USS Ossipee (1861)

History


Name:	USS Ossipee
Namesake:	The Ossipee River
Builder:	Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	June 1861
Launched:	16 November 1861
Sponsored by:	Mrs. McFarland
Commissioned:	6 November 1862
Decommissioned:	3 July 1865
Recommissioned:	27 October 1866
Decommissioned:	30 November 1872
Recommissioned:	10 October 1873
Decommissioned:	25 May 1878
Recommissioned:	28 January 1884
Decommissioned:	12 November 1889
Fate:	Sold 25 March 1891
General characteristics
Type:	Screw sloop-of-war
Displacement:	1,240 long tons (1,260 t)
Length:	207 ft (63 m)
Beam:	38 ft (12 m)
Draft:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Depth of hold:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine
Speed:	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	141 officers and enlisted
Armament:	1 × 100-pounder Parrott rifle 1 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren gun 3 × 30-pounder Dahlgren rifles 6 × 32-pounder guns 1 × heavy 12-pounder smoothbore gun 1 × 12-pounder rifle

The first USS Ossipee was a wooden, screw sloop of war in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for the Ossipee River of New Hampshire and Maine.

Ossipee's keel was laid down in June 1861 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine; launched 16 November 1861; sponsored by Mrs. McFarland, wife of the editor of the Concord Statesman; and commissioned 6 November 1862 Lieutenant Commander Robert Boyd in command. Ossipee was one of four sister ships which included USS Adirondack, USS Housatonic and USS Juniata.

Ten days later Captain John P. Gillis took command of the ship and she got underway for Hampton Roads to join the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in which she served until departing Newport News, Virginia, 18 May 1863 to join the West Gulf Blockading Squadron off Mobile, Alabama. She captured schooner Helena there 30 June and with USS Kennebec seized steamers James Battle and William Bagley in the Gulf of Mexico on 18 July. The former, "the finest packet on the Alabama River...altered to suit her for a blockade runner," was laden with cotton and rosin while the latter carried cotton which they hoped to sell abroad.