What About That CSS United States C.S.R.S.?

In the last post, I wrote that Sinclair was stationed on this ship as a surgeon.  Well, let's face it, a ship commissioned in the Confederate Navy with a name like the United States might seem a bit strange.  So, I did a little more research on it.

From Wikipedia.

USS UNITED STATES

This ship certainly had a long and distinguished history in the United States Navy and was one of the  six original frigates authorized by the USS Congress under the Naval Act of 1794.  This means she was a sister ship of the famed USS Constitution.

She was built in Philadelphia at a cost of $299,336 and launched on 10 May 1797.

She saw service in the Quasi War with France, but did not participate in the First Barbary War.  In the War of 1812, she had a famed battle with the HMS  Macedonian.

--Old B-Runner

Robert Blake, Black Medal of Honor Recipient-- Part 2: A Surprise on the Stono

Robert Blake was born into slavery  in Virginia.  He somehow ended up South Carolina.  In June 1862, his owner's plantation was burned during  a Union expedition  up the Santee River.  About 400 slaves from his plantation were taken aboard a Union ship as contraband.  They were sent to North Island in Winyah Bay, S.C..

While on North Island Blake answered the call for twenty single men to serve on the USS Vermont, an old U.S. ship of the line serving as a receiving ship at Port Royal, South Carolina.

By December 1863, he had been transferred to the USS Marblehead and was serving as a steward to Lt.Cmdr.  Richard Worsam Meade.  Early in the morning of December 25, while the Marblehead was cruising in the Stono River, the ship came under fire of a Confederate howitzer at Legareville on Johns Island.

Meade jumped from his bed and ran onto the quarterdeck to give the order to return fire, Blake followed him, handed him his uniform, and urged him to change out of his night clothes.

--Old B-Runner

USS Pennsylvania, Ship of the Line: Alexander DeBree Served On It

From Wikipedia.

As near as I have been able to determine, Alexander M. DeBree served on at least three ships before the Civil War.  The first was the USS Pennsylvania, then the USS Preble and the USS Cyane.

The USS Pennsylvania was ordered in 1816 to combat English ships-of-the-line.  It was built at Philadelphia Navy Yard and laid down in 1821 but not launched until 1837 and commissioned later that year.  It was one of the ships burned at Norfolk when the Navy Yard fell to Confederates 20 April 1861.

It was 3,105 tons, 210 feet long with a 56.9 foot beam.  Crewed by 1,100 officers and men, it mounted sixteen 8-inch shell guns and 104 32-pdrs..

It went to Norfolk in 1838 and its crew was transferred to the USS Columbia.  It then remained in ordinary until 1842 when it became Norfolk's receiving ship which station it remained until it was burned to prevent capture.

--Old B-R'er

CSS Arctic-- Part 1: Somewhat of a Mystery Ship

I have been writing about J.J. Ingraham who at least at times was stationed as a boatswain on the CSS Arctic.  There is not a lot written about the CSS Arctic at the Wilmington (N.C.) Naval Station in the Cape Fear River.

Civil War Talk had a thread running on it at one time "CSS Arctic--what do we know?"  Not much.

A person wrote that he knew it was a floating battery with a "nifty" name, but that was about it.

Another commented that it was a receiving ship and at one time 38 Confederate Marines were stationed there after the loss of their ship, the CSS Raleigh.

Wikipedia lists it as an ironclad floating battery, burned in 1865, but had no article on it.

--Old B-R'er

Receiving Ship CSS Indian Chief-- Part 2: Picket Boat Headquarters Duty

The CSS Indian Chief became a receiving ship in 1862.  I found no mention of what it was before that.  A Confederate naval veteran after the war claimed he was assigned picket boat duty in Charleston in 1863 and wrote that headquarters was in the "full rig ship Indian Chief."  So, the Indian Chief also served as headquarters for the harbor picket ships.

A "full rig ship" is one with three masts and square-rigged ship.

On October 22, 1862, Lt. W.G. Dozier was relieved of command of the Confederate steamer Huntress and given command of the Indian Chief, replacing Lt. Ingraham.

Lt. Dozier was native South Carolinian and had been in the US Navy before the war and served as lieutenant and acting master of the frigate USS Richmond

As war approached, he resigned his commission and offered his services to his native state and was appointed to coast and harbor police before his transfer to the Confederate Navy.

--Old B-Runner

Some More on Civil War Receiving Ships-- Part 1

From "The Day the Johnboat Went Up to the Mountains: Stories From my Twenty Years in South Carolina Maritime Archaeology" by Carl Naylor.

