USS Galena

[JeffBrooks]

I want to know everything there is to know about the USS Galena. Any information, especially recommendations for books and online resources, would be much appreciated.

 

[Belfoured]

I want to know everything there is to know about the USS Galena. Any information, especially recommendations for books and online resources, would be much appreciated.

This site is a great starting point regarding any vessels commissioned in the USN throughout its history.

https://www.navsource.net/archives/09/86/86037.htm

 

[Santee1821]

I have a post on my website about a surviving 100-Pounder Parrott of Galena:

https://www.santee1821.net/preserve...fle-of-uss-galena-in-newmanstown-pennsylvania

Among printed sources, there is none better than:

Canney, Donald L. The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats, 1815-1885. Naval Institute Press, 1990.

I also found this page in the April 19th, 1862 edition of Scientific American to be helpful in explaining Galena's armor.

 

[MilesHai]

I know of three photos of the Galena.

Library of Congress LC-B811- 488

Library of Congress LOT 4182 [item] [P&P] and Princeton Univ. Library GA 2010.00098

Naval History and Heritage Command NH 1549

Miles Hai
seeingthecivilwar.com

 

[Santee1821]

Keep in mind that the Galena built in 1861-1862 and the Galena as "rebuilt" in the 1870s are two entirely different ships. Just as happened with Constellation in the 1850s, the Navy took an old ship, kept the name, and used repair funds to build an entirely new ship. Your top two photos show the ironclad. The bottom photo shows Galena as rebuilt, but in fact she is an entirely new ship.

 

[Jantzen64]

I hear it was one of Little Mac's favorite watering holes . . .

 

[Old Soldier]

The Galena and New Ironsides* were both built as trial competitors to Eriksonn's Monitor designed to take on CSS Virginia, but were 'standard' steam-screw ironclads with wooden hulls and took much longer to complete.

Both were built as sloops, barque-rigged sea-ships. Since they were complete AFTER the battle of Hampton Roads, they were eventually de-rigged and used as mobile battery siege ships against Confederate coastal fortification. Galena was re-commissioned in barque-rig in March 1865 and used as a Gulf coastal blockade vessel and was damaged in the Battle of Moblile Bay. She was repaired but decommissioned later. Condemned by survey in 1870, Galena was broken up in 1872 at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
(A new Galena was commissioned in 1880)

*New Ironsides was decommissioned in April 1865 and was destroyed by a fire on 16 December 1865

 

[Belfoured]

I hear it was one of Little Mac's favorite watering holes . . .

Well, it apparently had an excellent chef and a terrific wi-fi connection with the crossroads at Glendale. Probably the model for Viking River Cruises ...

 

[RodentRevolution]

Took me a while to find it but a certain Kurt Henry Hackemer wrote a master's thesis on the ship:

Experimental ironclad: a construction and early operational history of the USS Galena

 

[Saphroneth]

In all seriousness, with respect to the Galena's position at Glendale and Malvern Hill, it's visited primarily because it is the flagship; McClellan goes to consult with Rodgers, and Rodgers' flagship is the Galena.

It was in optical telegraph (semaphore) contact with Malvern Hill. We have records of many messages sent back and forth, so this seems pretty clear and unambiguous. The messages seem to have taken only a few minutes to transmit in any given case, because we have at least eleven messages sent during the time McClellan is on the Galena and he's not on board for all that long.


There is a mistranslation with regards to what the Comte du Paris said, it is a type of conjugation exclusive to French.
"Lorsqu'on à mène pendant quelques jours une vie aussi rude, l'on se sent tout dépaysé en arrivant sur un navire ou tout est propre, ou les officers ont ligne blanc et ou l'on trouve subitement un bon dîner et du bon vin."
What he says is odd is being on a ship where "you can get" a good meal with good wine, rather than saying that there actually was one that they partook from.

It is possible that McClellan actually did eat on the Galena, but to my understanding the Comte du Paris does not say that he does.



As a warship the Galena seems to have been fairly capable; she's more vulnerable than other ironclads but less vulnerable than unarmoured sloops. She duelled Drewry's Bluff and took 44 hits, of which 13 penetrated the armour, but I rather suspect that those hits would have been more damaging if she didn't have the armour, so what I wonder is if she fell victim to the "all or nothing" fallacy where armour that does not completely protect is seen as of no value.