J.J. Ingraham, CSN-- Part 3: Service on the Arctic and Raleigh and What Is a Boatswain?

J.J. Ingraham was listed with the crew of the CSS Arctic of the Wilmington (NC) Naval Station in the June 1862; July 1863; April-Nov. 1864 rosters.  The CSS Arctic was the station's receiving ship evidently.

He was listed as a boatswain.  At one point, the Arctic was under the command of Lt. C.B. Poindexter and W.T. Muse is also listed as commander.

He also appears as a boatswain on the crew list for the CSS Raleigh on Jan., Feb., and March 1862; Jan. to June 1864 rosters.  Lt. Commanding was James W. Alexander.

I had the idea that a boatswain was an enlisted man of high rank and according to Wikipedia, a boatswain is a senior crewman of the deck department and supervises others.

--Old B-Runner

J.J. Ingraham CSN-- Part 2: Service Aboard CSS Chickamauga.

From "British Ships in the Confederate Navy" by Joseph McKenna.

Officers on the CSS Chickamauga 26 September-15 December 1864.  This was when Lt. John Wilkinson took the ship on a raid from Wilmington up the U.S. east coast and captured several prizes.

John Wilkinson, lt. commanding
W,G. Dozier, lst lt and Executive Officer
F.M. Roby, lt.
Clarence L. Stanton, lt.
Clarence Cary, passed midshipman
D.M. Lee, passed midshipman
I.M. Barien, passed midshipman
J.J. Ingraham, boatswain

The cruise left Wilmington on October 28, 1864, and returned to Wilmington on Nov. 19, 1864.

--Old B-R'er

J.J. Ingraham, CSN-- Part 1: Boatswain

From Confederate States Navy Arthur Wyllie.

J.J. Ingraham was appointed to the USNA from Virgibia and entered CSS Navy Jan. 16, 1864 as boatswain.  One source has him as boatswain of the CSS Arctic in 1863.  Served on the steam gunboat CSS Raleigh and ironclad sloop CSS North Carolina. and Wilmington Station in 1864 and later

Boatswain  Confederate States Navy on Jan. 16, 1864.

Boatswain Provisional Confederate States Navy June 2, 1864.Assigned to the ironclad CSS Raleigh 1863-1864, the CSS Arctic and the CSS Chickamauga and Wilmington Naval Station in 1864.

I was unable to find any mention of him as being in the U.S. Naval Academy.

--Old B-Runner

Captain Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, CSN-- Part 2: Confederate Service

Captain Ingraham resigned his commission in the USN on 4 February 1861 to enter the CSN with the rank of captain.  He commanded the Charleston Naval Station from 1862 to the city's evacuation in 1865.

He died in Charleston 16 October 1891.

Four ships in the USN have been named in his honor.

Captain Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham-- Part 1: A Distinguished USN Career

From Geni. site.

Born Dec. 6, 1802.  Died 16 October 1891.  USN and CSN.

Native of Charleston, S.C..  Appointed midshipman 18 June 1812 at age ten.   Served during War of 1812 and Mexican War.  Served with distinction.  Commissioned captain 14 December 1853.

While in command of the sloop-of-war USS St. Louis in July 1853 in the Mediterranean, he interfered with the detention by the Austrian consul at Smyrna. Turkey, of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian who had declared in New York of his intention of becoming and American citizen, and who had been seized and confined on the Austrian ship Hussar.

For his role, Duncan Ingraham was voted the thanks of Congress and awarded the Gold medal.

Afterwards, Ingraham served as Chief of Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrographer of the Navy from 1856-1860.

--Old B-R'er

The Ingraham Family in the Confederate Navy

While looking up information about John Ingraham, I came across a lot of other Ingrahams involved in the confederate Navy.

