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USS Aroostook (1861)
Encyclopedia
USS Aroostook was a built for the Union Navy
during the American Civil War
. Aroostook was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy
to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
; launched on or around 19 October 1861; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard
on 20 February 1862, Lt. John C. Beaumont in command.
Light. Capt. William L. Hudson, the commandant of the yard, ordered Beaumont to proceed in Aroostook to the vicinity where the disabled ship of the line had last been seen and, upon finding Vermont, to stand by her until other aid arrived.
After getting underway on 2 March, Aroostook located the distressed vessel on the 7th and then lay to, shielding Vermont from the wind. During the ensuing week, Aroostook lost her smokestack and suffered other damage. On the 15th, after the steamer Saxon arrived on the scene and relieved her, Aroostook headed for the Delaware capes.
The gunboat entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the 23d and, following repair of her storm damage and the installation of a new smoke stack, she headed for the Virginia Capes
on the last day of March and entered Hampton Roads
on 2 April.
-- the scuttled and burnt screw frigate Merrimack, raised and rebuilt as a Southern ironclad ram—had made her deadly foray into that roadstead and destroyed the frigate
and , originally a frigate but cut down to a razee
sloop of war. The next day, the novel and plucky Union ironclad Monitor
had challenged and checked Virginia when the dreaded Confederate warship
reentered Hampton Roads to finish off the remaining Union blockading squadron.
Their fierce fight to a draw on the historic afternoon of 9 March began some two months of an uneasy naval stalemate in Hampton Roads while Union Army
transports brought the troops of General George B. McClellan
's Army of the Potomac
to the area to launch a drive toward Richmond, Virginia
, up the peninsula
formed by the York
and James Rivers
. Strict Confederate secrecy covered Virginia during the weeks following the epic, but inconclusive, battle. The Southern ironclad had reentered the Norfolk Navy Yard to get a new ram to replace that which had broken off in Cumberland's hull as Virginia backed free of her first victim. She also received new armor plates to replace those cracked in battle as well as an armored belt just below her vulnerable casemate eves.
When his fellow commanding officer
s had learned of Beaumont's plan, they seemed to fear Aroostook even more than they dreaded Virginia lest the gunboat's now notorious net might foul their own screws. For instance, Comdr. James P. McKinstry, the captain of the screw steamer , would constantly warn his officers,
Virginia rounded Sewell's Point
on 11 April; but, since strategic considerations prevented her from challenging Monitor or the other nearby Union warships, Aroostook's dreaded net never entered the water. Nevertheless, forces were then at work which would enable the Union gunboat to play a highly significant role in one of the more dramatic scenes of the Civil War.
On 24 April, the new and lightly armored gunboat joined the Union flotilla serving in Hampton Roads. Her captain, Comdr. John Rodgers, was one of the Navy's most imaginative strategists and most skillful tacticians; and he immediately began studying the situation facing Union forces in the area.
arrived there about a fortnight
later, Rodgers visited him and suggested that ". . . there was a great opening for a Naval movement up James River . . . ." Prompt action was necessary since Virginia was then at Norfolk, Virginia
, undergoing yard work but was expected to emerge the following afternoon. Should she reach the mouth of the James before the Union task force began its ascent, the Confederate ironclad could bring the whole plan to naught.
After conferring with Flag Officer Goldsborough, the commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Lincoln approved the plan, and Rodgers received command of the little task force—consisting of Galena, Aroostook, and -- which got underway shortly after dawn on 8 May. By mid-morning, they were taken under fire by a Confederate battery at Rock Wharf which their counter fire silenced. A second group of Southern guns at Mother Tyne's Bluff offered more resistance, forcing Galena to pass and re-pass that point seven times before Rodgers had Galena lie still abreast the battery which her own cannon engaged while her unarmored consorts slipped by unscathed.
Another danger soon became apparent. The channel marks had been moved causing Galena to run aground off Hog Island
. Aroostook and Port Royal labored incessantly for 36 hours before they managed to refloat their stranded flagship
which then led them farther upstream.
