USS Planter Sightings, A Photographic Trail

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
planter new white house landing eliz.JPG

CSS USS Planter at White House Landing, Sanitary Commission barge and tug Elizabeth in the background. Must be an 1864 image, basing that on when Elizabeth was in service with the Sanitary Commission's hospital transport services.

Guessing there are more, taking these from those massive tifs LoC gives us. Sometimes it's possible to pick out the names of ships, maybe watch their war as it happened. If anyone has more, love to see them!

planter new warrenton station 1.jpg

Planter at ( by LoC description ) Warrenton Station although if I hadn't read that I'd have thought this was White House Landing, Pamunkey River.
planter new warrenton lg station.jpg


Pretty smitten by Captain Robert Small's story. Really, who doesn't love a good " He did WHAT? " thriiler. That his flamboyantly successful deed splashed across newspapers through the war tells its own story- we love our heroes best when there's an awesome story attached. Like steaming through enemy lines on CSS USS Planter. Well, Southern papers may have been less complimentary but this is 2019. One of the hand's down best stories of the war. It also made Planter an awfully famous ship. Threads here on Captain Smalls, no need to repeat his awesome story end to end.

Because Planter was a wood fed steamer her use on Blockade duty became problematic. Assigned to the Army, Smalls promoted from civilian pilot to ship's captain Planter fulfilled various duties. There are several well known images of USS Planter- Wiki uses the probably best known, laden with cotton bales. Transporting soldiers, carrying prisoners, wounded, supplies and mail Planter had an awfully busy war. She and Captain, one time pilot Robert Smalls were everywhere.
planter news smalls captain 1863.JPG

Yes, we all know the story but I never get tired of it.

planter new city point whole scene.JPG

City Point, probably one of the supply landings? Wounded, prisoners and soldier's being transported seem to have boarded at the famous " U-shaped " wharf.

planter new city point man on deck enlarged.JPG

Originally had GREAT hopes a man on the deck would be Captain Smalls- and no. Easily could be part of the same crew on board when Planter steamed her famous escape out of harbor, still cool stuff. This crew member seems to be performing a task involving a bucket, not sure a pilot would be and you know a Captain had other duties.

planter w conemaugh.JPG

With Connemaugh ( I think? ), unsure which landing. Planter carried medical supplies, may have been a hospital landing despite the lack of ambulances.

Question about this image, please? It's used quite a bit in articles on Robert Smalls and his crew.
planter bales dog.jpg

When was it taken? Looks like a whole. different ship, when would there have been the refit or was there another Planter? Found an 1863 story where Planter was captured- which either wasn't true or it was recaptured with Smalls and crew intact or a whole, different Planter? Re-capture doesn't seem likely. Guessing the Confederates were fairly annoyed with Robert Smalls.

Clothes seem post war? From 1876 to what, 2014 Planter was missing.
planter bales dog clothes.jpg
 
@JPK Huson 1863 "With Connemaugh ( I think? ), unsure which landing. Planter carried medical supplies, may have been a hospital landing despite the lack of ambulances."

This photo is very similar to the photo in question. The LOC caption is, "Medical supply ships "Connecticut" and "Planter" docked at a wharf on the Appomattox River." LC-DIG-ppmsca-11712
11712v.jpg


11712u.jpg

It looks like some letters are missing on Connecticut.
 
@JPK Huson 1863 "With Connemaugh ( I think? ), unsure which landing. Planter carried medical supplies, may have been a hospital landing despite the lack of ambulances."

This photo is very similar to the photo in question. The LOC caption is, "Medical supply ships "Connecticut" and "Planter" docked at a wharf on the Appomattox River." LC-DIG-ppmsca-11712
View attachment 337240

View attachment 337241
It looks like some letters are missing on Connecticut.
Can make out "-ONNEC----T" (that 'E' appears to be 'H' at first glance).
 
Does anyone know if there were two steamers named Planter?

PLANTER would have been a common name. The one mentioned in the clipping is an entirely different vessel, captured out of Mobile in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert Smalls' PLANTER was never recaptured, but it did survive the war and a postwar photograph of that vessel survives (left), somewhat modified from its 1862 appearance (right).

twoplanters.png
 
There were at least four U.S.-built steamships called PLANTER that were in service during the war. Stephen Wise's Lifeline of the Confederacy (see entry below) listed the one in the clipping above as having been built in [West] Virginia, which would make her appearance running out of Mobile rather notable. Another reference, the Lytle-Holdcamper List, shows her being sold again in 1875 to the U.S. Navy Department, for what purpose I don't know.

I believe the statement in the clipping above, saying that PLANTER was sister ship to the runner SWAN, is not correct.

scan0036.jpg
 
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The first steamer built in Wheeling had its first run to New Orleans, so it's not surprising. Wheeling did a lot of business south.

The Louisiana Gazette of July 5, 1816, says: "On Monday last the steamboat Washington sailed from Wheeling for New Orleans under command of Captain H. M. Shreve. She got under way at 5 o'clock and in forty-five minutes made nine miles, since which time she has not been heard from. The steamboat Washington was built at Wheeling by George White; he keel was laid on the tenth of September last. In August all her timbers were growing in the woods. Her main cabin is sixty feet; she has three handsome private rooms besides a bar-room. Her steam power is applied upon an entirely new principal and is exceedingly simple. She has no fly wheel, and her engine possesses a power of 100 horses, weighing only 9,000 pounds. It is the invention of H. M. Shreve.

https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/research/wheeling-history/2800
 
The first steamer built in Wheeling had its first run to New Orleans, so it's not surprising. Wheeling did a lot of business south.

Wheeling and Pittsburgh, which is just a few miles upstream, were centers of steamboat building and trade on the Upper Ohio.
 
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