Civil War Receiving Ships

Receiving ships functioned as barracks for transient sailors, as "boot camps" for training new sailors and headquarters for other functions.  Invariably older vessels, no longer useful as warships and no longer seaworthy became receiving ships.

The next stop generally for these ships was scrapping.

Confederate receiving Ships:

CSS United States at Norfolk

CSS Arctic at Wilmington

CSS Indian Chief at Charleston

CSS  Sampson at Savannah

CSS Dalman at Mobile

CSS St. Philip at New Orleans

--Old B-R'er

Civil War Receiving Ships-- Part 1

In the last post on the CSS Indian Chief in Charleston Harbor, I mentioned that it was a receiving ship.  I, at one time, believed that receiving ships were posted in harbors to receive ships into the the environs, register them and meet foreign dignitaries.  That is not so.

From the U.S. Militaria Forum.

A receiving ship is any vessel serving as a point of induction into the naval service for new recruits.  Naval vessels are not built specifically for this duty.  They are relegated to it, normally at the end of their careers.

After the ship's condition is such that it had best remain in port and/or at anchor, they become receiving ships.

Modifications might include the removal of weaponry and the erecting of housing structures on the main deck.

Usually upon release from receiving duties, the ship is decommissioned or turned over to state naval militias.

Another person commented says a receiving ship was where sailors reported after training and before their permanent assignment and not a place of induction.

--Old B-Runner

CSS Indian Chief-- Part 2: Connection to the Hunley

In 1864, crowds gathered on Charleston's Cooper River docks to watch the H.L. Hunley make successful dives under the Charleston receiving ship CSS Indian Chief.  The submarine would drag a dummy torpedo, a, empty cannister, at the end of a 100+-foot rope.

The submarine would then dive under it and reappear minutes later on the other side.  Sometimes, the practces were held several times in one day.

However, on October 15, after another such run, the Hunley, this time commanded by inventor Horace L. Hunley, it failed to surface on that other side.

All hands were lost.

--Old B-R'er

The CSS Indian Chief-- Part 1: Receiving Ship in Charleston Harbor

In the last post, I mentioned a Confederate ship named the Indian Chief in connection to Joseph Ridgaway, a crew member of the doomed submarine Hunley..  I didn't know anything about it so did some more research.

The CSS Indian Chief was the receiving ship for Charleston and many naval recruits served on it.  The ship was also involved in mine laying operations and was described as a schooner.  It was burned during the Confederate evacuation of Charleston on February 18, 1865 in Town Creek.

In 1929, its wreck was leveled with dynamite and clamshell dredging..

--Old B-Runner

USS United States/CSS United States-- Part 2: Civil War Service

From 1849 to the Civil War, the United States lay in ordinary at Norfolk, rotting away. On April 20, 1861, Confederates seized the Navy Yard at Norfolk and the ship was not burned before sinking under the belief it was just a worthless hulk. However, Confederates were desperate for any kind of a ship and had it pumped out and raised by April 29th.

It was commissioned the CSS United States, but often referred to as the CSS Confederate States. In June, it was fitted out as a receiving ship with a 19-gun deck battery for harbor defense.

It was sunk in the Elizabeth River as an obstruction when the Confederates abandoned the Navy Yard in May 1862. The ship's timbers were still strong as evidenced by the loss of a whole box of axes in the attempt to scuttle. Eventually, holes had to be bored in the hull to accomplish it.

The Union raised the ship and towed it to Norfolk where it remained until March 1864 when the Bureau of Construction and Repair decided to break her up and sell the wood.

Quite the Ship. --Old B-Runner

Lt. Peter Murphey's Obituary-- Part 1

Obituary that appeared in the August 14, 1876 Mobile (Ala) Register.

Peter Murphey died in the water, drowning after an attack of apoplexy.  He was buried near Paul Ravesic's place.  The funeral was done to the rites of Spiritualism, which Murphey believed in.  Apoplexy is bleeding from internal organs which often causes sudden loss of consciousness.  Mr. Murphey was evidently in the water when he had the apoplexy and ended up drowning.

Murphew was born in North Carolina in 82 and died at age 64 years and 2 months.

He was married twice, his first wife from North Carolina and the second from Philadelphia.

At the outbreak of the war, he was commanding the Receiving Ship USS Pennsylvania at Norfolk Navy Yard and was stationed there until it was evacuated.

Once in Confederate service, he was ordered to report to Commodore Lynch at Roanoke Sound, North Carolina and then ordered by Admiral Buchanan to Mobile.

More to Come.  --Old B-R'er