USS Marblehead (1861)
USS Marblehead
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Marblehead |
| Builder: | G. W. Jackman, Newburyport, Massachusetts |
| Launched: | 16 October 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 8 March 1862 |
| Decommissioned: | 4 September 1868 |
| Fate: | Sold, 30 September 1868 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Unadilla-class gunboat |
| Displacement: | 691 tons |
| Tons burthen: | 507 |
| Length: | 158 ft (48 m) (waterline) |
| Beam: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) (max.) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 200 IHP 30-in bore by 18 in stroke horizontal back-acting engines; single screw |
| Sail plan: | Two-masted schooner |
| Speed: | 10 kn (11.5 mph) |
| Complement: | 114 |
| Armament: |
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USS Marblehead was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Marblehead was launched by G. W. Jackman, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 16 October 1861; and commissioned on 8 March 1862; Lieutenant Commander Somerville Nicholson in command.
First assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Marblehead took part in operations along the York and Pamunkey Rivers in Virginia. On 1 May 1862, she participated in the shelling of Confederate positions at Yorktown, supporting General George McClellan's drive up the Peninsula toward Richmond.
In an unusual engagement, the Marblehead was docked in Pamunkey River, Confederate cavalry commander JEB Stuart ordered a detachment of southerners to attack the docked ship, but were discovered by Union sailors and marines, who opened fire - Confederate horse artillery, under Major John Pelham unlimbered his guns and fired on Marblehead - as the ship got under way and the blueoats called back onto the ship, Pelham's guns raced the ship, firing at it as long as the horse can keep up with it.
The Marblehead escaped, and was reassigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and commenced patrols off the southern east coast in search of Confederate vessels. With monitor Passaic in early February 1863, she reconnoitered the Wilmington River, located in Georgia, in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the ironclad ram CSS Atlanta (ex-Fingal). Later in the month, on the 23rd, she took possession of the prize Glide and her cargo of cotton which had been captured by the Coast Survey schooners Caswell and Arago at the entrance of Tybee Creek, in Georgia, while en route to Nassau.
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