USS Sidney C. Jones (1861)

Last updated
History
US Naval Jack 36 stars.svg US flag 34 stars.svgUnited States
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: date unknown
Acquired: 7 October 1861
Commissioned:
Out of service: 15 July 1862
Struck: 1862 (est.)
Fate:
  • ran aground and destroyed
  • 15 July 1862
General characteristics
Displacement: 254 tons
Length: 98' 0"
Beam: 27' 0"
Draught: depth of hold 7' 8"
Propulsion: schooner sail
Speed: not known
Complement: not known
Armament:
  • one 13” mortar
  • two 32-pounder guns

USS Sidney C. Jones (1861) was a 254-ton schooner purchased by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War.

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel with fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. The most common type has two masts, the foremast being shorter than the main. While the schooner was originally gaff-rigged, modern schooners typically carry a Bermuda rig.

Union Navy United States Navy during the American Civil War

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.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

Contents

The Navy outfitted Sidney C. Jones with a heavy 13-inch mortar, for use in bombardment, and assigned her to operations on the Mississippi River where Union forces were attempting to obtain control of the river in order to split the Confederate States of America in two.

Mississippi River largest river system in North America

The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Confederate States of America (de facto) federal republic in North America from 1861 to 1865

The Confederate States of America, commonly referred to as the Confederacy and the South, was an unrecognized country in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865. The Confederacy was originally formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—in the Lower South region of the United States, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves.

Commissioned in New York in 1862

Sidney C. Jones, a wooden-hulled schooner, was purchased by the Navy at New York City on 7 October 1861; and was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 29 January 1862, Acting Master Robert Adams in command.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and in the U.S. state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Civil War operations

Assigned to the Mississippi mortar flotilla

Although originally fitted out for blockade duty, the schooner was assigned to the mortar flotilla which was established to support Flag Officer David Farragut's New Orleans, Louisiana, campaign.

David Farragut United States Navy admiral

David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay usually paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" in U.S. Navy tradition.

A 13-inch mortar was added to her armament, and Sidney C. Jones sailed for the Gulf of Mexico. She reached Ship Island, Mississippi, early in March and entered the Mississippi River through Pass a l'Outré on the 18th.

Gulf of Mexico An Atlantic Ocean basin extending into southern North America

The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as the "Third Coast", in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Exactly a month later, the mortar schooners -- commanded by Comdr. David Dixon Porter -- moved upstream to predesignated positions below Forts St. Philip and Jackson and opened fire on the Southern positions. They continued the bombardment intermittently until shortly after midnight on 24 April, when Farragut dashed by the forts.

David Dixon Porter United States Navy admiral

David Dixon Porter was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.

Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip

The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip was the decisive battle for possession of New Orleans in the American Civil War. The two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River south of the city were attacked by a Union Navy fleet. As long as the forts could keep the Federal forces from moving on the city, it was safe, but if they were negated, there were no fall-back positions to impede the Union advance.

During the race by the Southern batteries, the mortars increased their rate of fire to their maximum rapidity to distract the Confederate cannoneers, and they maintained the pace until the Union fleet was safely out of range of the Southern batteries.

Vicksburg operations

Soon after New Orleans surrendered, Porter took his mortar flotilla to blockade stations off Mobile Bay. However, in June, they returned to the Mississippi and ascended the river to positions which enabled them to shell Vicksburg.

On 28 June, the mortars bombarded the Confederate batteries as Farragut's steamships dashed by the Southern fortress to meet Flag Officer Davis's Western Flotilla. The mortars remained below Vicksburg while Farragut was above attempting to arrange for joint Army-Navy operations against the stronghold.

Sidney C. Jones runs aground and is destroyed

During this period, Sidney C. Jones ran aground and was still high and dry on 15 July when Confederate ironclad ram, Arkansas, raced down the Yazoo River, by Farragut's ships, and took refuge under the fortress' guns.

Sidney C. Jones was destroyed to prevent her falling into Confederate hands.

See also

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References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.

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