USS Columbia-- Part 5: Aftermath

During the afternoon of January 16 and much of the following day, Confederates boarded the Columbia to salvage anything they could.  During that time the USS Cambridge and Penobscot remained on station and shelled them.  With a Confederate flag flying defiantly over the ship, they continued until everything of use was stripped off it.

They then burned what was left of the ship.

In May 1909, the Wilmington (N.C.) Dispatch reported that the wreck of the Columbia was still visible in the water a few hundred yards from the Lumina.  In the late 1970s, underwater archaeologists detected a large iron anomaly deep in the sand near the Masonboro Inlet jetty, which were  later identified as the shipwreck of the Columbia.

--Old B-Runner

USS Columbia-- Part 4: Surrender and Imprisonment

Rufus E. Lester claimed that his regiment, the  25th Georgia Infantry, participated in the battle over the USS Columbia.  The January 17, 1863, Wilmington Daily Journal reported that Col. Lamb at Fort Fisher had sent a Whitworth rifled cannon with a range of four miles along with a detachment of cavalry to assist.

As a result of this battle between the USS Cambridge and USS Penobscot and the Confederates,  the Columbia received considerable damage from the crossfire during the morning of January 16.  Between the firing and heavy seas, rescue operations for the Columbia's crew were halted.  Seeing the inevitable, Lt. Couthouy threw most of his cannons overboard.and then hoisted  a white flag of surrender.

Lifeboats began moving the remaining crew ashore around noon.  Twelve officers, including Couthouy and 28 sailors became prisoners of war.  After a brief stay in Wilmington, the officers were moved to a prison camp  in Salisbury, N.C., and the sailors to Richmond, Virginia.

--Old B-Runner

USS Columbia-- Part 3: The Battle Over the Columbia

Despite the crew's best efforts to free the iron-hulled ship, waves pushed her broadside to the shoreline and flooded her boilers.  Flares were fired into the night-time sky, hoping to alert nearby blockaders to come to her aide.

When that failed Lt. Couthouy sent a boat to alert the commander of the squadron, some  20 miles south.  The boat made little headway in the rough seas and it was late the next day when it reached the nearest ship, the USS Cambridge which got underway immediately.

When she arrived, the USS Penobscot was already there and rescue operations underway  They managed to get crew men off the wreck, but a gale on January 15 hampered efforts.

The next morning, Confederate troops arrived and tried to claim the ship.  Confederate sentinels on the beach had probably spotted the wreck on the 15th and alerted the Wilmington command  Soldiers and artillery arrived and took up positions behind the sand dunes at Masonboro Inlet.  They engaged the cannons of the Cambridge and Penobscot.

--Old B-Runner

USS Columbia-- Part 3: A Short Union Service, Ran Aground At Masonboro Inlet

The U.S. government purchased the Columbia at the Key West Prize Court in November and armed her and assigned her to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron after fitting her out at  as a blockader at Hampton Roads, Virginia.  She was armed with six 24-pdr smoothbore cannons and one 30-pdr. rifled cannon and had a crew of 100.

Lt. Joseph Pitty Couthouy was placed in command.

In late December 1962, the USS Columbia headed south and joined the Wilmington, N.C. squadron.  Its new duty was to cruise up and down the coast and intercept blockade runners.  Shortly after dark on January 14, 1863, Lieutenant Couthouy ordered his ship to anchor for the night near what is today Wrightsville Beach.  Unfortunately the leadsman miscalculated the depth until the ship was almost in among the breakers.

Couthouy ordered the engines reversed but it was too late.

The Columbia ran aground full and hard in eight feet of water at Masonboro Inlet.

--Old B-Runner

USS Columbia (1862)-- Part 2: Captured on Maiden Blockade Runner Voyage

From the Wrightsville Beach (NC) Magazine  "Wrightsville Wreck of the USS Columbia" by Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle.