Someone on Geneaology.com was looking for information on the Ingraham family of Charleston, S.C. and had a list of names:

Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham:  Captain U.S. and CS navies

Henry Laurens Ingraham:  Lieutenant in U.S. and C.S. navies

John Hazlehurst Ingraham--  Midshipman U.S. Navy and Lieutenant C.S. Navy

George H. Ingraham:  Paymaster's Clerk, C.S. Navy

J.J. Ingraham:  Boatswain C.S. Navy

Sure Hope None of Them Had a Statue Put Up in New Orleans.  The Slavery Thing You Know.  --Old B-Runner

Confederate Officer John Hazelhurst Ingraham-- Part 2: Duty in Charleston

Served on receiving ship CSS Indian Chief in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.  Also on the ironclad CSS Chicora and Huntress in the Charleston Squadron in 1862.  Posted abroad in '63 and'64.  Became 1st lieutenant on January 6, 1864.  Back on the CSS Chicora and later commanded a battery in Charleston Harbor in '64.

Promoted to 1st lieutenant Provisional Navy June 2, 1864.

Assigned to Battery Wood on the James River in October 1864.

--Old B-R'er

Confederate Officer John Hazelhurst Ingraham-- Part 1: Native South Carolinan

From the Crew of the CSS Virginia "The CSS Virginia: Sink Before Surrender."

Born in South Carolina and appointed from there to the U.S. Naval Academy.  Tendered resignation Feb. 10, 1861 and accepted four days later.

Appointed midshipman in Confederate States Navy on April 23, 1861.  Served in the Savannah Station in 1861, made acting master on September 24,1861.

Served on CSS Nashville in 1861-1862.  Promoted to second lieutenant and lieutenant for war February 8, 1862.  He was boarding officer of the Nashville when it captured the Robert Gilfillan on Feb. 26, 1862.

Assigned to the ironclad CSS Virginia March 9, 1862.  This was the day that it engaged the USS Monitor in that famous sea battle.

--Old B-Runner

Confederate Receiving Ship CSS Indian Chief-- Part 5

When Charleston, S.C. was evacuated by the Confederates, along with the other naval vessels, the CSS Indian Chief was burned.

Henry F. River, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of dredging Charleston Harbor and environs from 1926-1948 noted that in 1929, that while dredging Town Creek, they struck a large obstruction.  They returned with the snag boat Wateree and using a clamshell bucket and dynamite, removed the remains of the vessel.

He had no doubt that it was the CSS Indian Chief.

--Old B-Runner

Receiving Ship CSS Indian Chief-- Part 4: Used As a Practice Ship for the Hunley

As I mentioned last week, the Confederate submarine Hunley used the Indian Chief for practice, though it seemed most often the ship towed a fake torpedo instead of having one mounted on a long spar in front of it as it had in the Housatonic attack.

On October 15, 1863, a practice was held with inventor and namesake of the sub H.L. Hunley at the helm.  Thisd time it did not resurface on the other side of the Indian Chief.  Minutes went by, then hours.  The Hunley was found under the Indian Chief three days later.

A short time later, the usual commander of the Hunley, Lt. George E. Dixon was on board the Indian Chief raising anew crew.

--Old B-Runner

Receiving Ship CSS Indian Chief-- Part 3: In the Torpedo Service

On November 10, 1862, a Confederate Navy paymaster approved a pay voucher of $12.50 to the Mount Pleasant Ferry Company for the transfer of 52 seamen and their baggage to the Indian Chief.  This would be in keeping with its duty as a temporary home for sailors awaiting transfer.

In 1863, the Indian Chief's role expanded when it became an auxiliary to serve as a workshop and assembly platform for Confederate torpedo boats..

On August 24, 1863, Flag Officer J.R. Tucker ordered Lt. Dozier to have "as many boats fitted with torpedoes as you can hoist up to the davits of the Indian Chief and have them ready for service."  It would seem W.G. Dozier was also put in charge of torpedo boat operations as he is mentioned as "commanding special operations."

--Old B-R

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