USS Smith-Briggs
Sketch of the Smith-Briggs gunboat
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Smith-Briggs |
| Cost: | $20,000 |
| Laid down: | January 1862 |
| Launched: | May 3, 1862 |
| Commissioned: | March 1863 |
| Fate: | Grounded and destroyed, February 1, 1864 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Hudson River tugboat |
| Displacement: | 237 long tons (241 t) |
| Length: | 135 ft (41 m) |
| Beam: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draft: | 4 ft (1.2 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Armament: |
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USS Smith-Briggs was a Union Army gunboat destroyed during the American Civil War.
The Smith-Briggs was originally a Hudson River tugboat built in East Albany, New York, for Samuel Schuyler and the Schuyler Steam Towing Company, and named after an agent for the Hudson River Railroad Company. The ship was laid down in January 1862, and launched on May 3, 1862, at a cost of $20,000, and made her maiden trial voyage on September 27, 1862. The side-wheel steamer was powered with a Maginnis-built 36-inch cylinder with a 9-foot stroke with 30 pounds steam and a speed of 30 RPMs. It was 135 feet long and had a draft of 4 feet.
The private ship was leased by the U.S. government for $200 a day and converted into a gunboat at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Portsmouth, Virginia, in March 1863. It was outfitted with armor plating and two guns: a 32-pound Parrott rifle and a 42-pound banded rifle gun.
In the spring of 1863, the Smith-Briggs participated in the Siege of Suffolk, and on June 5, 1863, it participated in a combined expedition with the Commodore Morris, Commodore Jones, and the transport Winnissimet as they ascended the Mattaponi River to attack Confederate ordnance works at the town of Walkerton.
On June 23, 1863, the Smith-Briggs and other boats – including the Commodore Barney, Commodore Morris, Jesup, Morse, and Western World – formed an escort flotilla to provide support for a week-long mission to land a Union force at White House plantation along the Pamunkey River in Virginia.
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