History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Laid down | date unknown |
Launched | date unknown |
In service | circa August 1862 |
Out of service | date unknown |
Stricken | date unknown |
Fate | not known |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | not known |
Length | not known |
Beam | not known |
Draught | not known |
Propulsion | sail |
Speed | varied |
Complement | 3 |
Armament | not known |
USS Breaker was a schooner captured 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.
Early in the Civil War the Confederate Government acquired the small schooner Breaker and used her as a pilot boat at Pass Cavallo and as a general utility vessel in the inland waters along the Texas coast. The vessel was active at least as early as July 11, 1862, for on that day she carried a Confederate officer who was observing the operations of Union warships in Corpus Christi Bay.
A month later, Act. Vol. Lt. John W. Kittredge, who commanded the bark Arthur as well as the other Union forces afloat in the area, left his ship and entered Aransas Bay in the tender Corypheus accompanied by the gunboat Sachem and the schooner Reindeer. There they encountered Breaker, returning from a reconnaissance mission with a detachment of Confederate soldiers embarked. The Union ships gave chase and forced Breaker ashore. Her crew set her afire before abandoning ship, but a Federal boarding party quickly put out the flames.
Kittredge refloated the schooner and added her to his flotilla as another tender to Arthur. In mid-September, Breaker accompanied Corypheus on an expedition to Corpus Christi, Texas, to secure the release of the family of Judge Edmund J. Davis, a prominent political leader who had remained loyal to the Union after his state seceded and had escaped into exile to serve the Union cause.
Kittredge went ashore under a flag of truce at Corpus Christi where the Confederate commanding officer refused to permit Mrs. Davis to leave Texas, but promised to refer the matter to higher authority. While waiting a decision from San Antonio, Texas, Kittredge took his two ships to Flour Bluff, where Belle Italia joined them. The next morning, they fired upon several small vessels which escaped into the Laguna Madre, the shallow waters of which forbade the Union ships to follow.
Kittredge landed a small party and took three prisoners before returning to Corypheus. The following morning, Kittredge again went ashore where he and his party of seven men were captured by a large group of Southern soldiers. Fear of harming Kittredge and his men prevented Breaker and her consorts from firing on the enemy ashore.
Breaker was later used to store and issue provisions and ammunition to the small ships of the Union flotilla that operated along the Texas coast between Cavallo and Corpus Christi Passes. The last reference to her in the records is dated November 9, 1862. Her service may have ended shortly afterward.
USS Katahdin was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War.
The first USS Miami was a side-wheel steamer, double-ender gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Sciota was a Unadilla-class gunboat built on behalf of the United States Navy for service during the Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat, with both a 20-pounder rifle for horizontal firing, and two howitzers for shore bombardment, and assigned to the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
USS Henry Janes was a mortar schooner acquired by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was used as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of ports 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.
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.
USS Mound City was a City-class ironclad gunboat built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the American Civil War. Originally commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, she remained in that service until October 1862. Then the flotilla was transferred to the Navy and she became part of the Mississippi River Squadron, where she remained until the end of the war.
The second Navy vessel to bear the name Sachem, this screw steamer was built in 1844 at New York City, where it was purchased by the Navy on 20 September 1861.
USS Aroostook was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Aroostook was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Kanawha was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for 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.
Little Rebel was a cotton-clad ram that had been converted from a Mississippi River steamer to serve as the flagship of the Confederate River Defense Fleet in the American Civil War. Sent from New Orleans to defend against the Federal descent of the Mississippi, she was among the force that engaged vessels of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla at the Battle of Plum Point Bend on May 10, 1862. On June 6, she again was involved in an action with the Federal gunboats, this time at the Battle of Memphis. In the battle, a shot from a Federal gun pierced her boiler, disabling her, and she was then pushed aground by the Federal ram USS Monarch and captured.
USS Corypheus (1862) was a schooner captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Brockenborough was a sloop captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Belle Italia (1862) was a sloop captured 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.
USS Arthur was a bark 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.
USS Antona (1863) was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a dispatch boat and gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of the Confederate States of America.
USS Polaris, originally called the America, was an 1864-screw steamer procured by the Union Navy as USS Periwinkle during the final months of the American Civil War. She served the Union Navy's struggle against the Confederate States as a gunboat.
USS T. A. Ward (1861) was a 284-ton schooner was purchased by the Union Navy during the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Corpus Christi was fought between August 12 and August 18, 1862, during the American Civil War. United States Navy forces blockading Texas fought a small land and sea engagement with Confederate forces in and around Corpus Christi Bay and bombarded Corpus Christi. Union forces defeated Confederate States Navy ships operating in the area but were repulsed when they landed on the coast.
The Texas Marine Department (1861–1865) was formed in the State of Texas shortly after Texas came under blockade from the Union Navy in 1861. It operated under the control of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.