The Confederate gunboats Patrick Henry
and Yorktown -- which had been in sight during the action at Mother Tyne's Bluff—had retired upstream ahead of the northern flotilla where Rodgers believed they had joined three other Southern warships. Feeling that he was badly outmatched, Rodgers dropped down to Jamestown Island and sent a messenger to Goldsborough asking for reinforcements.
This appeal reached the flag officer at a most propitious moment, for the South had just evacuated Norfolk and, since Virginia had lost her base, had destroyed the dreaded ironclad ram—lest she fall into Union hands—Goldsborough for the first time, was able to deploy elsewhere the forces he had held in Hampton Roads to check the rebuilt Merrimack. He promptly ordered Monitor and to ascend the James to reinforce Rodgers. The two ships joined Rodgers off Jamestown Island on the 12th, and the combined force moved up to City Point
the next day. As they continued on upriver on the 14th, Galena ran aground as the tide was falling, and Aroostook and her consorts labored four hours before they refloated the flotilla flagship.
had taken New Orleans, Louisiana
, a few weeks before. This was a battery on Drewry's Bluff above a bend in the river some eight miles below the threatened city.
Before dawn on the 15th, Rodgers ships weighed anchor to resume their ascent of the James and came
At 7:35 A.M., they sighted puffs of smoke blossom on Drewry's Bluff as the Southern batteries opened fire. Shortly afterwards lookouts spotted obstructions in the channel that would soon halt their progress. Galena anchored some 600 yards from the Confederate cannon, and Monitor stopped immediately below the flagship. At 8:00 A.M., Aroostook, Port Royal, and Naugatuck moored about 400 yards farther downstream, and Aroostook began firing with her 11-inch Dahlgren
.
She kept up the bombardment until the cliffside gunners found her range at 9:45. The gunboat then dropped 100 yards farther downstream and resumed her shelling. By 11:00, Galena and Monitor had almost emptied their magazines, prompting Rodgers to break off the action and then to retire downstream. Aroostook—which had ". . . received a shot at the waterline under the after part of the starboard forechains ..." and another ". . . through the starboard bow one foot above the sheet hawse hole"—suffered no personnel casualties during the engagement.
, but never venturing far enough upriver to come within range of the guns at Drewry's Bluff.
During this period, she carried messages, munitions, and supplies and gathered intelligence of Confederate activity for the use of both McClellan and Goldsborough. Occasionally, she came under small arms attack from the riverbanks; and silenced her assailants by well-directed gunfire. On 9 June, the ship proceeded to Jamestown Island where she landed a party which destroyed the guns, ammunition, gun carriages and buildings of the abandoned Confederate batteries.
Four days later, she performed similar service by wrecking the former Southern works at the mouth of Archershape Creek and reconnoitered the then abandoned riverside artillery positions at Harden's Bluff and Day's Point.
The wisdom of this measure became apparent during the Seven Days Campaign late in the month. In a series of bloody battles which began on 25 June, Robert E. Lee
drove McClellan's troops across the peninsula to this new base on the James where Aroostook joined other Union warships in protecting the beleaguered Federal ground forces.
She continued to carry out this duty through the ensuing weeks, first while McClellan was hoping to resume the offensive and later while he was withdrawing his troops from the peninsula to resume operations in northern Virginia
.
Thereafter, her crew affectionately called their ship the "Old Rooster."
, to reinforce Gen. Pope's army in defense of Washington, D.C.
, Welles wired Commodore Charles Wilkes
, the commander of the James River Flotilla, disbanding that organization and ordering him to proceed—with Aroostook, four other warships, and six mortar boats—to Washington to take command of the Potomac Flotilla
. Aroostook reached the Washington Navy Yard
on 1 September and spent the remainder of that month operating on the Potomac River
, bolstering the defensive forces of the National Capital which was then threatened by General Lee's troops who had recently defeated Pope's army and crossed the Potomac into Maryland
.
The Army of the Potomac fought Confederate invaders at Sharpsburg, Maryland
, on the 17th and stalled their advance in the most bloody single-day battle of the war. This battle prompted Lee to retire below the Potomac. The Southern withdrawal relieved much of the pressure on Washington and freed some of the Union warships in the Potomac for duty elsewhere.
, Alabama
.
