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Photo # NH 95087:  USS Patapsco.  Sketch showing the ship bombarding Sullivans Island, during the Civil War.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Patapsco (1863-1865)

USS Patapsco, a 1335-ton Passaic class monitor built at Wilmington, Delaware, was commissioned in early January 1863. Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, she took part in a bombardment of Fort McAllister, on Georgia's Ogeechee River, on 3 March. On the 7th of April Patapsco joined eight other ironclads in a vigorous attack on Fort Sumter, off Charleston, South Carolina, and received 47 hits from Confederate gunfire during that day. Beginning in mid-July, she began her participation in a lengthy bombardment campaign against Charleston's defending fortifications. This led to the capture of Fort Wagner, on Morris Island, in early September. Fort Sumter was reduced to a pile of rubble, but remained a formidible opponent.

In November 1863, Patapsco tested a large obstruction-clearing explosive device that had been devised by John Ericsson. Remaining off South Carolina and Georgia during much of 1864 and into 1865, the monitor, or her boat crews, took part in a reconnaissance of the Wilmington River, Georgia, in January 1864 and helped capture or destroy enemy sailing vessels in February and November of that year. On 14 January 1865, while participating in obstruction clearance operations in Charleston Harbor, USS Patapsco struck a Confederate mine and sank, with heavy loss of life.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Patapsco (1862-1865).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 95087

USS Patapsco
(1863-1865)

Pencil sketch by an unidentified artist, depicting the ship engaging Confederate batteries on Sullivans Island, Charleston, South Carolina, during the Civil War.
A note on the artwork states that Patapsco had a red top to her smokestack.
Collections of the Library of Congress.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 310 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59288

Bombardment of Fort McAllister, Georgia, 3 March 1863


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1863, page 196, depicting the bombardment of Fort McAllister by the U.S. Navy monitors Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant. The engraving is based on a sketch by "an eye-witness" on board USS Montauk, which is in the right center foreground. In the left foreground, firing on the fort, are the mortar schooners C.P. Williams, Norfolk Packet and Para. Among other U.S. Navy ships involved were gunboats Wissahickon, Seneca and Dawn and tug Dandelion.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 295 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59287

Bombardment of Fort McAllister, Georgia, 3 March 1863


Line engraving, after a sketch by W.T. Crane, published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War", Volume II, page 39. It depicts the U.S. Navy monitors Patapsco, Passaic and Nahant firing on Fort McAllister (at far left) from the Ogeechee River. Other U.S. Navy ships are in the foreground. Montauk is the monitor in this group (farthest from the artist). Firing on the fort from the right foreground are mortar schooners, including C.P. Williams, Norfolk Packet and Para. Among other U.S. Navy ships involved were gunboats Wissahickon, Seneca and Dawn and tug Dandelion, all screw steamers.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 380 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59269

"Panoramic View of Charleston Harbor. -- Advance of Ironclads to the Attack, April 7th, 1863"


Line engraving published in "The Soldier in our Civil War", Volume II, page 172, with a key to individual ships and land features shown.
U.S. Navy ships present are (from left to center): Keokuk, Nahant, Nantucket, Catskill, New Ironsides, Patapsco, Montauk, Passaic and Weehawken.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 107KB; 900 x 350 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42916

Charleston Campaign, 1863-65


Photostat reproduction of a chart, redrawn from the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion", entitled "Approaches to Charleston, S.C.". It shows the positions of the wrecks of U.S. Navy ships Weehawken, Keokuk, Patapsco and Housatonic, as well as the location where USS New Ironsides spent two hours over a "torpedo" on 7 April 1863.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 147KB; 680 x 675 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42917

Charleston Campaign, 1863-65


Photostat reproduction of a chart of the approaches to Charleston, South Carolina, detailing the locations of the wrecks of U.S. Navy ships Weehawken, Keokuk, Patapsco and Housatonic; the wreck of CSS Georgiana; where USS New Ironsides, Bibb and USS Massachusetts encountered Confederate "torpedoes" on 7 April 1863, 16 March 1865 and 19 March 1865; and the location of other "torpedoes".

Copied from the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion".

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 166KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 

In addition to the views presented above, the following photograph has been identified in one published source as having been taken on board USS Patapsco:
Photo # NH 51953, a view of officers on the deck of a Passaic class monitor, circa 1864-65.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 12 September 2001
New image added 23 September 2001