at Wilmington, will be at once turned over to this Department." Gayle relieved British Captain J. M. Burroughs (cf. CORNUBIA.) formal transfer taking place about the 12th, as arranged by William H. Peters, special (fiscal) agent, C.S. Navy Department, Wilmington. Their correspondence, however, suggests this was not the STAG renamed KATE GREGG in October, as reported by the U. S. Consul in Nassau, but an older and larger STAG with capacity for 1,200 cotton bales whereas the new OWL-class STAG was unmistakably rated at only 850 bales on a draft of 7'6". Capt. J. F. Green, USN, Senior Officer Offshore Blockade can be thanked for preserving in official records, Rumor says that the STAG is to be converted into" a gunboat, along with BADGER (destroyed about this time)-ironic in view of the sequel: five months later Admiral D. D. Porter, USN, victor over Fort Caswell that protected Wilmington, wrote from Smithville, N.C., 20 January 1865, "I had the blockade runners' lights lit last night, and was obliging enough to answer their signals, whether right or wrong we don't know *** STAG and CHARLOTTE, from Bermuda, loaded with arms, blankets, shoes, etc., came in and quietly anchored near the [flagship] MALVERN [v. WILLIAM G. HEWES] and were taken possession of *** I intrusted this duty to Lt. [William B.] Cushing [in MONTICELLO], who performed it with his usual good luck and intelligence. These two are very fast vessels and valuable prizes. They threw a portion of their papers overboard immediately on finding they were trapped *** The STAG received three shots in her as she ran by our blockaders outside." Thus the curtain fell at 0200, the 20th, in New Inlet, N.C.; on the 24th, "hatches battened down" and hold "not entered", STAG was ordered to New York under a prize master Actg. Master E. S. Goodwin, USN She was sold that year to F. Nickerson of Boston and became an asset to his coastwise service to New York and New Orleans as ZENOBIA. In 1867 George Savary & Co. bought her; resold 17 November in Buenos Aires for $82,000, she disappeared from the North American scene, although she is believed to have lived on until 1885 or later. STAR Tug: t. 250; cpl. 40 STAR, an unarmed high-pressure steam tug, was chartered by the Confederate Army from the Southern Steamship Co., New Orleans, La., in May 1861. Page 569 Early in April 1862 she was placed with several other steamers under Captain Stevenson, CSA, to handle the fire rafts with which the Confederates illuminated the channel below forts Jackson and St. Philip against passage of Farragut's fleet assembled there. During the ensuing battle at the forts on 24 April STAR was employed as a telegraph station attached to the command of Comdr. J. K. Mitchell, CSN. The steamer was destroyed by a Federal gunboat during the action. Farragut's testimony in 1872 credited STAR with one-gun and 40 men; the gun is questionable but all sources agree she was commanded by a Captain LaPlace. STAR OF THE WEST, see ST. PHILIP STARLIGHT Str STARLIGHT, a Confederate steamer, was active in the Mississippi River. She reportedly transported released Confederate prisoners of war in the region of Port Hudson during early May 1863. On 26 May she was seized in Thompson's Creek, north of Port Hudson, by Union Army forces commanded by Colonel Prince. During the remainder of 1863 and 1864 STARLIGHT was employed by the Union as a transport in the Red and Mississippi Rivers. STATE OF GEORGIA, see GEORGIA STONEWALL IrcRam: t. 900; l 171' 10"; b. 32' 8"; dr. 14' 4"; s. 10 k.; a. 1 300-pdr. r., 2 70-pdr. r. STONEWALL, a powerful armored seagoing ram, was built by L. Arman at Bordeaux, France, in 1863-64 for the Confederate States Government; however, the French authorities refused to permit her delivery, following strong protests by American Ministers Dayton and Bigelow. The vessel was eventually sold to Denmark, via a Swedish intermediary, for use in the Schleswig-Holstein War. Because she failed to reach Copenhagen before the sudden termination of the war, the Danes refused acceptance, and title to the ram, now known as SPHINX, was returned to her builder who then sold her to the Confederates. In December 1864 Capt. T. J. Page, CSN, took command, renamed the vessel STONEWALL, and in January sailed from Copenhagen for Quiberon Bay, France, to receive supplies. In this period she was called STAERKODDER and