Guarding this port was her primary duty for almost a year. Her first notable action of this assignment came during a fierce gale on the night of 15 December 1862 when she sighted a vessel ". . . passing to sea from the northward." She signaled her sister blockaders and gave chase. She lost sight of the stranger; but, early the following morning, saw a schooner
grounded in shoals east of Sand Island. Soon afterwards the stranded vessel began issuing smoke and then became ". . . enveloped in flames." The fire raged throughout the day and into the following night, and floating burned cotton
indicated that the vessel had been an outward-bound blockade runner
.
On the evening of 9 May, Aroostook took Sea Lion as that schooner was trying to slip out of Mobile Bay with 272 bales of cotton which she hoped to deliver to Havana, Cuba. Nine days later, she was one of the warships which by her nearby position supported the gunboat in the capture of the cotton laden schooner Hunter.
About an hour after midnight on 17 July, Aroostook and Kennebec both observed a steamer attempting to slip out of Mobile, informed their sister blockaders of the fact, and headed for the blockade runner. In response to their signals, the steam sloop also gave chase; soon passed her informants; and, shortly after dawn, brought the fleeing ship to with a few well directed rounds. The prize proved to be the cotton-laden steamer James Battle which had jettisoned some 50 of her more than 600 bales of cotton. Following in her wake, Aroostook picked up about 40 bales of the floating cargo.
Late in her tour of duty off Mobile Bay, she twice engaged shore batteries: on 19 April and on 23 June. Lt. Comdr. Chester Hatfield was detached from the steam sloop and relieved Franklin in command of Aroostook on 28 July.
broke out in the gunboat late in the summer. Hence, on 13 September, the gunboat departed her station off Mobile Bay and proceeded, via Pensacola, Florida
, to quarantine
in the lower Mississippi River
where she arrived on the 17th. When the crew had been restored to good health, the ship move upriver to New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 26th for badly needed repairs.
. On the 22d, while en route to Galveston, Texas
, she captured the schooner Eureka which had slipped out of the Brazos River
laden with cotton for delivery to Havana, Cuba.
During her service in Texas waters which—but for occasional voyages back to New Orleans for repairs—lasted through the end of the Civil War, Aroostook also took the schooner Cosmopolite on 23 January 1864, the schooner Mary P. Burton on 3 March, and the schooner Marion on 12 March. On 8 July, after Kanawha had forced the blockade runner Matagorda aground near Galveston, Aroostook and joined that Union gunboat in shelling the stranded steamer to destruction.
From time to time during this period, Aroostook engaged Confederate shore batteries, and occasionally picked up large quantities of floating cotton which had been jettisoned by fleeing blockade runners.
in Hartford had sailed for the Far East
to reestablish the East India Squadron
which had been inactive since its warships had returned to the East Coast of the United States to join in the fighting at home.
Upon reaching Oriental waters, Bell recognized piracy as one of the most serious problems facing western navies in the Far East and requested reinforcement by light-draft gunboats that could pursue Asiatic freebooters who sought refuge in shallow coastal waters where deep-draft warships could not follow.
Recommissioned on 21 December 1866, Comdr. Lester A. Beardslee in command, Aroostook proceeded to the Far East via the Atlantic Ocean
-Cape of Good Hope
-Indian Ocean
route, arrived at Hong Kong
late in August 1867; and joined Bell's force which had recently been renamed the Asiatic Squadron.
A short time later, she sailed for Japan with most of Bell's flotilla to take part in a mass demonstration of Western and Japan
ese warships off the southern coast of Honshū
on 1 January 1868 when the ports of Kobe
and Osaka
were to be opened to foreign trade.
Aroostook soon returned to Hong Kong and turned her attention to operations against pirates along the coast of China
. She also occasionally served as a dispatch vessel
carrying American diplomats between ports of the Far East.
. She continued to perform this duty until after the shogun
's forces capitulated late in June.
, decommissioned at Hong Kong on 18 September 1869, and sold sometime in October 1869.
However, she performed one more service for the United States Navy
. After word reached Yokohama
that the British P&O steamer City of Bombay had struck on the evening of 24 January 1870, sinking that American screw sloop
of war, the senior United States naval officer in port chartered the former USS Aroostook to search for any survivors of the accident. Manned in part by volunteers from the Russian man-of-war Vsadnik, the former American gunboat steamed waters in the general vicinity of the collision for over a month seeking traces of the Oneida's crew.
