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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Tuscarora

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Mohican-class Screw Sloop-of-War:
  • Laid down, 27 June 1861, by Merrick and Sons, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Launched, 24 August 1861
  • Commissioned, USS Tuscarora 5 December 1861, CDR. Tunis A.M. Craven in command
  • Decommissioned, 4 June 1864, at Boston, MA.
  • Recommissioned at Boston, 3 October 1864
  • