USS Volunteer (1863)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Volunteer.

Career (US)	Confederate Navy Jack Union Navy Jack
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	date unknown
Acquired:	29 February 1864 at Springfield, Illinois
Commissioned:	circa 29 February 1864
Decommissioned:	summer 1865 at Mound City, Illinois
Struck:	1865 (est.)
Captured:	by Union Navy forces 25 November 1863
Fate:	sold, 29 November 1865
General characteristics
Displacement:	209 tons
Length:	not known
Beam:	not known
Draught:	5'
Propulsion:	steam engine side wheel-propelled
Speed:	6 MPH
Complement:	not known
Armament:	one heavy 12-pounder smoothbore

The first USS Volunteer was a 209-ton steamer captured by the Union Navy and put to use by the Union during the American Civil War.

Virginia served the Navy in minor roles: as a dispatch boat and tugboat; however, at times, she would also be assigned as a patrolling gunboat.

Captured by Union Navy forces

Volunteer -- originally a Confederate steamer captured off Natchez Island, Mississippi, by Fort Hindman on 25 November 1863 -- was purchased by the Navy from the Springfield, Illinois, prize court on 29 February 1864.

Civil War Union Navy service

Volunteer was assigned to the Mississippi Squadron and performed valuable service as a patrol, dispatch, and tow steamer.

Her one major engagement during the war occurred on 14 April 1864 when she helped to drive off a Confederate force which was attacking Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

Post-war service

After the end of the war in April 1865, Volunteer convoyed naval stores up and down the Mississippi River as Union naval forces in the West deactivated.

Decommissioning

That summer, she was decommissioned and laid up at Mound City, Illinois, and was sold at public auction there to B. F. Goodwin on 29 November.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

See also

• American Civil War
• Union Navy
• Confederate States Navy

External links

• USS Volunteer