No records of Aroostook's subsequent career have survived.
Union Navy
The Union Navy is the label applied to the United States Navy during the American Civil War, to contrast it from its direct opponent, the Confederate States Navy...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Aroostook was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
Construction and design
Aroostook -- a wooden-hulled, steam-propelled, screw gunboat—was laid down by Nathaniel Lord Thompson sometime soon after 6 July 1861, at Kennebunk, MaineKennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,075 people at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport , the population totals 14,196 people...
; launched on or around 19 October 1861; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard
Boston Navy Yard
The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. Established in 1801, it was officially closed as an active naval installation on July 1, 1974, and the property was...
on 20 February 1862, Lt. John C. Beaumont in command.
Rescue of Vermont
On 1 March 1862, toward the end of the gunboat's fitting out process, word reached the yard that, during a fierce storm, had lost her rudder, her bower anchors, all of her rigging, and four of her boats and was drifting helplessly amid raging seas some 95 miles south-southeast of Cape CodCape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
Light. Capt. William L. Hudson, the commandant of the yard, ordered Beaumont to proceed in Aroostook to the vicinity where the disabled ship of the line had last been seen and, upon finding Vermont, to stand by her until other aid arrived.
After getting underway on 2 March, Aroostook located the distressed vessel on the 7th and then lay to, shielding Vermont from the wind. During the ensuing week, Aroostook lost her smokestack and suffered other damage. On the 15th, after the steamer Saxon arrived on the scene and relieved her, Aroostook headed for the Delaware capes.
The gunboat entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the 23d and, following repair of her storm damage and the installation of a new smoke stack, she headed for the Virginia Capes
Virginia Capes
The Virginia Capes are the two capes, Cape Charles to the north and Cape Henry to the south, that define the entrance to Chesapeake Bay on the eastern coast of North America....
on the last day of March and entered Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
on 2 April.
Monitor vs. Virginia
The preceding month had been the most dramatic in the history of that busy anchorage. CSS VirginiaCSS Virginia
CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, built during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and steam engines of the scuttled . Virginia was one of the...
-- the scuttled and burnt screw frigate Merrimack, raised and rebuilt as a Southern ironclad ram—had made her deadly foray into that roadstead and destroyed the frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
and , originally a frigate but cut down to a razee
Razee
A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French vaisseau rasé, meaning a razed ship.-Sixteenth century:...
sloop of war. The next day, the novel and plucky Union ironclad Monitor
USS Monitor
USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads...
had challenged and checked Virginia when the dreaded Confederate warship
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
reentered Hampton Roads to finish off the remaining Union blockading squadron.
Their fierce fight to a draw on the historic afternoon of 9 March began some two months of an uneasy naval stalemate in Hampton Roads while Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
transports brought the troops of General George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union...
's Army of the Potomac
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...
to the area to launch a drive toward Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, up the peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
formed by the York
York River (Virginia)
The York River is a navigable estuary, approximately long, in eastern Virginia in the United States. It ranges in width from at its head to near its mouth on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Its watershed drains an area including portions of 17 counties of the coastal plain of Virginia north...
and James Rivers
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
. Strict Confederate secrecy covered Virginia during the weeks following the epic, but inconclusive, battle. The Southern ironclad had reentered the Norfolk Navy Yard to get a new ram to replace that which had broken off in Cumberland's hull as Virginia backed free of her first victim. She also received new armor plates to replace those cracked in battle as well as an armored belt just below her vulnerable casemate eves.
Countering CSS Virginia
Meanwhile, the Union Navy withdrew its sailing warships and some of its deep-draft steamers from Hampton Roads and replaced them with light-draft steam gunboats which were able to maneuver freely in the trick shoal waters inside the Virginia Capes. Aroostook was one of these gunboats, and, after entering Hampton Roads, remained constantly ready for action. During this period, the leaders of the Union Navy showed great imagination in devising innovative tactics for combating the ironclad. Lt. Beaumont decided that he might bring Virginia to bay by ensnaring her propeller in a long heavy net and seine that Aroostook's crew had made of "rattling" stuff. Such a procedure, he reasoned, would ". . . neutralize her motive power."When his fellow commanding officer
Commanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
s had learned of Beaumont's plan, they seemed to fear Aroostook even more than they dreaded Virginia lest the gunboat's now notorious net might foul their own screws. For instance, Comdr. James P. McKinstry, the captain of the screw steamer , would constantly warn his officers,
- "Keep out of Beaumont's way. Don't let Beaumont get near you. Keep your eye on the Aroostook."
