Logistics: East Coast - Pacific Squadron

[Fairfield]

Attempting to put in chronological order the naval assignments of a Union naval sailor from Maine has raised a question.

Abijah A. Brown, from a small town in Maine joined the USN (perhaps in the Boston area). According to everything I could find he sailed on the USS Cyane, the USS Lancaster, USS Ohio and USS Savannah. The first 2 ships were part of the Pacific Squadron, the Ohio was in port as a Receiving Ship (Charlestown, MA--which is part of Boston), while the Savannah seems to have been out of New York.

Landsman Brown's discharge paper clearly states that he was discharged from the Cyane; this means that he was discharged on the west coast. In his military hospital record, he says that he was discharged in Brooklyn (probably the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard in NY).
It may be possible that he hitched a ride on another USN vessel back to Brooklyn OR that he simply fuddled the facts.

This raised the question: how would a sailor from New England reach the Pacific in the first place, and how would he have returned home? He was discharged in 1864 which was long before the Panama Canal.

A notation on Historical Data Systems states that he (or his service) was "credited to Rehobeth". He came from the town of Benton, ME and local records are quite decided on that. There is a Rehobeth in Massachusetts but it is onto 50 miles from Boston and I can't find a ship named Rehobeth in USN. Are the records perhaps confused or am I missing something?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

A couple of possible ways: if a ship was joining the Pacific Squadron or leaving it to return to the East Coast, the sailors would have gone right along with it.

Another route was via Panama. Although there wasn't a canal yet, there was a cross-country railroad connecting ports on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

I'd assume "Rehobeth" was the first name of a brother or someone with the same last name, unless that was another name he used. Sounds like a paperwork problem.

 

[John Hartwell]

I've been trying to figure out naval service, too.

From: Massachusetts Soldiers Sailors and Marines in the Civil War, vol. 7, p.637

Residence and occupation left blank. He likely didn't specify a preference at the time, so his enlistment was attributed to "Mass. at large," and later the state credited it randomly to the quota of Rehoboth. I see this frequently with out-of-state soldiers who enlist in Mass. regiments -- but this is the first time in the Navy. USS Lancaster, btw, was flagship of the Pacific Squadron, 1859-66.

From: Rendezvous Reports Index, Civil War (fold3)

Adds USS North Carolina into the mix -- Receiving ship Brooklyn Navy Yard (RSNY). May be transcriber's error as USS Ohio (RSBoston) is not named.

Familysearch.org has his original Enlistment Rendezvous record:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XG34-QM9

Adds no further information, but does confirm his Benton, ME birthplace.

 

[Fairfield]

Thank you...I didn't know about the railway.

One way or another, I'd guess that this man from rural Maine saw a great deal more of the US than his neighbors!

 

[Fairfield]

I've been trying to figure out naval service, too.

From: Massachusetts Soldiers Sailors and Marines in the Civil War, vol. 7, p.637
View attachment 470499
Residence and occupation left blank. He likely didn't specify a preference at the time, so his enlistment was attributed to "Mass. at large," and later the state credited it randomly to the quota of Rehoboth. I see this frequently with out-of-state soldiers who enlist in Mass. regiments -- but this is the first time in the Navy. USS Lancaster, btw, was flagship of the Pacific Squadron, 1859-66.

From: Rendezvous Reports Index, Civil War (fold3)
View attachment 470500
Adds USS North Carolina into the mix -- Receiving ship Brooklyn Navy Yard (RSNY). May be transcriber's error as USS Ohio (RSBoston) is not named.

Familysearch.org has his original Enlistment Rendezvous record:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XG34-QM9

Adds no further information, but does confirm his Benton, ME birthplace.

The Savannah would have been my guess as ship of discharge--so MA Soldiers & Sailors and I are in agreement! But the discharge papers are clear: it was the Cyane. Do you suppose that it is possible that the Savannah (or North Carolina---both NY) were not really a ship of naval service but a transport home (see post #2, @Mark F. Jenkins)? That would explain why the official record says Cyane but the later (50 years later) says Brooklyn.

Thank you for your research--I don't have Fold3.

 

[John Hartwell]

The Savannah would have been my guess as ship of discharge--so MA Soldiers & Sailors and I are in agreement! But the discharge papers are clear: it was the Cyane. Do you suppose that it is possible that the Savannah (or North Carolina---both NY) were not really a ship of naval service but a transport home (see post #2, @Mark F. Jenkins)? That would explain why the official record says Cyane

Possibly. Also, according to Wikipedia, "On 11 February 1862, Savannah was taken out of active service and placed in use as an instruction and practice ship at the United States Naval Academy," which from May 1862, was located at Newport, RI. Was Academy training ship until 1870. I don't see how an enlisted landsman would be aboard for any reason. Perhaps it was another Savannah ... maybe a chartered transport.

 

[Fairfield]

Possibly. Also, according to Wikipedia, "On 11 February 1862, Savannah was taken out of active service and placed in use as an instruction and practice ship at the United States Naval Academy," which from May 1862, was located at Newport, RI. Was Academy training ship until 1870. I don't see how an enlisted landsman would be aboard for any reason. Perhaps it was another Savannah.

Ah, the plot thickens. You are right--the Savannah was pulled from active duly in 2/1862 which is before Landsman Brown enlisted. There wasn't another so-named ship in the U.S. until 1917--however, there were 2 ships named Savannah in CSA. I suppose that it is possible for a Mainer, unable to understand southern accents, to board a Confederate ship whereas the southerners, unable to understand a Maine accent, didn't notice. I read of something similar: a Japanese tourist was said to have spent 2 weeks in Portland, ME when he had intended to go to Portland, OR. But I doubt that scenario: had a local lad done a turn in the Confederate Navy, I'm sure that it have been news!

It is interesting that (prior to being taken out of service) the Savannah served 1st in the Pacific Squadron and later in the Gulf. But I doubt that I am going to pin down all the details. He survived and he came home...that's more than can be said for many.

 

[Fairfield]

Part of logistics question solved: I've just heard back from Landsman Brown's descendant. She writes "I also have letters he wrote from the ship aboard which he sailed around the tip of South America and back again." So he did sail around the Cape! What a long voyage that was--what a logistical nightmare for the USN.

@John Hartwell--I think that you're right about the North Carolina. Brown did answer the 1890 Vets' survey: he mentions the Ohio and the North Carolina (I have a copy of the bios that many vets did at that time--but Brown didn't). The information about the North Carolina is primary whereas the information about the Savannah is secondary -- but this is the data that so many later sources cite. Something to be said about original documentation.

 

[John Hartwell]

We can be darned sure the Navy kept careful records of the exact dates when each man transferred from one ship/post to another. But, with few exceptions, all I've been able to find are lists of ships, sometimes in contradictory order, without dates. I've come to suspect that every time a sailor went aboard a vessel, even for transport from one posting to another, he was booked as "serving" on that vessel, if only a matter of days.