CSS Albemarle was a steam-powered casemate ironclad ram of the Confederate Navy, named for an estuary in North Carolina which was named for General George Monck, the first Duke of Albemarle and one of the original Carolina Lords Proprietor.
CSS Oregon was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Built in 1846 for the Mobile Mail Line, she transported mail between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, before the war. In 1861, she was seized by the Governor of Louisiana, Thomas Overton Moore, and served as a blockade runner before being selected for use by the Confederate Army. After transferring men and supplies to Ship Island, she was formally converted into a gunboat and armed with four cannon. Remaining behind on Lake Pontchartrain when many Confederate warships were transferred up the Mississippi River, Oregon served in the Mississippi Sound and Pass Christian areas. She took part in several minor actions involving USS New London, two of which resulted in the Confederates moving into shallow water to avoid close-range action, and the third ending when the Confederate ships abandoned the Pass Christian area. In April 1862, Union pressure confined her and other Confederate ships to Lake Pontchartrain. Later that month, with Union forces closing in on New Orleans, Oregon was sunk as a blockship. Her wreck was removed and destroyed in the early 1870s.
CSS Tennessee was a casemate ironclad ram built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. She served as the flagship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, commander of the Mobile Squadron, after her commissioning. She was captured in 1864 by the Union Navy during the Battle of Mobile Bay and then participated in the Union's subsequent Siege of Fort Morgan. Tennessee was decommissioned after the war and sold in 1867 for scrap.
CSS Baltic was an ironclad warship that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. A towboat before the war, she was purchased by the state of Alabama in December 1861 for conversion into an ironclad. After being transferred to the Confederate Navy in May 1862 as an ironclad, she served on Mobile Bay off the Gulf of Mexico. Baltic's condition in Confederate service was such that naval historian William N. Still Jr. has described her as "a nondescript vessel in many ways". Over the next two years, parts of the ship's wooden structure were affected by wood rot. Her armor was removed to be put onto the ironclad CSS Nashville in 1864. By that August, Baltic had been decommissioned. Near the end of the war, she was taken up the Tombigbee River, where she was captured by Union forces on May 10, 1865. An inspection of Baltic the next month found that her upper hull and deck were rotten and that her boilers were unsafe. She was sold on December 31, and was likely broken up in 1866.
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.
USS Ceres was a small 150-long-ton (152 t) steamboat acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and used in the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
The CSS Beaufort was an iron-hull gunboat that served in North Carolina and Virginia during the American Civil War. Originally launched as Caledonia at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1854, the ship was owned by James Cathcart Johnston. It saw use as a tugboat on the Dismal Swamp Canal. On July 9, 1861, Beaufort was commissioned into the navy of the state of North Carolina for use in the American Civil War. First serving on the North Carolina coast, Beaufort was present at the battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City in February 1862. Escaping the Confederate defeat at Elizabeth City via the Dismal Swamp Canal, Beaufort reached Norfolk, Virginia, where she joined the James River Squadron.
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.
USS Varuna was a screw steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Under construction in 1861, she was purchased incomplete on 31 December. After being commissioned in February 1862, she traveled to join the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Varuna was present when Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut led an attack against Confederate positions at Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip on 24 April. During the action, Varuna ran ahead of the other Union ships, and was engaged in a chase with the Louisiana gunboat Governor Moore. After closing in on the Union ship, Governor Moore rammed Varuna twice, with the gunboat CSS Stonewall Jackson adding a third blow. Varuna sank within 15 minutes, but Farragut was able to capture the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
USSWhitehead, a screw steamer built in 1861 at New Brunswick, New Jersey, served as a gunboat in the United States Navy 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.
USS Morse was a ferryboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
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.
USS Isaac N. Seymour, also referred to variously as Seymour, I. N. Seymour and J. N. Seymour, was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy for use as a gunboat during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a littoral ship in fire support, supply and blockading roles.
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.
John Pyne Bankhead (1821–1867) was an officer in the United States Navy who served during the American Civil War, and was in command of the ironclad USS Monitor when it sank in 1862. He went on to command three other ships.
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 Winslow was a sidewheel steamer that was used as a gunboat in the early stages of the American Civil War. Launched in 1846 as Joseph E. Coffee or J. E. Coffee, the vessel was used in the coastal merchant trade. In 1861, she was purchased at Norfolk, Virginia, and was equipped as a military vessel by the state government of North Carolina. Known as Winslow or Warren Winslow in military service, the vessel took part in commerce raiding against Union shipping, capturing 16 vessels from May to August 1861. In July, she was transferred from serving for the state of North Carolina to the Confederate States Navy. During the Battle of Forts Hatteras and Clark on August 28, Winslow landed reinforcements for Confederate-held Fort Hatteras, and then evacuated survivors the next day, with the Union gaining control of the position. As part of an operation to rescue the crew of the wrecked French corvette Prony, Winslow struck the wreck of a lightship on November 7. The Confederates rescued Winslow's crew and burned the wreck.
Confederate States of America