OLINDE to allay suspicion of her actual ownership and mission. STONEWALL was assigned the considerable tasks of dispersing the Federal blockading fleet off Wilmington, N.C., intercepting Northern commerce between California and Northern ports, attacking New England coastal cities, and destroying the Yankee fishing fleet on the Newfoundland Banks. Unable to replenish fully in French waters, STONEWALL sailed for Madeira, but ran into a severe storm and had to put in to Ferrol, Spain, for coal and repairs. While she was there NIAGARA and SACRAMENTO arrived at Coruna, only 9 miles distant. On 24 March STONEWALL steamed out of Ferrol and prepared for battle; however when the Federals, believing her gun power to be too great, declined to close she bore away for Lisbon to coal before crossing the Atlantic. She reached Nassau, New Providence, on 6 May and went from there to Havana where Page learned of the war's end. STONEWALL was turned over to the Captain General of Cuba in return for money needed to pay off her crew. In July 1866 the Cuban authorities voluntarily delivered her to the United States Government which later sold her to Japan, where she was known as HIJMS AZUMA. (See also CHEOPS, supra.) STONEWALL JACKSON SwRam: cpl. 30; a. 1 32-pdr. or 1 24-pdr. sb. STONEWALL JACKSON was selected in January 1862, by Capt. J. E. Montgomery to be part of the River Defense Fleet [See Annex II]. On 25 January Montgomery began to convert her into a cottonclad ram by placing a 4-inch oak sheath with 1-inch iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads fitted with compressed cotton bales. STONEWALL JACKSON's conversion was completed on 16 March 1862. Under Capt. G. M. Phillips she was detached from Montgomery's main force and sent to Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the lower Mississippi to cooperate in the Confederate defense of New Orleans. There, with five other vessels of Montgomery's fleet, all under Capt. J. A. Stevenson, she joined the force under Capt. J. K. Mitchell, CSN, commanding Confederate naval forces in the lower Mississippi. On 24 April 1862 a Union fleet under Flag Officer D. G. Farragut, USN, ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip on its way to capture New Orleans. In the engagement STONEWALL JACKSON rammed USS VARUNA which had already been struck by Governor Moore. With VARUNA's shot glancing off her bow, STONEWALL JACKSON backed off for another blow and struck again in the same place, crushing VARUNAs side. The shock of the blow turned the Confederate vessel, and she received five 8-inch shells from VARUNA, abaft her armor. VARUNA ran aground in a sinking condition and STONEWALL JACKSON, chased by USS ONEIDA coming to VARUNA's rescue, was driven ashore and burned. STONO SwStr: t. 453; l. 171' 6"; b. 31' 4"; dph. 9'; a. 1 30-pdr., 8 8" STONO, formerly USS ISAAC SMITH, was captured by masked batteries while reconnoitering in Stono River on 30 January 1863. She was taken into the Confederate Navy and put in service in the waters around Charleston, S.C., with Lt. W. G. Dozier, CSN, in command. Because of her great speed she was loaded with cotton and attempted to run the blockade on 6 June 1863. She was wrecked on the breakwater near Fort Moultrie, S.C. at that time. SUGG, see TOM SUGG SUMTER ScStr: t. 347(499?); l. 184'; b. 30'; dph. 12'; s. 10 k.; a. 1 8" shell gun, 4 32-pdr. CSS SUMTER was originally the bark-rigged steamer HABANA of New Orleans, built at Philadelphia in 189 for McConnell's New Orleans & Havana Line. Purchased at New Orleans in April 1861 and converted to a cruiser by Capt. Raphael Semmes, CSN, SUMTER was commissioned there 3 June and put to sea on the 30th to strike at Union shipping. Eluding sloop-of-war BROOKLYN in hot pursuit, SUMTER cruised the West Indies and south to Maranhao, Brazil, capturing several prizes. Returned to Martinique, she was discovered in the act of coaling by USS IROQUOIS; Capt. J. S. Palmer, USN promptly protested to local authorities and took position to intercept SUMTER leaving St. Pierre. But 9 days later the raider escaped by night and steered for Spain anchoring at Cadiz, 4 January 1862. Allowed only to make necessary repairs there, without refueling, she was forced to run for Gibraltar and lay up. Disarmed and sold at auction 19 December 1862 to the Fraser-Trenholm interests, SUMTER quietly continued her