Monday, January 27, 2014

USS Isaac Smith/ CSS Stono

Last week, I wrote about the crate of Enfield rifles that were recovered from the CSS Stono, a shipwreck in Charleston Harbor, SC. It had been the Union ship Isaac Smith before its capture and it was sunk as a Confederate blockade runner attempting to run into Charleston.

As the Isaac Smith: In January 1862, it joined in an expedition to Savannah and then March to April operated off St. Augustine, Florida. From May to July, it was in the St. John's River by Jacksonville, Florida. In August it went to New York City for repairs and then to the Stono River, South Carolina, until January 30, 1863 when it was captured after being trapped in a crossfire between Confederate shore batteries. It was disabled and 8 killed and 17 wounded before surrendering.

It served in the Confederate Navy in Charleston after that and was wrecked on the breakwater by Fort Moultrie while attempting to run the blockade into the port. The Confederates took what they could off her. The ship and rest of its cargo was burned during the evacuation of Charleston in 1865.

--Old B-Runner

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