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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Itasca (I)


Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Unadilla Class Screw Steam Gunboat:
  • Laid down, date unknown, by Hillman & Streaker, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Launched, 1 October 1861
  • Commissioned, USS Itasca at Philadelphia, 28 November 1861, LT. Charles H. B. Caldwell in command
  • During the Civil War USS Itasca was assigned to the Gulf Blockading Squadron
    Captured schooner Lizzie Weston, 19 January 1862
    Reassigned to the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron when Gulf Squadron was split, 20 January 1863
    Assisted USS Brooklyn in capturing Confederate steamer SS Magnolia in February 1862
    Participated in the attacks on Forts St. Philip and Jackson below New Orleans in April 1862
    Took two prizes, Miriam and Sea Drift in June 1862, while on blockade patrol off Galveston, TX.
    Participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, capturing Confederate gunboat CSS Selma
    Captured English schooner Carrier Mair and destroyed sloop Mary Ann, 30 November 1864, off Pass Cavallo, TX.
  • Decommissioned, 22 August 1865, at New York.
  • Sold, 30 November 1865, re-documented SS Aurora, 23 August 1866, resold foreign in 1867
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 507 t.
    Length 158' 8"
    Beam 28'
    Depth of Hold 12'
    Draft 10' 6"
    Speed 9 kts
    Complement 114 officers and enlisted
    Armament
    one 11" Dahlgren smoothbore
    one 20-pdr Parrott rifle
    two 24-pdr howitzers
    Propulsion
    rigged as a two masted schooner
    two 200 imp 30" stroke horizontal back-acting engines
    single screw

    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image
    Size Image Description Source
    Unadilla 82k Line engraving published in Harper's Weekly, July-December 1861 volume. depicting the ten "90-Day Gunboats" constructed for the U.S. Navy in 1861-62. Ships, as identified in the image are from left to right;
    USS Chippewa
    USS Sciota
    USS Itasca
    USS Winona
    USS Huron
    USS Ottawa
    USS Pembina
    USS Seneca
    USS Unadilla and
    USS Sagamore. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Photo #: NH 59367
    Robert Hurst
    Battle of Mobile Bay 179k Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Line engraving after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, published in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War", Volume 4, page 378. Entitled "Surrender of the Tennessee,' Battle of Mobile Bay", it depicts CSS Tennessee in the center foreground, surrounded by the Union warships (from left to right): USS Lackawanna, USS Winnebago, USS Ossipee, USS Brooklyn, USS Itasca, USS Richmond, USS Hartford and USS Chickasaw. Fort Morgan is shown in the right distance. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 1276 Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland. Gift of Henry Huddleston Rogers, 1930.
    Itasca 170k USS Brooklyn inside Mobile Bay after the action, "from a sketch made at the time", showing some of her battle damage. USS Galena (I) is in the left background, and USS Itasca is at right. 19th Century reproduction of a pen and ink drawing by Xanthus Smith. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 56579

    USS Itasca (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01LT. Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge28 November 1861 - 10 October 1862
    02LCDR. Lewis, Robert F. R.10 October 1862 - 26 October 1863
    03LCDR. Brown, George26 October 1863 - 25 January 1865
    04LCDR. Green, Nathaniel1 February 1865 - 22 August 1865
    Courtesy Bill Gonyo

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    Last Updated 10 June 2016