Virginia rounded Sewell's Point
Sewell's Point
Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to the north, Hampton Roads to the west, and the Lafayette...
on 11 April; but, since strategic considerations prevented her from challenging Monitor or the other nearby Union warships, Aroostook's dreaded net never entered the water. Nevertheless, forces were then at work which would enable the Union gunboat to play a highly significant role in one of the more dramatic scenes of the Civil War.
On 24 April, the new and lightly armored gunboat joined the Union flotilla serving in Hampton Roads. Her captain, Comdr. John Rodgers, was one of the Navy's most imaginative strategists and most skillful tacticians; and he immediately began studying the situation facing Union forces in the area.
James River
When President Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
arrived there about a fortnight
Fortnight
The fortnight is a unit of time equal to fourteen days, or two weeks. The word derives from the Old English fēowertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights"....
later, Rodgers visited him and suggested that ". . . there was a great opening for a Naval movement up James River . . . ." Prompt action was necessary since Virginia was then at Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, undergoing yard work but was expected to emerge the following afternoon. Should she reach the mouth of the James before the Union task force began its ascent, the Confederate ironclad could bring the whole plan to naught.
After conferring with Flag Officer Goldsborough, the commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Lincoln approved the plan, and Rodgers received command of the little task force—consisting of Galena, Aroostook, and -- which got underway shortly after dawn on 8 May. By mid-morning, they were taken under fire by a Confederate battery at Rock Wharf which their counter fire silenced. A second group of Southern guns at Mother Tyne's Bluff offered more resistance, forcing Galena to pass and re-pass that point seven times before Rodgers had Galena lie still abreast the battery which her own cannon engaged while her unarmored consorts slipped by unscathed.
Another danger soon became apparent. The channel marks had been moved causing Galena to run aground off Hog Island
Hog Island
-Canada:* Hog Island in the North Channel * Hog Island in the Ottawa River* Hog Island near Chilliwack, British Columbia-USA:* Appledore Island, Maine, formerly known as Hog Island...
. Aroostook and Port Royal labored incessantly for 36 hours before they managed to refloat their stranded flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
which then led them farther upstream.
The Confederate gunboats Patrick Henry
CSS Patrick Henry
CSS Patrick Henry was built in New York City in 1859 by the renowned William H. Webb for the Old Dominion Steam Ship Line as the civilian steamer Yorktown, a brigantine-rigged side-wheel steamer. She carried passengers and freight between Richmond, Virginia and New York City...
and Yorktown -- which had been in sight during the action at Mother Tyne's Bluff—had retired upstream ahead of the northern flotilla where Rodgers believed they had joined three other Southern warships. Feeling that he was badly outmatched, Rodgers dropped down to Jamestown Island and sent a messenger to Goldsborough asking for reinforcements.
This appeal reached the flag officer at a most propitious moment, for the South had just evacuated Norfolk and, since Virginia had lost her base, had destroyed the dreaded ironclad ram—lest she fall into Union hands—Goldsborough for the first time, was able to deploy elsewhere the forces he had held in Hampton Roads to check the rebuilt Merrimack. He promptly ordered Monitor and to ascend the James to reinforce Rodgers. The two ships joined Rodgers off Jamestown Island on the 12th, and the combined force moved up to City Point
City Point
-Places:United Kingdom*CityPoint, an office tower in London, EnglandUnited States*City Point , a neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut*City Point, Boston, a section of South Boston, Massachusetts...
the next day. As they continued on upriver on the 14th, Galena ran aground as the tide was falling, and Aroostook and her consorts labored four hours before they refloated the flotilla flagship.
