USS Baltimore (1861)

The third USS Baltimore was a side-wheel steamer in the United States Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Baltimore.

History
Name: USS Baltimore
Launched: 1848
Acquired: by capture, April 21, 1861
Commissioned: April 1861
Decommissioned: May 22, 1865
Fate: Sold, June 24, 1865
General characteristics
Type: Sidewheel steamer
Tonnage: 500 long tons (508 t)
Length: 200 ft (61 m)
Beam: 26 ft 8 in (8.13 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft (3 m)
Armament: 1 × 32-pounder smoothbore gun

Baltimore was built in 1848 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, captured on the Potomac River between Aquia Creek and Washington, D.C., by the Army on April 21, 1861, turned over to the Navy Department, and commissioned in April 1861, Lieutenant J. H. Russell in command.

Service history

During the American Civil War the Baltimore was used as an ordnance vessel between Washington Navy Yard and nearby ammunition depots. She was also used to ferry Army troops across the Potomac River. On 19 May 1861, she ran aground at the mouth of the Potomac River and was attacked by a Confederate States Navy ram. Nine people were killed. She was refloated with assistance from USS Mount Vernon (1859).[1] She saw some service with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron as a dispatch and supply vessel. On May 9, 1862 she transported President Abraham Lincoln, and Secretaries Edwin M. Stanton and Salmon P. Chase, from Fort Monroe to Norfolk, Virginia in an attempt to get a close view of the destroyed Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.

Baltimore was turned over to Norfolk Navy Yard on May 22, 1865 and sold on June 24, 1865 at Washington DC.

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References
  1. "The Civil War in America". Belfast News-Letter (14082). Belfast. June 4, 1861.
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