USS Louisiana (1861)
![]() USS Louisiana
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History | |
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Name | USS Louisiana |
Builder | Harlan and Hollingsworth |
Laid down | 1860 |
Acquired | by purchase, 10 July 1861 |
Commissioned | August 1861 |
Stricken | 1864 |
Fate | Destroyed, 24 December 1864 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Steamer |
Displacement | 295 long tons (300 t) |
Length | 143 ft 2 in (43.64 m) |
Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
Draft | 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) |
Depth of hold | 8 ft 1 in (2.46 m) |
Propulsion |
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Complement | 85 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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The second USS Louisiana was a propeller-driven iron-hull steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Steamboat origins
Louisiana was built at
Combat service
Assigned to the
Chincoteague Island was lost to the Confederacy as a base when on 14 October Louisiana's Lt. Murray witnessed the administration of the oath of allegiance to the United States to Chincoteague's citizens. Her boats, led by Lt. Alfred Hopkins, surprised and burned three Confederate vessels at Chincoteague Inlet 28 and 29 October.
Service in North Carolina
On 2 January 1862, Louisiana was ordered to Hatteras Inlet to prepare for the invasion of the Carolina Sounds. For the next three years, she patrolled, supported Army troops and made raids along the many miles of the intricate water system whose eventual capture would be a mortal blow to the Confederacy. Typical of such actions was that of 6 September 1862, when she tried to aid Union troops repelling Confederate attacks on Washington, North Carolina. Their commander, Major General John G. Foster, reported that Louisiana "had rendered most efficient aid, throwing her shells with great precision, and clearing the streets, through which her guns had range."
She captured schooner Alice L. Webb at
The "Powder Ship"
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Harper%27s_weekly_%281865%29_%2814764084792%29_The_Powder-Ship_%27Louisiana%27%2C_Federal_Point_-_Centerfold_RHS_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Harper%27s_weekly_%281865%29_%2814764084792%29_The_Powder-Ship_%27Louisiana%27%2C_Federal_Point_-_Centerfold_RHS_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The wreck
In 1994 state underwater archaeologists and students from East Carolina University conducted a survey of the area off Fort Fisher. Though many Civil War-era wrecks were mapped, no remains were found that could be associated with that of the Louisiana.
References
- Journal of the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, PA; 1860)
- Alexander Crosby Brown, Notes on the Origins of Iron Shipbuilding in the United States, 1825-1861, Masters Thesis, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1951.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.