USS Tennessee-- Part 2: 49ers, Walker, Captured Then ReCaptured

During the California Gold Rush, the Tennessee transported "49ers" to the eastern shore of Panama and Nicaragua  It delivered the last group of "immigrants" volunteering as mercenary soldiers for William Walker in Nicaragua and after his defeat, took hundreds of his men back home.

After that, the Tennessee regularly served the Vera Cruz, Mexico-New Orleans  route, transporting large numbers of immigrants and Mexican gold and silver.  She was tied up at New Orleans when the Civil War began.

She was seized and became the CSS Tennessee with intentions of being a blockade runner.  She never was able to fulfill that and was captured by Union forces when New Orleans fell on 1862, and was put into Union service as the USS Tennessee and temporarily served as  Farragut's flagship at the conclusion of the Mississippi River Campaign.

--Old B-Runner