service to the Confederacy under British colors as the blockade runner GIBRALTAR of Liverpool. Though her career as a fighting ship had lasted Page 570 scarcely six months, SUMTER had taken 18 prizes, of which she burned 8, released or bonded 9; only one was recaptured. The diversion of Federal blockade ships to hunt her down had been in itself no insignificant service to the Confederate cause. As Gibraltar, she ran at least once into Wilmington, N. C., under Capt. E. C. Reid, a Southerner. He sailed from Liverpool 3 July 1863 with a pair of 22-ton Blakely guns and other particularly valuable munitions, returning with a full load of cotton. The beginning of this voyage is recorded only because the U.S. Consul at the British port passionately protested GIBRALTAR's being allowed to sail-ostensibly for Nassau-days before formal customs clearance: "She is one of the privileged class and not held down like other vessels to strict rules and made to conform to regulations." The arrival at Wilmington is also accidental matter of record today because of the troop transport SUMTER tragedy at Charleston the same summer-which, until November, Admiral Dahlgren's intelligence understandably confused with the former cruiser SUMTER, now GIBRALTAR. Mr. Trenholm's son-in-law long maintained SUMTER finally "went down in a gale near the spot where the ALABAMA was sunk," but supplied no date; one source suggests 1867. The last official report of her seems to have been by the U.S. Consul at Liverpool 10 July 1864: "The pirate SUMTER (called GIBRALTAR) is laid up at Birkenhead." ? ScTug: l. 80'; b. 18'; dph. 7'; t. 90; a. 1 or 2 20- pdrs. ? The existence of this James River tug, "about the size of the TEASER," mounting either a smooth bore or rifled 20-pounder or both, on pivots, is not confirmed by a Confederate source. The alleged SUMTER and three similar small tugs, in part identified as RALEIGH and PATRICK HENRY, were operating in defense of Richmond according to Commodore Charles Wilkes, reporting to Secretary of the Navy Welles from USS WACHUSETT, 12 September 1862, the only mention of her in published official records. SwStr This transport with high-pressure steam plant was approaching completion near Charleston the end of March 1863-whether newbuilt or refitted remains uncertain. SUMTER is mentioned relatively frequently in official records as being particularly useful in the tidal rivers of South Carolina because of her light draft. Apparently under Army control, he rendered the Confederacy yeoman service as a troop and munitions carrier, principally in the Stono River and the general area about Charleston, and was not infrequently a desirable target for Federal monitors and sharpshooters besieging the city throughout August. On the 30th, SUMTER offloaded the 27th and 28th Georgia Regiments an artillery company and stores at Morris Island embarking the 20th South Carolina and 23d Georgia Regiments with another artillery company-740 in all-for Ft. Gregg on Sullivan's Island. The Military District Commander, Brig. Gen. Roswell S. Ripley, CSA, reporting to Chief of Staff, 22 September, recounts the tragedy which ensued that August day: "So much time had been taken up, however, [loading troops] that the tide had fallen so low as to necessitate going by the main channel, and unfortunately the necessity had not been provided against by giving information to and establishing a signal with the batteries on Sullivan's Island. The steamer had run safely to the enemy's fleet and was coming up the channel when, being observed from Ft. Moultrie, fire was opened upon her. Before the officers in charge had learned this error several shots took effect, sinking the boat and causing the loss of arms and equipments. The troops on board were rescued by the garrison of Ft. Sumter, under Col. Alfred Rhett and boats sent down by the Navy. Eight men were reported missing the next morning ... " The death toll came to 40. SUMTER's wreck became a landmark used in target practice for some days afterward. SUNFLOWER Str: t. 105; l 121' 6"; b. 25'; dr. 3' 9" SUNFLOWER, an unarmed, cotton-clad, Confederate steamer probably built at Louisville, Ky., in 1857, and described in official records as a "good boat," was employed in and around the Sabine River in the latter part of 1862. As a unit of the army controlled Texas Marine Department [See Annex III] she