From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol. III, 1968, Navy 

Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History 

Division, Washington, D.C.



HARTFORD



The capital of the state of Connecticut.



ScSlp:

t. 2,900;

l. 22;

b. 44';

dr. 17' 2";

s. 13.5 k.;

cpl. 302;

a. 20 9" D.sb., 2 20-pdr. P.r., 2 12-pdrs.



HARTFORD was launched 22 November 1858 by the Boston Navy Yard; sponsored

by Miss Carrie Downes, Miss Lizzie Stringham, and Lt. G. H. Preble; and

commissioned 27 May 189, Captain Charles Lowndes in command. 



After shakedown out of Boston, the new screw sloop of war, carrying Flag

Officer Cornelius K. Stribling, the newly appointed commander of the East

India Squadron sailed for Cape Hope and the Far East. Upon reaching the

Orient, HARTFORD relieved MISSISSIPP I as flagship. In November she

embarked the American Minister to China, John Elliott Ward, at Hong Kong

and carried him to Canton, Manila, Swatow, Shanghai, and other Far Eastern

ports to settle American claims and to arrange for favorable consideration

o f the Nation's interests. Her presence, as a symbol of American sea

power, materially contributed to the success of Ward's diplomatic efforts



With the outbreak of the Civil War, HARTFORD was ordered home to help

preserve the Union. She departed the Strait of Sunda with DACOTAH 30

August 1861 and arrived Philadelphia 2 December to be fitted out for

wartime service. She departed the Delaware Cape s 2 January as flagship of

Flag Officer David G. Farragut, the commander of the newly created West

Gulf Blockading Squadron. 



An even larger purpose than the important blockade of the South's Gulf

Coast lay behind Farragut's assignment. Late in 1861, the Union high

command decided to capture New Orleans, the South's richest and most

populous city, to begin a drive of sea-based p ower up the Father of

Waters to meet the Union Army which was to drive down the Mississippi

valley behind a spearhead of armored gunboats. Other operations,"

Secretary of the Navy Welles warned Farragut, "must not be allowed to

interfere with the great ob ject in view the certain capture of the city

of New Orleans." 



HARTFORD arrived 20 February at Ship Island, Miss., midway between Mobile

Bay and the mouths of the Mississippi. Several Union ships and a few Army

units were already in the vicinity when the squadron's flagship dropped

anchor at the advanced staging area or the attack on New Orleans. In

ensuing weeks a mighty fleet assembled for the campaign. In mid-March

Comdr. David D. Porter's flotilla of mortar schooners arrived towed by

steam gunboats. 



The next task was to get Farragut's mighty, deep-draft, saltwater ships

across the bar, a constantly shifting mud bank at the mouth of each pass

entering the Mississippi. At the cost of endless toil and a month's delay,

Farragut managed to get all of his ships but COLORADO across the bar and

into the river where Forts St. Philip and Jackson challenged further

advance. A line of hulks connected by strong barrier chains, six ships of

the Confederate Navy-including ironclad MANASSAS and unfinished but potent

ially deadly ironclad LOUISIANA, two ships of the Louisiana Navy, a group

of converted river steamers called the Confederate River Defense Fleet,

and a number of fire rafts also stood between Farragut and the great

Southern metropolis. 



On 16 April, the Union ships moved up the river to a position below the

forts, and Porter's gunboats first exchanged fire with the Southern guns.

Two days later his mortar schooners opened a heavy and methodical barrage

which continued for 6 days. On the 21st, the squadron's Fleet Captain,

Henry H. Bell, led a daring expedition up river and, despite a tremendous

fire on him, cut the chain across the river. In the wee hours of 24 April,

a dull red lantern on HARTFORD's mizzen peak signaled the fleet to get

underway and steam through the breach in the obstructions. A wild night

action of far reaching consequence followed. As the ships closed the forts

their broadsides answered a withering fire from the Confederate guns.

Porter's mortar schooners and gunboat s remained at their stations below

the southern fortifications covering the movement with rapid fire. 



HARTFORD dodged a run by ironclad ram MANASSAS; then while vainly

attempting to avoid a fireraft, grounded in the swift current near Fort

St. Phillip. When the burning barge was shoved alongside the flagship,

only Farragut's gallant leadership and the dis ciplined training of the

crew saved HARTFORD from being destroyed by flames which at one point

engulfed a large portion of the ship. Meanwhile the sloop's undaunted

gunners never slackened the pace at which they poured broadsides into the

forts. As her fi refighters snuffed out the flames, the flagship backed

free of the bank. 



When Farragut's ships had run the gauntlet and passed out of range of' the

fort's guns, the Confederate River Defense fleet made a daring but futile

effort to stop their progress. In the ensuing melee, they managed to sink

converted merchantman VARUNA, th e only Union ship lost during the

historic night. 



The next day, after silencing Confederate batteries which had opened on

them from earthen works, a few miles below New Orleans, HARTFORD and her

sister ships anchored off the city early in the afternoon. A handful of

ships and men had won a great decisive victory that secured the South

could not win the war. 



The conquest of New Orleans deprived the South of its greatest center of

wealth, commerce and industry as well as her most important outlet to the

sea. It was also the first thrust of the mighty pincer movement which

ultimately cut the South in two doomin g it to defeat. 



