Steamer Louisiana

[AndyHall]

"Steamer Louisiana, now running between Baltimore & Fort Monroe." Sketch by Alfred R. Waud. Library of Congress.

There are several steamships by the name Louisiana, but I believe this is the 1,126 ton wooden-hulled sidewheeler launched at Baltimore in 1854. She was lost in a collision on Chesapeake Bay with the vessel Falcon on November 14, 1874, with no known fatalities. Her machinery was salvaged for use in the 1877 steamer Carolina.

 

[AndyHall]

Drawings by Samuel Ward Stanton (1870-1912), from his American Steam Vessels. Stanton died in the sinking of Titanic; his body was never identified.

I do think this is the same vessel as Waud sketched, although Stanton likely worked from images from the postwar period, after a refit and re-boilering that reduced her to a single funnel.

 

[bdtex]

What role did she play in the Civil War?

 

[AndyHall]

She was chartered four times as a transport by the US Army in 1862 and 1863. The longest time in charter service to the Army was January 8 to August 31, 1862; the others are just for a few days at a time, presumably to make one passage. Other than that, I'm not sure she had any official capacity and may simply have been running as a civilian steamer.

 

[bdtex]

She was chartered four times as a transport by the US Army in 1862 and 1863. The longest time in charter service to the Army was January 8 to August 31, 1862; the others are just for a few days at a time, presumably to make one passage. Other than that, I'm not sure she had any official capacity and may simply have been running as a civilian steamer.

And how did she come about being named Louisiana? What's up with that?

 

[AndyHall]

And how did she come about being named Louisiana? What's up with that?

That was apparently her original name when she was launched in 1854.

When the war began she was running a three-times-a-week packet service between Baltimore and Norfolk, so switching the southern terminus for Fort Monroe hardly changed her operations at all.

 

[AndyHall]

Also appears that she was fitted out as a hospital ship during her long charter in 1862 and used to convey wounded troops from the Peninsula north to Washignton and Baltimore. There was also a Mississippi River steamer Louisiana used in that capacity around the same time.

 

[bdtex]

Also appears that she was fitted out as a hospital ship during her long charter in 1862 and used to convey wounded troops from the Peninsula north to Washignton and Baltimore. There was also a Mississippi steamer Louisiana used in that capacity around the same time.

So was the Mississippi steamer built and named Louisiana before the war too? If yes,was it common then for more than one ship to have the same name?

 

[donna]

Thanks for posting. A beautiful ship.

 

[AndyHall]

So was the Mississippi steamer built and named Louisiana before the war too? If yes,was it common then for more than one ship to have the same name?

Very common.

 

[Carronade]

So was the Mississippi steamer built and named Louisiana before the war too? If yes,was it common then for more than one ship to have the same name?

There was no central registry or mechanism that would preclude it. Each owner or operator named his own ships whatever he chose.

Jumping back a couple of centuries, I recall reading in an article about the Pilgrims that there were some twenty English ships named Mayflower at that time.

 

[ErnieMac]

Louisiana is mentioned in the Official Record on at least two occasions. It participated in the Peninsula Campaign (OR Series 1, Volume XI, Part III, page 262 - 263) with the Sanitary Commission and transported troops from the Peninsula to Aquia in August, 1862 (OR Series 1, Volume XII, part III, page 613).

Peninsula Campaign:

WHITE HOUSE, June 26, 1862-9 p.m.
(Received June 27-10.20 a.m.)

Brigadier General M. C. MEIGS,
Quartermaster-General:

In obedience to orders just received from Van Vliet, Quartermaster, Army of the Potomac, I send you the following list of vessels that were sent to Fredericksburg, by orders of Mr. Tucker, for transporting McCall's division:

Steamer Donaldson, carries 700 men, 8 horses; Thomas Jefferson, 700 men; Massachusetts, 650 men, 10 horses; Columbia, 750 men; John Brooks, 1,200 men, 30 horses; Canonicum, 800 men; Arrowsmith, 750 men; John Brooks, 1,200 men, 30 horses; Canonicum, 800 men; Arrowsmith, 750 men; Agnes (since burnt), 500 men, 4 horses; Hero, 900 men, 20 horses; Catskill, 800 men; North America, 100 men and 25 horses.

In addition to the above-named steamers eight schooners were sent, carrying 450 horses. There is now lying at this point subject to orders enough steamers to carry 3,000 men and schooners to carry 800 horses.

There has been recently sent a great many craft, both sail and steam, to Fort Monroe.

The following-named steamers are here in service of the Sanitary Commission: State of Maine, Daniel Webster, Kennebee, John Brooks, Louisiana, and Vanderbilt. They will carry about 700 men.

RUFUS INGALLS,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.​

Run aground at Aquia.

AQUIA, VA., August 21, 1862.

Major General FITZ JOHN PORTER, Fort Monroe:
Louisiana aground in harbor; Knickerbockers aground 10 miles down; troops all off both; baggage off Louisiana. Lighter sent for teams, & ., on Knickerbockers. I start now with Seventeenth and Forty-fourth. Montreal and several others in harbor. Good quartermaster here, and everything goes along as rapidly as possible.

DANL. BUTTERFIELD,
Brigadier-General.​

 

[Story]

Mentioned as part of the Burnside expedition, Richmond Times Dispatch reprint of a New York Herald article dated January 11th 1862. No wonder the Generals hated newspapermen blowing their OPSEC.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2006.05.0379:article=9

 

[AndyHall]

There are several mentions of Louisiana as a hospital transport in case histories published in the official medical records, as well. There is one report from a U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon, A. H. Smith, organized her fitting out, that while Louisiana was a large vessel, her ventilation was "so defective" that she could only accommodate 250 patients safely.

 

[AndyHall]

See also:

http://www.pa-roots.com/pacw/pows/louisianajuly271862.html