Naming Union ships

[Dave Wilma]

I am not at all conversant in the history of the U.S. Navy in the ACW. Did the Navy name any of its ships during the way after seceded states or geographic features in those states. The CSA had an Alabama and a Shenandoah, but did the Union have a Mississippi or a James or a Savannah? The official position was that the states had never seceded so all the names were fair game.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

The U.S. Navy contained a number of vessels named after Southern states, cities, and geographical features from before the war (for instance, USS Mississippi, USS Richmond, USS Florida), and they kept those names after the war began. I'm trying to think of any examples named after the war commenced, though... I'll have to think about that.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Looks like a handful, yes... Yazoo, Chattanooga, and Shenandoah, for instance. There were also vessels purchased or captured that kept their former names, such as South Carolina, Virginia, and Selma.

However, the majority of newly-constructed U.S. vessels during the war had Native American -derived names, principally from the North and West.

 

[AndyHall]

It was South Carolina, a converted merchant steamer, that established the blockade off Texas in July 1861.

 

[USS Cumberland]

The obsolete 74-gun Ship of the Line USS Alabama was launched in Portsmouth NH in 1864 with a last minute name change to the USS New Hampshire. (Her keel was laid in 1819!) She served as a store-ship and was later Re-renamed the USS Granite State.

 

[Carronade]

The Unionist position was that the southern states had never actually left the Union, so it would be appropriate to continue using southern American names. Indeed to avoid them would be a de facto recognition that something had happened.

It was also customary in most navies to retain the name of captured ships, for example Queen of the West, Atlanta, and Tennessee, unless the name was considered unsuitable, e.g. CSS Robert E. Lee became USS Fort Donelson.

 

[Republican Blues]

There was also Savannah, Augusta, and State of Georgia. Both Augusta and State of Georgia were former merchant men, purchased and armed by the Navy. Augusta was later purchased after decommissioning by the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah and renamed Magnolia. State of Georgia, originally built for the Philadelphia and Savannah Steamship Company and was commissioned on 20 November 1861. She had a good career, and was sold at auction on 25 October 1865 to a Captain G. Wright, and renamed the Andrew Johnson. She was lost when she was driven ashore in a hurricane in October of 1866 at Currituck Inlet, North Carolina.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Augusta was later purchased after decommissioning by the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah and renamed Magnolia.

10 Sept 1864

Cuba. USS Magnolia, Acting Lieutenant Cheesman, seized the steamer Matagorda at sea off Cape San Antonio with a cargo of cotton. Matagorda was carrying no papers and flying no colors.

Magnolia, a wooden, seagoing, sidewheel steamer built by J. Simonson of Greenpoint, New York for Charles Morgan's Southern Steamship Company. Launched in 1854, the ship was impressed as a public vessel in New Orleans, Louisiana, 15 January 1862, by Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell, CSA, acting for the Confederacy's Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. The South's original plan to arm her as a ram was dropped in favor of turning her into a blockade runner. In 1858 Floridian cattle man Captain James McKay Sr. of Tampa made a contract with the Morgan Line. This contract allowed McKay to use Magnolia twice a month at a price of $1,500 each run in order to ship cattle to Cuba, making Magnolia the first of many ships to be used in the same way. For this reason, the introduction of Spanish doubloons to Florida can be traced back to the trading trips made by Magnolia. Magnolia made at least two successful runs to nearby British islands in 1861 carrying large cargoes. On 19 February 1862, while trying to escape from Pass a' l'Outre in the Gulf of Mexico with a large cargo of cotton and rosin, in a dense fog, she was detected and chased by Union ships USS Brooklyn and USS Mercedita. After a daylong pursuit, Magnolia was intercepted and captured by USS South Carolina near the entrance to Mobile Bay. Purchased, 9 April 1862, at New York, N.Y., by the Navy Department from the Key West Prize Court. After repairs, she was commissioned USS Magnolia at New York, 22 July 1862, LT. William Budd in command

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Vol 17. Washington: US Government Printing Office. 1903. pp. 137–146.

Miscellaneous Photo Index

A wood block print of USS Brooklyn titled "THE UNITED STATES SLOOP OF WAR, BROOKLYN", published in "Harper's Weekly" date unknown.

https://www.navsource.net/archives/09/86/098605219.jpg

Watercolor of USS Mercedita at anchor. 1861-65. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 64095-KN (Color).

https://www.navsource.net/archives/09/86/098645501.jpg

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, 1948, of SS South Carolina, in 1860, painted for use in his book "Early American Steamers", Volume I. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 63842.

https://www.navsource.net/archives/09/86/098635001.jpg

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Rhea Cole]

I am not at all conversant in the history of the U.S. Navy in the ACW. Did the Navy name any of its ships during the way after seceded states or geographic features in those states. The CSA had an Alabama and a Shenandoah, but did the Union have a Mississippi or a James or a Savannah? The official position was that the states had never seceded so all the names were fair game.

This is a resource that you want to explore.

Link:

NavSource Naval History - Photo Archive Main Index

The NavSource Naval History, Photographic History of U.S. Navy website every commissioned USN & CSN Civil War vessel is listed on the "Old Navy" Steam & Sail Index. Each has illustrations, data & history. Monitors are listed on the Battleship Photo Archive.

I know of no other site that lists all Civil War vessels in alphabetical order.

To directly answer your question about where the names came from, that is addressed for some vessels. There was a USS Savannah l & ll. USS Mississippi,

Enjoy!

Link:

NavSource "Old Navy" Steam and Sail Index

Link;

NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

There was a blockade runner named the Beauregard that kept that name when it became a USN blockade warship.

 

[Rhea Cole]

There was a blockade runner named the Beauregard that kept that name when it became a USN blockade warship.

It is considered that very bad luck will result from renaming a ship.

 

[Stryker65]

Another famous one is the USS Louisiana -- the ship that Ben Butler tried to turn into a floating bomb at First Fort Fisher. It began as an 1861-launched craft.

 

[Rhea Cole]

On 1865 the USN had 671 ships. 200 were steam powered warships. Most of the rest were former civilian ships converted to blockading gunboats. They tended to keep their original names.