Drewry's Bluff
Only one obstacle stood between the Union warships and Richmond, the Confederate capital which they hoped to capture, just as a Federal force commanded by Flag Officer David FarragutDavid Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the...
had taken New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, a few weeks before. This was a battery on Drewry's Bluff above a bend in the river some eight miles below the threatened city.
Before dawn on the 15th, Rodgers ships weighed anchor to resume their ascent of the James and came
- ". . . under a sharp fire of musketry from both banks, to which . . . [they] replied occasionally with howitzers and small arms."
At 7:35 A.M., they sighted puffs of smoke blossom on Drewry's Bluff as the Southern batteries opened fire. Shortly afterwards lookouts spotted obstructions in the channel that would soon halt their progress. Galena anchored some 600 yards from the Confederate cannon, and Monitor stopped immediately below the flagship. At 8:00 A.M., Aroostook, Port Royal, and Naugatuck moored about 400 yards farther downstream, and Aroostook began firing with her 11-inch Dahlgren
Dahlgren
-People:*Anders Dahlgren , Swedish politician who was a member of the Centre Party*Albert Dahlgren , Swedish-Canadian master carpenter*Charles G...
.
She kept up the bombardment until the cliffside gunners found her range at 9:45. The gunboat then dropped 100 yards farther downstream and resumed her shelling. By 11:00, Galena and Monitor had almost emptied their magazines, prompting Rodgers to break off the action and then to retire downstream. Aroostook—which had ". . . received a shot at the waterline under the after part of the starboard forechains ..." and another ". . . through the starboard bow one foot above the sheet hawse hole"—suffered no personnel casualties during the engagement.
Return downstream
For the next few months, the gunboat continued to operate in the James, occasionally dropping as far downstream as Fort MonroeFort Monroe
Fort Monroe was a military installation in Hampton, Virginia—at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula...
, but never venturing far enough upriver to come within range of the guns at Drewry's Bluff.
During this period, she carried messages, munitions, and supplies and gathered intelligence of Confederate activity for the use of both McClellan and Goldsborough. Occasionally, she came under small arms attack from the riverbanks; and silenced her assailants by well-directed gunfire. On 9 June, the ship proceeded to Jamestown Island where she landed a party which destroyed the guns, ammunition, gun carriages and buildings of the abandoned Confederate batteries.
Four days later, she performed similar service by wrecking the former Southern works at the mouth of Archershape Creek and reconnoitered the then abandoned riverside artillery positions at Harden's Bluff and Day's Point.
Seven Days' Campaign
Meanwhile, after inching its way up the peninsula, the Union army was just outside Richmond, preparing to lay siege to the Confederate capital. In mid-June, McClellan, alarmed about his vulnerable dangling right flank and the line of communications to his base at the White House, ordered a reconnaissance probe toward the James to determine the feasibility of establishing a base on the north bank of that river where his army would enjoy the support of Union warships. On the 18th, after receiving favorable reports, McClellan ordered transports and supply ships from the York River to Harrison's Landing on the north bank of the James.The wisdom of this measure became apparent during the Seven Days Campaign late in the month. In a series of bloody battles which began on 25 June, Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
drove McClellan's troops across the peninsula to this new base on the James where Aroostook joined other Union warships in protecting the beleaguered Federal ground forces.
She continued to carry out this duty through the ensuing weeks, first while McClellan was hoping to resume the offensive and later while he was withdrawing his troops from the peninsula to resume operations in northern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Escaped slaves
During this period, Beaumont became ill and was relieved in command of Aroostook by Lt. Samuel Rhodes Franklin. About this time, the ship chanced upon a group of runaway slaves and offered them refuge on board. When Franklin asked one if he and his companions had not been afraid of being shot for attempting to escape, he confidently replied- "No, saah, when we seed de Old Rooster coming along, we knowed we was all right."
Thereafter, her crew affectionately called their ship the "Old Rooster."
Potomac River Flotilla
When the last of McClellan's troops had embarked in transports which would take them to Aquia, VirginiaAquia, Virginia
Aquia is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.-Reference:...
, to reinforce Gen. Pope's army in defense of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Welles wired Commodore Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...
