USS Isaac Smith was a screw steamer acquired by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederate States of America to prevent the Confederacy from trading with other countries. In 1863, she became the only warship in the American Civil War to be captured by enemy land forces. She then served in the Confederate States Navy as CSS Stono until she was wrecked.
Construction and acquisition
Isaac Smith was built by Lawrence & Foulks in 1861 for passenger-cargo service on the Hudson River in New York. She was purchased by the U.S. Navy in New York City from E. J. Hamilton 9 September 1861. She was armed and on 17 October 1861[1] was commissioned as USS Isaac Smith.[2]
During a reconnaissance in force on 4 and 5 November 1861, Isaac Smith engaged and repelled three attacking Confederate steamers and silenced batteries at Hilton Head and Bay Point, South Carolina. Two days later she towed sailing sloop-of-warVandalia into action during the landings which wrested Port Royal from Confederate hands providing the Union a base for the fleet and for combined U.S. Navy-Union Army operations against the Confederacy.[2]
Georgia and Florida operations
Isaac Smith in naval service, 1861
Isaac Smith participated in operations against the coast of South Carolina until 21 January 1862 when she left to join the expedition to Savannah, Georgia, led by CaptainCharles H. Davis, USN, and Brigadier GeneralHoratio G. Wright of the United States Army. This operation was primarily a diversionary effort to cover up a projected attack on Fernandina, Florida, but it also provided valuable information about Confederate defenses of the water approaches to Savannah, and it interrupted communications between Fort Pulaski and Savannah.[2]
During the latter half of March and all of April 1862, Isaac Smith was active in the vicinity of St. Augustine, Florida. She took possession of the post office there on 18 March 1862 and two days later mounted a gun on the ramparts of Fort Marion in a position to command the main road to the city. She also enforced the Union blockade of the Confederacy, and her boats captured the blockade runnerBritish Empire 3 April 1862.[2]
Isaac Smith stood out of St. Augustine and entered the St. Johns River on 4 May 1862 to begin a period of three months' service in the vicinity of Jacksonville, Florida. Her presence there helped tighten the blockade, provided sanctuary for refugees, drew Confederate troops away from more active fronts, and facilitated Union intelligence activity.[2]
In need of repair, Isaac Smith sailed for New York City on 10 August 1862 for "beaching, breeming, and improvements."
Capture by Confederate forces
Isaac Smith returned to her squadron on 11 October 1862. Then Rear Admiral Du Pont ordered her to the Stono River, where she served until 30 January 1863. That day she was caught in a crossfire from masked shore batteries. with Isaac Smith disabled by accurate fire and with her deck covered with wounded men, her captain surrendered the ship rather than risk their lives. Eight men were dead and 17 were wounded.[2]
Confederate States Navy service
After her capture, the ship served in the Confederate States Navy in the waters around Charleston, South Carolina, under the name CSS Stono until she was wrecked on the breakwater near Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, while attempting to run the blockade with a load of cotton on 5 June 1863.[2][7][8][9] No data on salvage operations for Stono has been found, but the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion state that she was "burned by the Confederates at the evacuation of Charleston in 1865."[2][9]
^Ashcraft, Jenny (7 February 2024). "The Great Expedition Encounters a Hurricane". fold3. Retrieved 13 February 2024. On October 29, 1861, the Naval fleet assembled at Hampton Roads. They set sail arranged in three parallel lines, each following another at about a half-mile distance. The USS Wabash took the lead as flagship. USS Wabash, flagship during the Great Expedition The Expedition enjoyed calm seas and light winds for the first few days. However, a tropical storm churning off the tip of Florida was climbing the eastern seaboard and had developed into a hurricane. On November 1, while rounding Cape Hatteras, the winds intensified and increased to a gale. Heavy seas caused the orderly columns of ships to disassemble, and the fleet scattered. One sailor aboard the Wabash described water crashing over the gunboats and side-wheel steamers lurching so ferociously that their paddles revolved in the air. Throughout the night, timbers creaked and groaned as the ships rolled and pitched in the storm. Onboard the steamer Winfield Scott, 500 soldiers from the 50th Pennsylvania fought to keep the ship afloat as waves battered it. The masts broke, and a huge seam opened onboard the vessel, allowing torrents of ocean water to spill in. The soldiers worked feverishly to pump out the water, throwing anything with extra weight overboard, including their guns, knapsacks, and overcoats. Reading Times: November 19, 1861 Another ship, the Bienville, tried to come to the rescue, but the engineer and several crew members from the Winfield Scott abandoned their posts and leaped into the rescue boat, which was then swamped. Miraculously, the Winfield Scott survived the storm and was towed to safety by the steamer Vanderbilt. The SS Governor sank during the storm, but in a daring rescue by the USS Isaac Smith and the USS Sabine, all but seven of the nearly 700 men were saved before the ship went down. On November 4, the battered ships began to assemble outside the Port Royal Sound. On November 7, the Battle of Port Royal began, and despite its weather-worn fleet, Union forces took control of Fort Wagner and Fort Beauregard, and Confederate forces retreated. Union forces then established a base of operations to support the Union blockade of Confederate ports.
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