assisted in removing obstructions to navigation in the Sabine River in January 1863. Her efforts in this operation contributed to the ensuing victory of CSS UNCLE BEN and JOSIAH A. BELL over the Union sloop MORNING LIGHT, and schooner FAIRY formerly VELOCITY. During October 1863 she underwent repairs at Beaumont and returned to duty with Com- Page 571 mander Hunter's Marine Brigade, carrying supplies. In April 1865 SUNFLOWER reportedly was engaged in the cotton trade on Sabine Lake. SUPERIOR Barge: a. 4 guns SUPERIOR served the Confederates in the rivers and waters off the Virginia and Carolina coasts. SWAIM, see J. D. SWAIM SWAN Str: t. 487 SWAN, a river cargo boat from Mobile, Ala., served the Confederates as a flag-of-truce boat at Mobile on 28 May 1861. She was captured off Key West Fla., on 24 May 1862, with a cargo of cotton and resin by the U.S. bark AMANDA and the U.S. brig BAINBRIDGE, and later was used by the U.S. Army. SWAN Yawl No particulars of the small, white-hulled sailing craft SWAN or her consort the black RAVEN, nor of their armament have come to light, but neither could a history of the Confederate States Navy omit to mention the so-called "Volunteer Coast Guard", which they formed. SWAN's captain and leader of the expedition was restless, daring, tubercular University of Virginia gradug, tubercular University of Virginia grTPHtIhPe6S=VE`P HtIhPe6S=VE`5 <`#M C@0TS5 <`qUQN qS@5 <`qUQN qS@FbLNQd kN*ate John Yates Beall, Master, CSN, by special commission issued 5 March 1863. Acting Master Edward McGuire commanded RAVEN, apparently a yawl. Private enterprise and legal expediency were thoroughly mixed in the expedition: at least two of their 16 volunteers, Scotsmen Bennett G. Burley and John Maxwell, were also appointed Acting Masters, CSN. Although they were more or less regularly commissioned, their cutters were not; while Beall was empowered to accept enlistments and draw gear from the Navy, yet he and his guerrilla band wore no uniforms, were required to procure their own sea vehicles and pay their own wages out of prizes and cargoes they might capture. Mathews County, the Virginian peninsula between Mobjack Bay and the Piankatank River, was home soil for the Beall raiders. Setting out from there 17 September 1863, that very day they captured sloop MARY ANNE and some fishing scows off Raccoon Island; the next day schooner ALLIANCE, carrying $200,000 worth of ships' stores for Port Royal, fell into their hands. Schooner J. J. HOUSEMAN was carried by boarding the following day and two more schooners, SAMUEL PEARSALL and ALEXANDRIA, were taken the 20th. Beall in the end had to strip all his prizes but ALLIANCE and send them to sea as derelicts, all sail set; 14 prisoners were safely delivered to Richmond. HOUSEMAN and PEARSALL were, however, recovered at sea by blockaders. He himself almost succeeded in sailing ALLIANCE up the Piankatank but grounded the last minute at the river's mouth, on the bar at Milford Haven, Va., and had to burn her when a Federal blockader approached-yet Beall's men still managed to salvage over $10,000 worth of goods. The "Marine Coast Guard", as they called it, became such a thorn in the Union side that in October a joint U.S. Navy/Army expedition under General Isaac J. Wistar, USA, with the entire 4th U.S. Colored Infantry Pennsylvania and New York cavalry and light artillery detachments, USS COMMODORE JONES, PUTNAM and STEPPING STONES, and 4 Army gunboats sealing avenues of escape, finally got McGuire by a dragnet across Mathews County. Nothing daunted, Beall and party in SWAN and RAVEN entered Tangier Inlet and divided up for scouting. A boatload of Beall's raiders was trapped and captured on 14 November and one man hanged; they were terrified into revealing Beall's hideout so that he and the remaining Coast Guardsmen were discovered next day. Secretary of War Stanton wrote that the captured personnel "will be held for the present, not as prisoners of war but as pirates or marauding robbers." Beall escaped the noose but not for long; he figured prominently in the PHILO PARSONS (q.v.) affray only to stand into danger again in the mid-December Buffalo-Dunkirk affair, for which he was secretly executed, 18 February 1865. The Union was not deterred this time by threat of reprisals but made sure Beall was dead before the news of his capture reached the Confederacy.