, the commander of the James River Flotilla, disbanding that organization and ordering him to proceed—with Aroostook, four other warships, and six mortar boats—to Washington to take command of the Potomac Flotilla
Potomac Flotilla
The Potomac Flotilla, or the Potomac Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy created in the early days of the American Civil War to secure Union communications in the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River and their tributaries, and to disrupt Confederate communications and shipping in the...
. Aroostook reached the Washington Navy Yard
Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy...
on 1 September and spent the remainder of that month operating on the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
, bolstering the defensive forces of the National Capital which was then threatened by General Lee's troops who had recently defeated Pope's army and crossed the Potomac into Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
.
The Army of the Potomac fought Confederate invaders at Sharpsburg, Maryland
Sharpsburg, Maryland
Sharpsburg is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States, approximately south of Hagerstown. The population was 691 at the 2000 census....
, on the 17th and stalled their advance in the most bloody single-day battle of the war. This battle prompted Lee to retire below the Potomac. The Southern withdrawal relieved much of the pressure on Washington and freed some of the Union warships in the Potomac for duty elsewhere.
West Gulf Blockade
Reassigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Aroostook departed Washington on 2 October and proceeded via Fort Monroe to her new station. She reached the Pensacola Navy Yard on the 16th and, after six days of voyage repairs, joined the blockading forces off Mobile BayMobile Bay
Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
.
Guarding this port was her primary duty for almost a year. Her first notable action of this assignment came during a fierce gale on the night of 15 December 1862 when she sighted a vessel ". . . passing to sea from the northward." She signaled her sister blockaders and gave chase. She lost sight of the stranger; but, early the following morning, saw a schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
grounded in shoals east of Sand Island. Soon afterwards the stranded vessel began issuing smoke and then became ". . . enveloped in flames." The fire raged throughout the day and into the following night, and floating burned cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
indicated that the vessel had been an outward-bound blockade runner
Blockade runner
A blockade runner is usually a lighter weight ship used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait, as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade. Very often blockade running is done in order to transport cargo, for example to bring food or arms to a blockaded city...
.
Capture of blockade runners
On 5 March 1863, a lookout in the "Old Rooster" made out "... a sail close to the beach trying to run into Mobile Bay", and the Northern gunboat immediately raced off in pursuit. This stranger then ran ashore, and her crew escaped in a boat. Aroostook -- joined by the screw steamer -- shelled the vessel, the 40- to 50-ton sloop Josephine, until she ". . . was a complete wreck." The following night, the same two blockaders, chased and fired upon another small sailing vessel; but "an ugly sea", darkness, and shoal water enabled this runner to reach safety inside Mobile Bay.On the evening of 9 May, Aroostook took Sea Lion as that schooner was trying to slip out of Mobile Bay with 272 bales of cotton which she hoped to deliver to Havana, Cuba. Nine days later, she was one of the warships which by her nearby position supported the gunboat in the capture of the cotton laden schooner Hunter.
About an hour after midnight on 17 July, Aroostook and Kennebec both observed a steamer attempting to slip out of Mobile, informed their sister blockaders of the fact, and headed for the blockade runner. In response to their signals, the steam sloop also gave chase; soon passed her informants; and, shortly after dawn, brought the fleeing ship to with a few well directed rounds. The prize proved to be the cotton-laden steamer James Battle which had jettisoned some 50 of her more than 600 bales of cotton. Following in her wake, Aroostook picked up about 40 bales of the floating cargo.
Late in her tour of duty off Mobile Bay, she twice engaged shore batteries: on 19 April and on 23 June. Lt. Comdr. Chester Hatfield was detached from the steam sloop and relieved Franklin in command of Aroostook on 28 July.
Yellow fever outbreak
Yellow feverYellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
broke out in the gunboat late in the summer. Hence, on 13 September, the gunboat departed her station off Mobile Bay and proceeded, via Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...
, to quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
in the lower Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
where she arrived on the 17th. When the crew had been restored to good health, the ship move upriver to New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 26th for badly needed repairs.
Texas coast
Ready for sea again in mid-November, the ship started down river on the 17th and headed for the coast of TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. On the 22d, while en route to Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
, she captured the schooner Eureka which had slipped out of the Brazos River
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...
laden with cotton for delivery to Havana, Cuba.
