| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Launched | 1848 |
| Acquired | 24 June 1861 |
| Commissioned | 1861 |
| Decommissioned | 1865 |
| Fate | Sold, 25 October 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 363 tons |
| Length | 110 ft (34 m) |
| Beam | 27 ft 4 in (8.33 m) |
| Draft | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
| Complement | 23 |
| Armament | one 32-pounder smoothbore gun |
USS Charles Phelps was a ship acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as an auxiliary support vessel, delivering coal to Union steamers blockading Confederate ports.
Charles Phelps was built in 1848 at New London, Connecticut, as a whaler; purchased at New Bedford, Massachusetts, 24 June 1861; and commissioned later in the year, Acting Master W. F. North in command. Assigned as a coal supply ship for the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Charles Phelps served in Hampton Roads, Virginia, throughout the Civil War, resupplying ships enforcing the Union blockade in the area. Charles Phelps was sold at New York City 25 October 1865.
The Anaconda Plan is the name applied to a strategy outlined by the Union Army for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized a Union blockade of the Southern ports and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. Because the blockade would be rather passive, it was widely derided by a vociferous faction of Union generals who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war and likened it to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim. The snake image caught on, giving the proposal its popular name.
USS Advance, the second United States Navy ship to be so named, was later known as USS Frolic, and was originally the blockade runner Advance captured by the Union Navy during the latter part of the American Civil War. She was purchased by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She also served as dispatch ship and supply vessel when military action eventually slowed.
John Newland Maffitt was an officer in the Confederate States Navy who was nicknamed the "Prince of Privateers" due to his success as a blockade runner and commerce raider in the U.S. Civil War.
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 Chickamauga, originally the blockade runner Edith, was purchased by the Confederate States Navy at Wilmington, North Carolina in September 1864. In September, when she was nearly ready for sea, the Confederate Army sought unsuccessfully to retain her at that place for use as a troop and supply transport. On October 28, 1864, she put to sea under Lieutenant John Wilkinson (CSN) for a cruise north to the entrance of Long Island Sound, thence to St. George, Bermuda, for repairs and coal. She took several prizes before returning to Wilmington on November 19.
CSS Sumter, converted from the 1859-built merchant steamer Habana, was the first steam cruiser of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She operated as a commerce raider in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic Ocean against Union merchant shipping between July and December 1861, taking eighteen prizes, but was trapped in Gibraltar by Union Navy warships. Decommissioned, she was sold in 1862 to the British office of a Confederate merchant and renamed Gibraltar, successfully running the Union blockade in 1863 and surviving the war.
The first USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was named for the San Jacinto River, site of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861.
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 Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were under the control of the United States Army, also called the Union Army.
USS Winona was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for service with the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Winona was heavily armed, with large guns for duels at sea, and 24-pounder howitzers for shore bombardment. Winona saw significant action in the Gulf of Mexico and in the waterways of the Mississippi River and was fortunate to return home safely after the war for decommissioning.
USS Vanderbilt was a heavy (3,360-ton) passenger steamship obtained by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War and utilized as a cruiser.
USS Eastport was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a convoy and patrol vessel on Confederate waterways.
USS New Berne was a wooden-hulled, propeller-driven steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Pampero was a large and capacious ship-rigged vessel purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a storeship to provision the fleet and as a collier to supply the fleet’s need for coal for their steam engines.
USS Peterhoff was a British ship captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Condemned as a blockade runner, she served the Union Navy's struggle against the Confederate States of America as a gunboat.
The third USS Union was a heavy (1,114-ton) steamer with a powerful 12-inch rifled gun purchased by the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Susan Ann Howard was a schooner requisitioned from the prize court by the Union Navy during the Union blockade of the American Civil War.
The blockade runners of the American Civil War were seagoing steam ships that were used to get through the Union blockade that extended some 3,500 miles (5,600 km) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederate states were largely without industrial capability and could not provide the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the industrial north. To meet this need blockade runners were built in Scotland and England and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies that the Confederacy desperately needed, in exchange for cotton that the British textile industry needed greatly. To penetrate the blockade, these relatively lightweight shallow draft ships, mostly built in British ship yards and specially designed for speed but incapable of carrying much cotton, had to cruise undetected, usually at night, through the Union blockade. The typical blockade runners were privately owned vessels often operating with a letter of marque issued by the Confederate States of America. If spotted, the blockade runners would attempt to outmaneuver or simply outrun any Union ships on blockade patrol, often successfully.
SS Syren was a privately owned iron-hulled sidewheel steamship and blockade runner built at Greenwich, Kent, England in 1863, designed for outrunning and evading the Union ships on blockade patrol around the Confederate States coastline during the American Civil War. Owned by the Charleston Importing and Exporting Company, Syren made her first run on 5 November 1863, importing supplies for the Confederacy from Nassau to Wilmington. Syren completed a record 33 runs through the Union blockade, the most of any blockade runner, before invading Union forces captured her while Syren was berthed at Charleston Harbor.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.