USS Port Royal (1862) was a double-ended
steamboat acquired by the
Union Navy during the
American Civil War. The steamboat was converted into an armed
gunboat by the Navy, and assigned to patrol the rivers and other waterways of the
Confederate States of America and to enforce the
Union blockade on the South.
Built in New York
Port Royal, a wooden, double-ended, side-wheel gunboat, was launched at New York January 17, 1862 by Thomas Stock, and commissioned at
New York Navy Yard, April 26, 1862.
Civil War service
Departing New York May 4,
Port Royal steamed to
Hampton Roads, Virginia, to join the
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in supporting General
George McClellan’s drive up the
peninsula toward
Richmond, Virginia. She engaged Confederate batteries at
Sewell’s Point,
Virginia, May 8 and a week later participated in the attack on
Fort Darling,
Drury’s Bluff, on the
James River below the southern capital.
After General
Robert E. Lee’s brilliant
seven day campaign turned back McClellan’s thrust,
Port Royal shifted operations to the
North Carolina Sounds. She was part of the Union Naval force which reconnoitered the
Neuse River, North Carolina, arid attacked Kingston, 12–December 16.
The spring of 1863 found her operating along the
Florida coast. On April 20, a landing party from the ship raided
Apalachicola, Florida, capturing cotton and ordnance. On May 24 a boat expedition captured sloop
Fashion laden with cotton in the same area. The Union party also burned a ship repair facility at Devil’s Elbow and destroyed a barge.
In ensuing months
Port Royal continued to patrol the Confederate coast. In August 1864, she served with Rear Admiral
David Farragut during the operations in
Mobile Bay,
Alabama.
Port Royal then continued patrol duty through the end of the Civil War.
Post-war decommissioning
Decommissioned May 23, 1866, she was sold at
Boston, Massachusetts, October 3, 1866.
See also