During her service in Texas waters which—but for occasional voyages back to New Orleans for repairs—lasted through the end of the Civil War, Aroostook also took the schooner Cosmopolite on 23 January 1864, the schooner Mary P. Burton on 3 March, and the schooner Marion on 12 March. On 8 July, after Kanawha had forced the blockade runner Matagorda aground near Galveston, Aroostook and joined that Union gunboat in shelling the stranded steamer to destruction.
From time to time during this period, Aroostook engaged Confederate shore batteries, and occasionally picked up large quantities of floating cotton which had been jettisoned by fleeing blockade runners.
Decommission
A few months after hostilities ended, Aroostook departed New Orleans on 7 September 1865 and reached the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the 19th. She was decommissioned there on 25 September and laid up.Combating piracy
Meanwhile, about a month before, Acting Rear Admiral Henry H. BellHenry H. Bell
Henry Haywood Bell was an admiral in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.-Biography:Bell was born in Orange County, North Carolina. Appointed a Midshipman on 4 August 1823, during the next two decades he served afloat in U.S...
in Hartford had sailed for the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
to reestablish the East India Squadron
East India Squadron
The East India Squadron, or East Indies Squadron, was a squadron of American ships which existed in the nineteenth century, it focused on protecting American interests in the Far East while the Pacific Squadron concentrated on the western coasts of the Americas and in the South Pacific Ocean...
which had been inactive since its warships had returned to the East Coast of the United States to join in the fighting at home.
Upon reaching Oriental waters, Bell recognized piracy as one of the most serious problems facing western navies in the Far East and requested reinforcement by light-draft gunboats that could pursue Asiatic freebooters who sought refuge in shallow coastal waters where deep-draft warships could not follow.
Recommissioned on 21 December 1866, Comdr. Lester A. Beardslee in command, Aroostook proceeded to the Far East via the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
-Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
-Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
route, arrived at Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
late in August 1867; and joined Bell's force which had recently been renamed the Asiatic Squadron.
A short time later, she sailed for Japan with most of Bell's flotilla to take part in a mass demonstration of Western and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese warships off the southern coast of Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
on 1 January 1868 when the ports of Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
and Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
were to be opened to foreign trade.
Drowning of Admiral Bell
Bell had recently received orders to return home in Hartford. While he was being rowed ashore to pay a farewell visit to the American resident minister to Japan at Osaka on the morning of 11 January, his barge was upset by". . . three heavy rollers . . ." and all on board plunged into the icy surf. Aroostook, , and two other warships launched boats to rescue the struggling sailors. Her boat, ignoring the great danger, managed to pick up one floundering seaman and Hartford's saved two more. Admiral Bell, Lt. Comdr. John H. Reed, and 10 enlisted men drowned.Aroostook soon returned to Hong Kong and turned her attention to operations against pirates along the coast of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. She also occasionally served as a dispatch vessel
Dispatch boat
Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore...
carrying American diplomats between ports of the Far East.
Japanese protection mission
In the spring of 1869, the gunboat returned to Japanese waters to protect American citizens endangered by fighting during the Japanese civil warCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. She continued to perform this duty until after the shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
's forces capitulated late in June.
Final decommission and Oneida rescue mission
However, Aroostook -- which had been hastily constructed of inadequately seasoned timber—had aged prematurely and, because of her badly rotted hull, was unable to return home safely. As a result, she was condemned by a board of inspection and surveyBoard of Inspection and Survey
The Board of Inspection and Survey is a U.S. Navy organization whose purpose is to inspect and assess material condition of Naval vessels.The Board is currently headquartered at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia.- INSURV teams :...
, decommissioned at Hong Kong on 18 September 1869, and sold sometime in October 1869.
However, she performed one more service for the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. After word reached Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
that the British P&O steamer City of Bombay had struck on the evening of 24 January 1870, sinking that American screw sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
of war, the senior United States naval officer in port chartered the former USS Aroostook to search for any survivors of the accident. Manned in part by volunteers from the Russian man-of-war Vsadnik, the former American gunboat steamed waters in the general vicinity of the collision for over a month seeking traces of the Oneida's crew.
No records of Aroostook's subsequent career have survived.