USS Magnolia (1854)
| Career (US) | 100x35px |
|---|---|
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 22 Aug 1854[1] |
| Acquired: | 9 April 1862 |
| Commissioned: | 22 July 1862 |
| Decommissioned: | 10 June 1865 |
| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Captured: |
by Union Navy forces 19 February 1862 |
| Fate: | sold, 12 July 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 843 tons |
| Length: | not known |
| Beam: | not known |
| Draught: | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Installed power: | Vertical beam steam engine,[1] auxiliary sails |
| Propulsion: | 2 × sidewheels |
| Sail plan: | Schooner-rigged[1] |
| Speed: | 12 knots |
| Complement: | 95 |
| Armament: |
one 20-pounder Parrott Rifle four 24-pounder guns |
USS Magnolia (1854) was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was planned to be used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
Contents
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.
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 very dense fog, she was captured by Union ships Brooklyn and South Carolina.
Placed into service with the Gulf Blockade
After her capture, Magnolia was sent to Key West, Florida, where she was evaluated and condemned. She was purchased 9 April 1862 at New York City, New York, by the Navy Department from the Key West Prize Court. After repairs, she commissioned at New York City 22 July 1862, Lt. William Budd in command.
The sidewheel steamer departed New York 26 July 1862 to take station near Key West as part of the Union blockade. En route on the 31st, she captured British steamer Memphis near Cape Romain, South Carolina, bound ostensibly from Nassau, Bahamas, to Liverpool, England. Search produced papers revealing that she had actually departed Charleston, South Carolina, the previous night with a cargo of cotton and rosin. Aided by South Carolina, Magnolia convoyed her prize to New York City, arriving 3 August. After repairs, she sailed again for Key West.
Operating off the coast of Florida with the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron, Magnolia took British schooner Carmita 27 December, and 2 days later seized a second blockade runner, British sloop Flying Fish, off Tortugas. By mid January 1863, repeated boiler problems slowed down Magnolia’s activities on blockade, and 15 July she sailed for New York for extensive repairs.
Reassigned to the Eastern Gulf Blockade
Magnolia sailed to rejoin the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron 25 April 1864, and patrolled off the Bahama Banks. On 10 September, she captured steamer Matagorda with a load of cotton, carrying no papers and flying no colors. She remained on blockade in these waters until February 1865, when she shifted to Apalachee Bay to blockade St. Marks, Florida. Magnolia put into Key West 15 March, and spent her last war days ferrying supplies to the ships maintaining the blockade.
Post-war decommissioning and civilian career
Magnolia decommissioned at New York 10 June 1865 and was sold at public auction to N. L. & G. Griswold 12 July 1865. Redocumented 23 August 1865, Magnolia served briefly as a merchantman and was abandoned in 1866.
Footnotes
References
- Bauer, Karl Jack and Roberts, Stephen S. (1991): Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 9780313262029.
- This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
