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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Pensacola (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Screw Steamer:
  • Laid down, date unknown, at Pensacola Navy Yard
  • Launched, 15 August 1859
  • Commissioned USS Pensacola, 5 December 1859 for towing to Washington Navy Yard for installation of machinery;
  • Decommissioned 31 January 1860, at Washington, Navy Yard
  • Recommissioned in full as USS Pensacola, 16 September 1861, at Washington Navy Yard, CAPT. Henry W. Morris in command
  • Assigned to Flag Officer Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Gulf of Mexico
  • Decommissioned, 29 April 1864, at New York Navy Yard for the installation of new and improved machinery.
  • Recommissioned, 16 August 1866, USS Pensacola sailed round Cape Horn to join the Pacific Squadron
  • Decommissioned, 23 May 1884, at Norfolk, VA.
  • Recommissioned 4 April 1885, at Norfolk, VA.
  • Decommissioned, 18 April 1892, at Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Recommissioned, 22 November 1898, at Mare Island Navy Yard, serving as a training ship for Naval apprentices until going back into ordinary 31 May 1899
  • Recommissioned, 14 July 1901, to serve as receiving ship at Yerba Buena Training Station, San Francisco
  • Decommissioned, 6 December 1911
  • Struck from the Navy Register, 23 December 1911
  • Final Disposition, burned and sunk by the Navy in San Francisco Bay near Hunter’s Point early in May 1912
    Specifications:
    Displacement 3,000 t.
    Length 130' 5"
    Beam 44' 5"
    Draft 18' 7"
    Speed 9.5 kts.
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    one 11" Dahlgren smoothbore.
    sixteen 9" Dahlgren smoothbores
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Pensacola 76k Steam frigate USS Pensacola in Alexandria, VA. just after fitting out and commissioning (circa late-1861). Pensacola was preparing to depart Alexandria and join Flag Officer David G Farragut's Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron in January, 1862.
    Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress.    		 Don Wagner
    Pensacola 143k Steam frigate USS Pensacola off Alexandria, VA. between 1861 and 1865.
    Library of Congress; LC-B8184-B864 (Lot 4182, no. 16)    		 Mike Green
    Colorado 134k Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, based on a sketch by an officer of USS Mississippi depicting Commodore Farragut's Squadron and Captain Porter's Mortar Fleet entering the Mississippi River at the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi, circa 7 April 1862. Features identified in the engraving's title lines include (from left to right): Light-house on Southwest Pass;
    USS Colorado (in left foreground);
    USS Pensacola on the bar;
    USS Westfield (seen nearly stern-on);
    Porter's mortar fleet, heading up the river;
    USS Mississippi on the bar;
    USS Harriet Lane (side-wheel steamer at the rear of the mortar fleet);
    USS Connecticut (in right foreground);
    USS Clifton;
    town of Banona.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 59059    		 Robert Hurst
    Essex 79k "Panoramic View of the United States Fleet passing the Forts on the Mississippi, on its way to New Orleans, April 19th, 1862."
    Contemporary line engraving published in "The Soldier in our Civil War", Volume I. It depicts the Federal ships shortly before they began the passage of the forts, with the Confederate gunboats waiting upstream. Individual U.S. Navy ships (as identified in text below the engraving) are:
    USS John P. Jackson;
    USS Mississippi;
    USS Pensacola;
    USS Hartford (Flagship);
    USS Iroquois;
    USS Westfield;
    USS Cayuga; and
    USS Varuna;
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 59063    		 Robert Hurst
    Kineo 158k
    "The Splendid Naval Triumph on the Mississippi, April 24th, 1862"

    Colored lithograph, published by Currier & Ives, 1862. The original print bears the following descriptive text: "Destruction of the Rebel gunboats, rams and iron clad batteries by the Union Fleet under Flag Officer Farragut. The attack was commenced on the 18th of April and continued until the 25th resulting in the capture of Forts Jackson, St. Phillip, Livingston, Pike and the city of New Orleans, as well as the destruction of all the enemy gunboats, rams, floating batteries (iron clad), fire rafts, booms and chains. The enemy with their own hands destroying cotton and shipping valued at from eight to ten millions of dollars. 'The sight of this night attack was awfully grand, the river was lit up with blazing rafts filled with pine knots and the ships seemed to be fighting literally amidst flames and smoke.'" In this view, ships are identified as (starting at top left center, up the river, running down to the right, then across toward the left): Confederate steamers; USS Cayuga (leading the Union column), USS Pensacola, burning confederate steamer, USS Varuna, USS Oneida, USS Mississippi (engaging the ram CSS Manassas), USS Richmond, USS Kineo, USS Hartford (flagship, in collision with a fire raft), USS Brooklyn and USS Winona. A Confederate fire raft is in the lower right. Fort St. Phillip is shown at right and Fort Jackson at left.
    Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Varuna 137k Line engraving published in "Virtue", depicting the battle, which took place on the lower Mississippi River during the night of 24 April 1862. A key to the forts and specific U.S. and Confederate ships is given at the bottom of the view. The ships include USS Varuna (in action with Confederate gunboats), USS Brooklyn, USS Pawnee (not shown), USS Hartford (Farragut's flagship, with a fire raft alongside), USS Pensacola, USS Mississippi, CSS Louisiana (exploding), CSS Manassas and Federal mortar vessels.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59071    		 Robert Hurst
    Pensacola 950k USS Pensacola in the Mare Island Channel circa 1866.
    File name Pensacola 1866.    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 594k USS Pensacola crew looking forward in 1868 at Mare Island.
    File name: Pensacola 135091-3-76    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 2164k CAPT. Paul Shirley on the bridge of USS Pensacola in 1868.
    File name: Pensacola 893-1868     		Darryl Baker
    California 84k View looking along the waterfront of Mare Island Navy Yard during the 1870s, with the city of Vallejo on the opposite side of the channel. Ships tied up at the Navy Yard include USS Saranac (left), USS Independence (center), and a Revenue Cutter (right center). Moored offshore are USS California (left) and USS Pensacola (left center). The yard's floating drydock is in the right distance
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 68685, from the William H. Topley collection. Courtesy of Charles M. Loring, 1969.    		 Robert Hurst
    Pensacola 130k USS Pensacola at anchor in 1875 off Mare Island Navy Yard with the town of Vallejo, CA. in in the background. Tommy Trampp
    Pensacola 1833k Mare Island Waterfront 1873-84. USS Pensacola is in the foreground Ships in the background from left to right are: USS Saranac, unidentified small ship (likely a revenue cutter), USS Vanderbilt (large side wheeler with her engines housed-over), several other unidentified ships at the yard's coal wharf and what appears to be the monitor USS Monadnock with main deck housed-over. Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 131k USS Pensacola at anchor off Alexandria, Virginia, in 1886. US Navy photo from "Conways All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905". Robert Hurst
    New Hampshire 1843k Mare Island waterfront 1887-1901. USS Pensacola, mid photo, moored at the quay wall, at Navy Yard Mare Island, Vallejo, CA., in 1897. USS Mohican is in dry dock #1 (you can see her masts and bow). USS Philadelphia (C-4) is moored in the channel; and USS Independence is aft of Pensacola.File name Mohican 1897-01, Navy Photo, November 1987 Darryl Baker
    Mohican 938k USS Mohican (left) and USS Pensacola (right) moored at the Mare Island Navy Yard quay wall in 1987.
    A US Navy photo now in the collections of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum.    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 1084k Broadside view of USS Pensacola off San Francisco circa 1891.
    File name: Pensacola 959 1890    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 251k Steam frigate USS Pensacola firing her guns, date unknown..
    Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress.    		 Bill Gonyo
    Pensacola 1089k Post card by A. Cruz of USS Pensacola at Yerba Buena Island circa 1898. Apprentices returning from a cruise.
    File name: Pensacola at Yerba Buena Island     		Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 1507k USS Pensacola at the Mare Island sea wall circa 1898.
    File name: Pensacola D-17 1898    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 1259k USS Pensacola moored in Mare Island channel circa 1898.
    File name: Pensacola NRL 10458 1898    		 Darryl Baker
    Pensacola 1401k View of the southern section of Mare Island Navy Yard in November 1898. The Ship at the quay wall (left) is USS Pensacola serving as a training ship. The yard's receiving ship USS Independence is seen below the boom of the 40 ton dry dock rail crane. USS Monterey (M-6) is dry dock number 1. The shed below the 40 ton crane is the winch for the marine railway.
    File name: MINSY November 1898    		 Darryl Baker
    Portsmouth 135k USS Pensacola officers from the book “U.S. Naval Training Station Yerba Buena Island” (1899). Bill Gonyo
    Portsmouth 160k USS Pensacola moored at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay while conducting an artillery drill in the foreground.
    From the book “U.S. Naval Training Station Yerba Buena Island” (1899).    		 Bill Gonyo
    Portsmouth 93k Port Broadside view of USS Pensacola moored pierside, circa 1890-1901, location unknown.
    Library of Congress photo # LC-D4-20089    		 Mike Green
    Portsmouth 850k Standard seabag issue (clothing and small stores) for Apprentice Seaman Fred H. Taylor, USN, Deck Division USS Pensacola, 1905. Henry Tramp changed his name to Fred H. Taylor because he was only 16 years old when he originally enlisted in the US Navy. Keith Tramp, grandson of Henry Tramp
    USS Pensacola (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 3 March 2017