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Photo # NH 59145: USS Mount Vernon off Mobile, Alabama, assisting in cutting out the Confederate schooner Aid, June 1861

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

USS Mount Vernon (1861-1865).
Originally, and later, the civilian steamship Mount Vernon (1859)

Mount Vernon, a 625-ton (burden) wooden screw steamship, was built at Brooklyn, New York in 1859. She was chartered by the U.S. Navy soon after the beginning of the Civil War and purchased in September 1861. In May 1861, while under charter, Mount Vernon went to the Gulf of Mexico. She captured one sailing vessel in that area and, in early July, was sent to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to join the blockade of the Confederacy's eastern coast. For much of the rest of the year, Mount Vernon operated in the Chesapeake Bay and adjacent rivers, making one more capture.

From November 1861 through the end of the Civil War, Mount Vernon primarily served off North Carolina. She was involved in the capture or destruction of eight would-be blockade runners, all sailing vessels, in 1862 and four more in 1863. In early May 1864, Mount Vernon engaged the Confederate ironclad Raleigh, which had come out to attack Federal warships blockading Wilmington. The following July, she made an unproductive search for the raider CSS Florida and, in mid-December, assisted in the destruction of another schooner. With the end of the Civil War in the spring of 1865, Mount Vernon was no longer needed by the Navy. She was decommissioned in June of that year and sold the next month. Mount Vernon then returned to commercial employment, keeping the same name, and was sold to foreign owners in 1869.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Mount Vernon and the civilian steamship Mount Vernon.


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 59145

"Cutting Out of the Southern Schooner 'Aid,' off Mobile, by the Boats of the U.S. Steam Frigate Niagara, assisted by the U.S. Steamer Mount Vernon, June 5, 1861."


Line engraving published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper", 1861. USS Mount Vernon is shown at right.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 129KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59366

"Merchant Steamers Converted into Gun-boats."


Engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861 volume.
It depicts thirteen merchant steamships acquired by the U.S. Navy between April and August 1861 and subsequently converted into warships, plus the steamer Nashville (far left), which became a Confederate cruiser.
U.S. Navy ships, as identified below the image bottom, are (from left to right): Alabama, Quaker City, Santiago de Cuba (listed as "St. Jago de Cuba"), Mount Vernon, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Florida, De Soto, Augusta, James Adger, Monticello, Bienville and R.R. Cuyler.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 182KB; 1200 x 470 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59308

"The Navy-Yard at Brooklyn, New York, June, 1861"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861, pages 456-457, depicting a large number of Navy ships off the New York Navy Yard, early in the Civil War.
Vessels shown include (from left to right): USS Montgomery; USS Vandalia; USSBrandywine; USS North Carolina; USS Potomac; USS Savannah; USS R.R. Cuyler; USS Mount Vernon; USS Roanoke; USS Resolute and USS Wabash.
A rowing launch is underway in the foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 155KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 


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


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Page made 29 September 2002