CSS Bienville

Last updated
History
Flag of the Confederate States of America (1861-1863).svg Confederate States
NameBienville
Namesake Bienville
Owner Confederate States Navy
BuilderJohn Hughes and S. D. Porter
FateScuttled.
General characteristics
Type Sidewheel steamer
Armament5 guns

CSS Bienville [1] was a light draft steamer "substantially built" of yellow pine and white oak under contract by John Hughes and Co., at Bayou St. John, La., in 1861-62. Collaborating and inspecting for the Government in the Hughes yard was S. D. Porter, Acting Constructor, CSN. She was launched in February 1862 and delivered on 5 April. Her commanding officer was Lt. C. B. Poindexter, CSN. On 21 April 1862, as the battle of New Orleans impended, Bienville was still without a crew, consequently her officers were obliged to destroy her in Lake Pontchartrain to prevent capture.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate States Navy</span> Military unit

The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War against the United States's Union Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate States Marine Corps</span> Military unit

The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC), also referred to as the Confederate States Marines, was a branch of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. It was established by an act of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States on March 16, 1861. The Corps' manpower was initially authorized at 45 officers and 944 enlisted men, and was increased on September 24, 1862, to 1,026 enlisted men. The organization of the Corps began at Montgomery, Alabama, and was completed at Richmond, Virginia, when the capital of the Confederate States was moved to that location. The headquarters and main training facilities remained in Richmond throughout the war, located at Camp Beall on Drewry's Bluff and at the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The last Marine unit surrendered to the Union army on April 9, 1865, with the Confederacy itself capitulating to the U.S. federal government a month later.

CSS <i>Manassas</i>

CSS Manassas, formerly the steam icebreaker Enoch Train, was built in 1855 by James O. Curtis as a twin-screw towboat at Medford, Massachusetts. A New Orleans commission merchant, Captain John A. Stevenson, acquired her for use as a privateer after she was captured by another privateer CSS Ivy. Her fitting out as Manassas was completed at Algiers, Louisiana; her conversion to a ram of a radically modern design made her the first ironclad ship built for the Confederacy.

CSS <i>Jamestown</i> Steamboat

CSS Jamestown, originally a side-wheel, passenger steamer, was built at New York City in 1853, and seized at Richmond, Virginia in 1861 for the Virginia Navy during the early days of the American Civil War. She was commissioned by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) the following July, and renamed CSS Thomas Jefferson but was generally referred to as Jamestown, after Jamestown, Virginia.

CSS <i>Ellis</i>

CSSEllis was a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy and the United States Navy during the American Civil War. It was lost during a raid while under command of famed Navy officer Lieutenant William B. Cushing.

CSS <i>Drewry</i>

CSSDrewry was a gunboat of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. This wooden gunboat had a foredeck protected by an iron V-shaped shield. Classed as a tender, she was attached to Flag Officer French Forrest's James River Squadron sometime in 1863 with Master Lewis Parrish, CSN, in command.

CSS Raleigh was a steam-powered Civil War casemate ironclad. She was fitted with a spar torpedo instead of an iron ram and was built in 1863–1864 by the Confederate States Navy at Wilmington, North Carolina. While she was being built her commander was Lieutenant John Wilkinson (CSN). She was put into commission on April 30, 1864 under the command of Lieutenant J. Pembroke Jones, CSN.

The CSS Beaufort was an iron-hull gunboat that served in North Carolina and Virginia during the Civil War.

USS <i>Water Witch</i> (1851) US Navy gunboat

The third USS Water Witch was a wooden-hulled, sidewheel gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is best known as the ship fired on by Paraguay in 1855. In 1864 she was captured by the Confederate States Navy, and subsequently was taken into that Navy as CSS Water Witch.

CSS <i>Resolute</i>

CSSResolute was a tugboat built in 1858 at Savannah Georgia as the Ajax which served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.

CSS Jackson was a gunboat of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

CSS <i>Stonewall Jackson</i>

CSS Stonewall Jackson was a cotton-clad sidewheel ram of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

USS <i>Bienville</i> Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Bienville was a 1,558 long tons (1,583 t) (burden) wooden side-wheel paddle steamer acquired by the Union Navy early in the American Civil War. She was armed with heavy guns and assigned to the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.

USS <i>Calhoun</i> (1851) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Calhoun was a captured Confederate steamer and blockade runner acquired by the Union Navy from the prize court during the American Civil War.

CSS Forrest was a wooden-hulled Confederate gunboat that saw action in the North Carolina sounds in 1861 to 1862. Despite being considered "worn out", she saw continuous service until destroyed after the battle of Elizabeth City in February 1862.

The Confederate States Naval Academy was an undergraduate academy in Richmond, Virginia of the Confederate States of America that educated and commissioned officers of the Confederate States Navy. The CS Naval Academy was established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on April 21, 1862 and graduated a number of midshipmen before being disbanded on May 2, 1865 in Abbeville, South Carolina subsequent to the fall of the Confederate States.

CSS <i>General Lovell</i>

CSS General Lovell was a cotton-clad sidewheel ram of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

CSS <i>Sampson</i>

CSS Sampson, sometimes spelled Samson, was employed as a tugboat, prior to her purchase by the Confederate Government in 1861.

CSS Carondelet was a sidewheel steamer that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction for the vessel started in 1861, and she was launched on January 25, 1862, and commissioned on March 16. Her sister ship was CSS Bienville. On April 4, Carondelet, along with CSS Oregon and CSS Pamlico, took part in a small naval action near Pass Christian against USS New London, USS John P. Jackson, and the troop transport USS Henry Lewis. Carondelet suffered damage to her wheel during the fight, and likely fired the only two shots that struck John P. Jackson. Later that month, with the Confederates abandoning New Orleans, Louisiana, Carondelet was scuttled by her crew in either Lake Pontchartrain, the Tchefuncte River, or the Bogue Falaya River.

CSS Livingston was constructed at New Orleans, La., during 1861, a ferry or towboat converted to a warship on the ways by John Hughes and Co. In January 1862 she was taken up the Mississippi River to Columbus, Ky., to be fitted for service and during much of that year operated in the vicinity of Island No. 10, with Comdr. R. F. Pinkney, CSN, in command. She formed part of the flotilla, at one time numbering 17 vessels, under command of Brig.

References

  1. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. United States Government Publishing Office. 1921. p. 249. Retrieved April 3, 2022.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from Bienville. Naval History and Heritage Command.