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Concepción (ship)

CSS Robert E. Lee
CSS Robert E. Lee, 1862
History
United Kingdom
Name: Giraffe
Owner: Burns Line
Builder: J&G Thomson's Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard, Govan, Glasgow
Launched: 16 May 1860
Confederate States
Name: Robert E. Lee
Operator: Confederate States Navy
Commissioned: 1862
Fate: Captured by U.S. Navy, 9 November 1863
United States
Name: Fort Donelson
Operator: Union Navy
Acquired: 9 November 1863
Commissioned: 29 June 1864
Decommissioned: 17 August 1865
Fate: Sold October 1865 and renamed Isabella
Chile
Name: Concepción
Acquired: 1866
Commissioned: 1866
Decommissioned: 1868
Fate: Sold 1 May 1868
General characteristics
Displacement: 900 tons
Length: 283 ft (86 m)
Beam: 20 ft (6.1 m)
Draft: 10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h)
Armament:
  • 5 × 12-pounder cannons
  • 2 × 30-pounder cannons

CSS Robert E. Lee was a blockade runner for the Confederate States during the American Civil War that later served in the United States Navy as USS Fort Donelson and in the Chilean Navy as Concepción.

Robert E. Lee was originally the merchant ship Giraffe, a schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engined paddle-steamer with two stacks, built by J&G Thomson's Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard at Govan in Glasgow, Scotland, and launched on 16 May 1860 as a fast Glasgow-Belfast packet for the Burns Line. Alexander Collie & Co. of Manchester acquired her for their blockade-running fleet, but were persuaded by renowned blockade-runner Lieutenant John Wilkinson (CSN) to sell her to the Confederate States Navy for the same £32,000 just paid.

Her first voyage was into Old Inlet, Wilmington, North Carolina in January 1863 with valuable munitions and 26 Scottish lithographers, eagerly awaited by the Confederate Government bureau of engraving and printing. On January 26, Union intelligence maintained she "could be captured easily" at anchor in Ossabaw Sound, but this was not to be for another 10 months. Running out again, Robert E. Lee started to establish a nearly legendary reputation for blockade running by leaving astern blockader USS Iroquois.


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