History | |
---|---|
Confederate States | |
Name | Forrest |
Builder | Morgan L. Taylor, New York |
Launched | 1855 |
Acquired | 1861 |
Homeport | Norfolk, Virginia |
Fate | Burned on February 10, 1862 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Steam tug |
Tonnage | 109 tons |
Length | 93 ft (28 m) |
Beam | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
Depth | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
Propulsion | Steam engine, 1 propeller |
Armament |
|
Notes | 1 deck, no mast, round stern, no figurehead (Enrollment no.8: February 29, 1856) |
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 Forrest was originally named the J. A. Smith when launched in 1855. Designed as a canal boat, she was converted to steam in 1856. The Smith was bought at Norfolk in 1861 and renamed Weldon N. Edwards in honor of the President of the North Carolina Secession Convention. She was ordered to Hatteras Inlet by Flag Officer Samuel Barron on July 27, 1861:
from which place you will make every exertion to defend the coasts of that State and harass and annoy the commerce of the enemy. Should you make prizes you will send them either to Norfolk, Va., or some port in North Carolina, as your judgment may determine to be most proper, proceeding in accordance with the law of the Confederate States on the subject of prizes. You will ship any seamen that may offer. [1]
Edwards patrolled Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina under the command of Lt. J. Cooke. In August 1861, Cooke reported to Flag Officer Barron that his ship was "entirely worthless, the boilers worn out and the timbers of his vessel rotten." [2]
By early October, the tug was back in Norfolk, where on the 3rd she received orders from Flag Officer French Forrest to return quickly to Roanoke Island and place the gunboat at the service of local CSN commander William Lynch. [3]
At some point in late 1861, the Edwards name was changed to Forrest. She was part of a five gunboat fleet that attempted to provoke the Union forces at anchor at Hatteras Inlet on November 3, 1861. The Union gunboats did not reply to the Confederate challenge, so the Confederate gunboats retreated with the Curlew towing Forrest back home. [4]
On December 30, 1861, Forrest had to be towed by Curlew to Edenton for repairs. By January 3, 1862, she was back with the rest of the Mosquito Fleet at Roanoke Island. For the rest of the month, Forrest was involved in towing schooners and performing patrolling duties. [5]
Forrest participated in the Battle of Roanoke Island on February 7, 1862, during which her commanding officer, Lt. J. L. Hoole, CSN, was seriously wounded. Furthermore, Forrest was disabled late in the action "by the displacement of her propeller" and towed to Elizabeth City, N.C., for repairs. [6] There, three days later, while out of water on the marine railway, she was burned to prevent capture by Union forces.
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 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.
USS Southfield was a double-ended, sidewheel steam gunboat of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was sunk in action against the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle during the Battle of Plymouth (1864).
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.
The Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries was the first combined operation of the Union Army and Navy in the American Civil War, resulting in Union domination of the strategically important North Carolina Sounds.
The opening phase of what came to be called the Burnside Expedition, the Battle of Roanoke Island was an amphibious operation of the American Civil War, fought on February 7–8, 1862, in the North Carolina Sounds a short distance south of the Virginia border. The attacking force consisted of a flotilla of gunboats of the Union Navy drawn from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough, a separate group of gunboats under Union Army control, and an army division led by Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The defenders were a group of gunboats from the Confederate States Navy, termed the Mosquito Fleet, under Capt. William F. Lynch, and about 2,000 Confederate soldiers commanded locally by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The defense was augmented by four forts facing on the water approaches to Roanoke Island, and two outlying batteries. At the time of the battle, Wise was hospitalized, so leadership fell to his second in command, Col. Henry M. Shaw.
USS Stars and Stripes was a 407-ton steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy and put to use by the Union during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Elizabeth City of the American Civil War was fought in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Roanoke Island. It took place on 10 February 1862, on the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The participants were vessels of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy's Mosquito Fleet; the latter were supported by a shore-based battery of four guns at Cobb's Point, near the southeastern border of the town. The battle was a part of the campaign in North Carolina that was led by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and known as the Burnside Expedition. The result was a Union victory, with Elizabeth City and its nearby waters in their possession, and the Confederate fleet captured, sunk, or dispersed.
CSS Curlew was an iron-hull North Carolina Sounds paddlewheel steamboat that was taken into the Confederate Navy in 1861. It was run aground at Fort Forrest and burned in the battle for Roanoke Island on February 8, 1862. Its wreck was discovered in 1988 and archaeologically investigated in 1994.
Black Warrior is the name of a Confederate two-masted schooner that participated in the defense of Roanoke Island in North Carolina during the Civil War. Its brief wartime career ended with its burning at Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
USS Valley City was a 190-ton steamer acquired by the Union Navy for service in the American Civil War.
USS John L. Lockwood was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was needed by the Navy to be part of the fleet of ships to prevent blockade runners from entering ports in the Confederacy.
USS Underwriter was a 341-ton sidewheel steamer that was purchased for military use by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Shawsheen was a steam operated tugboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Hetzel was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
CSS Appomattox was a small propeller-driven steamer used early in the war by the Confederate Navy to defend the sounds of northeastern North Carolina. After participating in the battle for Roanoke Island, it was burned to prevent capture on February 10, 1862, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
CSS Fanny was a small propeller-driven steam tug used by the Confederate States Navy to defend the sounds of northeastern North Carolina in the American Civil War. Originally armed as a gunboat and operated by the Union, she was captured in October 1861 by the Confederate Navy, and later lost at the Battle of Elizabeth City in February 1862. Due to being used as an observation balloon platform, Fanny is sometimes credited with being the first self-propelled aircraft carrier.
USS Henry Brinker was a small steamship acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was placed into service as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of ports of the Confederate States of America.
Burnside's North Carolina Expedition was a series of engagements fought along the North Carolina Coast between February and June 1862. The expedition was part of Winfield Scott's overall Anaconda Plan, which aimed at closing blockade-running ports inside the Outer Banks. The amphibious operation was carried out primarily by New England and North Carolina troops under Brig. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and assisted by the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Captain Louis M. Goldsborough.
CSS Junaluska, also known as Younalaska, was a screw steamer tugboat that saw service with the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860, she was purchased by the Confederates at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1861. Serving off of the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, she participated in the capture of the gunboat USS Fanny on October 1, 1861, and later in a raid on a Union campsite. She continued to serve along the North Carolina coast until August 1862, when she was sold and broken up.