USS Signal (1862)
USS Signal tinclad, circa 1863–64
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| History | |
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| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1862 in Wheeling, West Virginia |
| In service: | circa 22 October 1862 |
| Fate: | Burned 5 May 1864 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 190 tons |
| Length: | 157 ft (48 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Draft: | 1 ft 10 in (0.56 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Armament: |
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USS Signal (1862) — a small 190-ton steamship — was acquired during the second year of the American Civil War by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat. She also served other types of duty, such as that of dispatch vessel and convoy escort.
The first ship to be named Signal by the Navy—a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamer built in 1862 at Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia)—was purchased by the U.S. Navy on 22 September 1862 at Saint Louis, Missouri.
Although no record of her commissioning has been found, it is known that she was in operation on 22 October 1862, when she departed Carondelet, Missouri and headed down the Mississippi River to join in the campaign against the Confederate river fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant John Scott was mentioned as her commanding officer in an order issued on 14 November and presumably commanded the ship from the start of her service.
Signal's first weeks were devoted to duty as a dispatch vessel. On 29 November, she and Marmora entered the Yazoo River on a reconnaissance expedition and ascended that stream some 21 miles. From time to time, riflemen fired upon the ships from the river banks; but, in each instance, the ships shelled and dispersed the attackers. That afternoon, the ships returned to the Mississippi unharmed.
Signal's work for the day steaming up and down shallow, winding streams in hostile territory was a sample of the service she would perform throughout her career. She and Marmora again ascended the Yazoo on 11 December to obtain information needed for a projected joint Army-Navy expedition in that area to outflank Vicksburg, Mississippi. They discovered Confederates had placed torpedoes (mines) in the channel and returned to report and to volunteer to destroy the explosive devices.
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