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USS Magnolia (I)
ex
CSS Magnolia (1862)


Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Side-wheel Steamer
  • Built as a wooden, seagoing, side-wheel steamer at Greenpoint, N.Y., in 1857 by Charles Morgan's Southern SS Co.
  • Impressed at New Orleans, 15 January 1862, by Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell, CSA, acting for the Confederacy's Secretary of War Benjamin
  • CSS Magnolia was fitted out as a blockade runner, with at least two successful runs to nearby British islands
  • On 19 February 1862, while trying to escape from Pass a L'Outre in the Gulf of Mexico, she was captured by Union ships USS Brooklyn and USS South Carolina (III)
  • Purchased, 9 April 1862, at New York, N.Y., by the Navy Department from the Key West Prize Court
  • After repairs, she was commissioned USS Magnolia at New York, 22 July 1862, LT. William Budd in command
  • Magnolia departed New York, 26 July 1862, to take station near Key West as part of the Union blockade
  • While enroute Magnolia captured the British steamer Memphis, 31 July, near Cape Romain, S.C.
  • Aided by USS South Carolina, Magnolia convoyed her prize to New York, arriving 3 August
  • After repairs, she sailed again for Key West where she operated off the coast of Florida with the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron
  • Magnolia took British schooner Carmita, 27 December, and 2 days later seized a second blockade runner, British sloop Flying Fish, off Tortugas
  • Continuous boiler problems eventually forced Magnolia to finally sail north 15 July 1863 for repairs at New York
  • USS Magnolia rejoined the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron, 25 April 1864
  • While patrolling off the Bahama Banks on 10 September she captured steamer Matagorda
  • Magnolia remained in these waters until February 1865, when she shifted to Apalachee Bay to blockade St. Marks, FL.
  • Magnolia put into Key West 15 March, and spent her last war days ferrying supplies to the ships maintaining the blockade
  • Decommissioned at New York, 10 June 1865
  • Sold at public auction to N. L. & G. Griswold, 12 July 1865
  • Redocumented, 23 August 1865, Magnolia served briefly as a merchantman and was abandoned in 1866
    Specifications:
    Displacement 843 t.
    Length 242'
    Beam 40'5'
    Depth of Hull unknown
    Draft 8'
    Speed 12 kts
    Complement 96
    Armament
    one 20-pdr Parrott rifle
    four 24-pdr guns
    Propulsion
    vertical beam steam engine
    auxiliary sails, schooner riggged
    two side-wheels


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    USS Magnolia (I)
    Dictionary of American Navy Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 27 August 2021