USS Seminole (1859)
| History | |
|---|---|
 
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| Name: | USS Seminole |
| Builder: | Pensacola Navy Yard |
| Launched: | 25 June 1859 |
| Sponsored by: | Ms. Mary Dallas |
| Commissioned: | 25 April 1860 |
| Decommissioned: | 11 August 1865 |
| Fate: | Sold, 20 July 1870 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Screw sloop-of-war |
| Displacement: | 801 long tons (814 t) |
| Length: | 188 ft (57 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail and steam engine |
| Complement: | 120 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 1 × 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren gun, 1 × 30-pounder Parrott rifle, 6 × 32-pounder guns, 1 × light 12-pounder gun |
The first USS Seminole was a steam sloop in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Seminole was launched by the Pensacola Navy Yard on 25 June 1859; sponsored by Ms. Mary Dallas; and was commissioned there on 25 April 1860, Commander Edward R. Thomson in command.
Seminole sailed for Brazil on 16 July 1860 and served on the Brazil Station until called home soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War. The ship departed Rio de Janeiro on 23 May 1861 and reached Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 6 July.
Rapidly fitted out for blockade duty, Seminole was ordered on 16 July to proceed to Hampton Roads. After reporting for duty in the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the ship sailed, via Charleston, South Carolina, for Savannah, Georgia. Upon exhausting her coal on blockade duty off that port, the ship sailed for Hampton Roads on 19 August, towing the prize schooner Albion, and arrived off Newport News on the 23rd. A week later, on 30 August, the Confederate tug Harmony attacked the Union sailing sloop of war USS Savannah there. Seminole was in the vicinity and returned the fire, but her shells did not reach the Southern ship.
On 9 September, Seminole and USS Rescue sailed for the Potomac River to check the threat posed by the concentration of a large Confederate force on the south bank of the river below Alexandria. On the 21st, a boat from Seminole captured the sloop Maryland in the Potomac. Four days later, Seminole and USS Jacob Bell engaged a Confederate battery at Freestone Point, Virginia. After repairs at the Washington Navy Yard, Seminole returned to Hampton Roads on 16 October where she awaited the arrival of Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont, commander of the newly established South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
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