CSSSelma was a steamship in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She served in the Confederate Navy first as Florida, and later as Selma. She was captured by the Union Navy steamer USS Metacomet during the Battle of Mobile Bay. She served as USS Selma until the end of the war, when she was decommissioned and sold for use as a merchant ship.
Selma was built as the coastwise packet Florida at Mobile, Alabama in 1856 for the Mobile Mail Line. She was inspected and accepted by CaptainLawrence Rousseau, CSN, on April 22, 1861, acquired by the Confederacy in June, cut down and strengthened by hog frames and armed as a gunboat — all, apparently, in the Lake Pontchartrain area. Her upper deck was plated at this time with ⅜ inch iron, partially protecting her boilers, of the low pressure type preferred for fuel economy and greater safety in battle. CSS Florida is cited on November 12, 1861 as already in commission and serving CommodoreG. N. Rollins' New Orleans defense flotilla under command of LieutenantCharles 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."
Service as Florida
Although much of Florida's time was spent blockaded in Mobile, she made some forays into Mississippi Sound, two of which alarmed the United States Navy's entire Gulf command. On October 19, 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 USSMassachusetts, "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 58 pounds.
The first sortie by Florida caused consternation. Captain Levin M. Powell, USN, in command at Ship Island — soon to be main advance base for the New Orleans campaign — wrote to Flag OfficerWilliam McKean, October 22;
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 Pamilico, in contrasting white dress and laden with some 400 troops, "the black rebel steamer" Florida on December 4 had a brush with USSMontgomery in Horn Island Pass that caused jubilation in the Southern press. Commander T. Darrah Shaw of Montgomery, finding his 10-inch shell gun no match for Florida's long-range rifles, signaled Commander 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 James Edward Jouett to relieve him and forwarded Shaw's action report to United States Secretary of the NavyGideon Welles, noting, "It needs no comment." Crowed Richmond Dispatch on December 14, 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."
On February 5, 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 February 13.
By the following year, Selma, CSS Morgan and CSS 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 15 men about mid-February.
Selma is captured by Metacomet
At the crucial Battle of Mobile Bay, the largest naval engagement of the Civil War on August 5, 1864, Selma, captained by Lt. Peter Umstead "Capt. Pat" Murphey, was one of three small Confederate gunboats present. She particularly annoyed Rear AdmiralDavid Farragut, USN by a steady, raking fire as she stood off USSHartford's bow. After passing the forts, Farragut ordered gunboat USSMetacomet, captained by James Jouett, cast loose from Hartford to pursue Selma. After an hour-long running fight, Murphey, unable to escape to shallow water, had to surrender to the faster, more heavily armed Metacomet. Selma lost 7 killed and 8 wounded, including Murphey, who suffered an injured arm. The Selma was the last Confederate ship to surrender at the Battle of Mobile Bay.
That evening, Admiral Farragut commissioned the prize gunboat as USS Selma and placed her under the command of Arthur R. Yates, USN. Five days later, Selma joined in the Union Navy's bombardment of Fort Morgan. On August 16, she participated in a reconnaissance expedition up the Dog River.
In January 1865, Selma was transferred to New Orleans where she served until decommissioned on July 16, 1865. Sold at auction the same day to G. A. Hall, Selma was redocumented for merchant service on August 17, 1865 and foundered on June 24, 1868 south of Galveston, Texas, off the mouth of the Brazos River.
The first USS Arizona was an iron-hulled, side-wheel merchant steamship. Seized by the Confederate States of America in 1862 during the American Civil War, she was captured later the same year by the United States Navy.
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.
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay: Morgan, Gaines and Powell. Farragut's order of "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" became famous in paraphrase, as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
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.
The second USS Metacomet was a wooden sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was named for Metacomet, a war chief of the Wampanoag Indians.
The first USS Miami was a side-wheel steamer, double-ender gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
The Confederate blockade runner CSS Florida, was built at Greenpoint, New York in 1859. Considered for service as a gunboat three times during the American Civil War, the vessel was captured by the Union Navy on April 6, 1862. The ship was taken into service by the Union and renamed USS Hendrick Hudson.
CSSMorgan was a partially armored gunboat of the Confederate States Navy in the American Civil War.
Rear Admiral James Edward Jouett, known as "Fighting Jim Jouett of the American Navy", was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. His father was Matthew Harris Jouett, a notable painter, and his grandfather was Revolutionary War hero Jack Jouett.
USS Richmond was a wooden steam sloop in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Albatross was a screw steamer rigged as a three-masted schooner acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat with heavy guns and used in the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
USS Kennebec was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the U.S. Navy following the outbreak of the American Civil War. She was named for the Kennebec River.
USS Winnebago was a double-turret Milwaukee-class river monitor, named for the Winnebago tribe of Siouan Indians, built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The ship participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, during which she was lightly damaged, and the bombardments of Forts Gaines and Morgan as Union troops besieged the fortifications defending the bay. In early 1865, Winnebago again supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama. She was placed in reserve after the end of the war and sold in 1874.
The second United States Navy vessel to bear the name, USS Sachem was a screw steamer built in 1844 at New York City, where the U.S. Navy purchased her on 20 September 1861.
USS Itasca was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the U.S. 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.
USS Octorara 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 Confederates from trading with other countries.
USS Calhoun was a captured Confederate steamer and blockade runner acquired by the Union Navy from the prize court during the American Civil War.
USS Massachusetts was a large steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War.
USS Ascutney was a large steamer with powerful guns acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways. Post-war, she performed some steamship service for the Navy.
The order of battle for the Union and Confederate forces at the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864.
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