Boats cruising through Masonboro Inlet in North Carolina may not know it, but they are passing over a piece of Wrightsville Beach history.  Buried under 15 feet of sand are the remains of the USS Columbia, a Union gunboat that accidentally ran aground in Mid-January 1863 and sank.

It is one of the more than 80 Civil War shipwrecks along the Cape Fear coast, the highest concentration of these shipwrecks anywhere. Most of them are blockade runners.  And, the Columbia was originally a blockade runner.

It was built by Archibald Denny in Dumbarton, Scotland in July 1862.  The ship was 168 feet long, 25 feet wide with a 14-foot draft.  Unfortunately for her, she was captured on her maiden voyage by the USS Santiago de Cuba off Florida on August 3, 1862.

A Real Short Career As a Blockade Runner.   No Money Made Here.  --Old B-Runner

USS Columbia (1862)-- Part 1: A Captured Blockade Runner

From Wikipedia.

The screw steamer Columbia was a 168-foot blockade runner captured by the USS Santiago de Cuba off the coast of Florida on 3 August 1862.  It was purchased by the U.S. Navy at the Key West Prize Court on 4 November 1862 and commissioned in December under command of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Joseph Pitty Couthouy.

It had a complement of 100 and mounted six 24-pdr. smoothbore cannons and one 30-pdr. rifled gun.

While serving with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington, North Carolina, it ran aground and was wrecked off Masonboro Inlet. on 14 January 1863.  Forty of her crew and her commanding officer were captured by Confederates.

A Short U.S. Navy Career.  --Old B-Runner

North Carolina Timeline, January 1863: Coastal

These are more the coastal part of what was happening.

JANUARY 5--  Expedition to capture Wilmington pilots.

JANUARY 14--  Loss of USS Columbia off Masonboro Inlet.

JANUARY 17-21--  Reconnaissance from New Bern to Pollocksville, Trenton, Young's Crossroads and Onslow.

JANUARY  19--  Skirmish at White Oak Creek.

JANUARY  20--  Skirmish near Jacksonville

JANUARY 27-28--  Reconnaissance on Neuse and Trent rivers.

JANUARY 30-FEBRUARY 3--  Naval expedition to Hertford on Perquimans River.

--Old B-Runner

Ships Sunk Off the North Carolina Coast During the Civil War in January

From the NC Wreckdiving site.   B-R stands for Blockade-Runner.

JANUARY 1865: B-R's Cape Fear and North Heath lost in the Cape Fear River. Probably destroyed after the fall of Wilmington or Fort Fisher.

**  During 1864, in the space of seven days, three B-R's were wrecked: Jan. 4th-- Bendigo at Lockwood's Ferry; Jan. 10th-- Vesta at Tubb's Inlet and Jan. 11th-- Ranger at Lockwood's Folly.

JANUARY 14, 1863: USS Columbia lost in Masonboro Inlet

JANUARY 15, 1862: City of New York, federal transport, lost off Hatteras

JANUARY 15, 1865: CSS Tallahassee, near Cape Fear.

--Old B-Runner

Naval Happenings This Date: January 13th to 14th, 1863: USS Columbia Runs Aground

JANUARY 13TH

A joint Army-Navy expedition from Memphis destroyed buildings in Mound City, Arkansas, in reprisal for Confederate attacks on river steamers.


JANUARY 14TH

Joint Army-Navy expedition attacked Confederate defenses at Bayou Teche, below Franklin, Louisiana.  CSS Cotton City set afire to prevent capture.  During the engagement, a torpedo blew up under the USS Kinsman, snapping the rudder.

Another joint expedition to St. Charles, Arkansas, to follow up on Fort Hindman victory.

USS Columbia ran aground off the coast of North Carolina near Wilmington.  High winds and heavy seas aborted initial attempts to get her off, and by Jan. 17th, when the weather abated, the ship was in Confederate hands.  Union ships opened fire on her and the ship was destroyed, but the ship's commander and ten other crew members were captured.

Old B-R'er