- USS Port Royal (1862)
USS "Port Royal" (1862) was a double-ended
steamboat acquired by theUnion Navy during theAmerican Civil War . The steamboat was converted into an armedgunboat by the Navy, and assigned to patrol the rivers and other waterways of theConfederate States of America and to enforce theUnion blockade on the South.Built in New York
"Port Royal", a wooden, double-ended, side-wheel gunboat, was launched at New York
17 January 1862 by Thomas Stock, and commissioned atNew York Navy Yard ,26 April 1862 .Civil War service
Departing New York
4 May , "Port Royal" steamed toHampton Roads, Virginia , to join theNorth Atlantic Blockading Squadron in supporting GeneralGeorge McClellan ’s drive up thepeninsula towardRichmond, Virginia . She engaged Confederate batteries atSewell’s Point ,Virginia ,8 May and a week later participated in the attack onFort Darling ,Drury’s Bluff , on the James River below the southern capital. After GeneralRobert E. Lee ’s brilliantseven day campaign turned back McClellan’s thrust, "Port Royal" shifted operations to theNorth Carolina Sounds. She was part of the Union Naval force which reconnoitered theNeuse River , North Carolina, arid attacked Kingston, 12–16 December . The spring of 1863 found her operating along theFlorida coast. On20 April , a landing party from the ship raidedApalachicola, Florida , capturing cotton and ordnance. On24 May a boat expedition captured sloop "Fashion" laden with cotton in the same area. The Union party also burned a ship repair facility at Devil’s Elbow and destroyed a barge. In ensuing months "Port Royal" continued to patrol the Confederate coast. In August1864 , she served with Rear AdmiralDavid Farragut during the operations inMobile Bay ,Alabama . "Port Royal" then continued patrol duty through the end of the Civil War.Post-war decommissioning
Decommissioned
23 May 1866 , she was sold atBoston, Massachusetts ,3 October 1866 .ee also
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Union Navy
*American Civil War
*Battle of Drewry's Bluff References
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* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/portroyl.htm USS Port Royal (1862-1866)]
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