Early in May, Farragut ordered several of his ships up stream to clear the

river and followed himself in HARTFORD on the 7th to join in the conquest

of the valley. Defenseless, Baton Rouge and Natchez promptly surrendered

to the Union ships and no signifi cant opposition was encountered until 18

May when the Confederate commandant at Vicksburg replied to Cmdr. S. P.

Lee's demand for surrender: ". . . Mississippians don't know and refuse to

learn, how to surrender to an enemy. If Commodore Farragut or Briga dier

General Butler can teach them, let them come and try." 



When Farragut arrived on the scene a few days later, he learned that heavy

Southern guns mounted on the bluff at Vicksburg some 200 feet above the

river could shell his hips while his own guns could not be elevated enough

to hit them back. Since insuffici ent troops were not available to take

the fortress by storm, the Flag Officer headed downstream 27 May leaving

gunboats to blockade it from below. 



Orders awaited Farragut at New Orleans, where he arrived on the 30th,

directing him to open the river and join the Western Flotilla and stating

that Lincoln himself had given the task highest priority. The Flag Officer

recalled Porter's mortar schooners f rom Mobile and dutifully got underway

up the Mississippi in HARTFORD 8 June. 



The Union Squadron was assembled just below Vicksburg by the 26th. Two

days later the Union ships, their own guns blazing at rapid fire and

covered by an intense barrage from the mortars, suffered little damage

while running past the batteries. Flag Offic er Davis, commanding the

Western Flotilla, joined Farragut above Vicksburg on the 30th; but again,

naval efforts to take Vicksburg were frustrated by a lack of troops.

"Ships," Porter commented, ". . . cannot crawl up hills 300 feet high, and

it is that p art of Vicksburg which must be taken by the Army." On 22 July

Farragut received orders to return down the river at his discretion and he

got underway on the 24th, reached New Orleans in 4 days, and after a

fortnight sailed to Pensacola, Fla., for repairs. 



The flagship returned to New Orleans 9 November to prepare for further

operations in the unpredictable waters of the Mississippi. The Union Army,

ably supported by the Mississippi Squadron, was pressing on Vicksburg from

above, and Farragut wanted to assi st in the campaign by blockading the

mouth of the Red River from which supplies were pouring eastward to the

Confederate Army. Meanwhile, the South had been fortifying its defenses

along the river and had erected powerful batteries at Port Hudson, La. 



On the night of 14 March Farragut in HARTFORD and accompanied by six other

ship, attempted to run by these batteries. However, they encountered such

heavy and accurate fire that only the flagship and ALBATROSS, lashed

alongside, succeeded in running the g auntlet. Thereafter HARTFORD and her

consort patrolled between Port Hudson and Vicksburg denying the

Confederacy desperately needed supplies from the West. 



Porter's Mississippi Squadron, cloaked by night, dashed downstream past

the Vicksburg batteries 18 April, while General Grant marched his troops

overland to a new base also below the Southern stronghold. April closed

with the Navy ferrying Grant's troops across the river to Bruinsburg

whence they encircled Vicksburg and forced the beleaguered fortress to

surrender on the Fourth of July. 



With the Mississippi River now opened, Farragut turned his attention to

Mobile, Ala., a Confederate industrial center still building ships and

turning out war supplies. The Battle of Mobile took place 5 August 1864.

Farragut, with HARTFORD as his flagship , led a fleet consisting of 4

ironclad monitors and 14 wooden vessel. The Confederate naval force was

composed of newly built ram TENNESSEE, Admiral Buchanan's flagship, and

steamers SELMA, MORGAN, and GAINES and backed by the powerful guns of

Forts Morga n and Gaines in the Bay. From the firing of the first gun by

Fort Morgan to the raising of the white flag of surrender by TENNESSEE

little more than 3 hours elapsed-but 3 hours of terrific fighting on both

sides. The Confederates had only 32 casualties, w hile the Union forces

suffered 335 casualties, including 113 men drowned in TECUMSEH when the

monitor struck a torpedo and sank. 



Returning to New York December 13, HARTFORD decommissioned for repairs a

week later. Back in shape in July 1865, she served as flagship of a

newly-organized Asiatic Station Squadron until August 1888 when she

returned to New York and decommissioned. Recom missioned 9 October 1872,

she resumed Asiatic Station patrol until returning home 19 October 1875.

In 1882, as Captain Stephen B. Luce's flagship of the North Atlantic

Station HARTFORD visited the Caroline Islands, Hawaii, and Valparaiso,

Chile, before ar riving San Francisco 17 March 1884. She then cruised in

the Pacific until decommissioning 14 January 1887 at Mare Island, Calif.,

for apprentice sea-training use. 



From 1890 to 1839 HARTFORD was laid up at Mare Island, the last 5 years of

which she was being rebuilt. On 2 October 1899, she recommissioned, then

transferred to the Atlantic coast to be used as a training and cruise ship

for midshipmen until 24 October 1912 when she was transferred to

Charleston, S.C., for use as a station ship. 



Again placed out of commission 20 August 1928, HARTFORD remained at

Charleston until moved to Washington, D.C., 18 October 1938. On 19 October

1945, she was towed to the Norfolk Navy Yard and classified as a relic.

HARTFORD sank at her berth 20 November 1 958. She was subsequently

dismantled. Major relics from her are at the National Navy Memorial

Museum, Washington (D.C.) Navy Yard, and elsewhere.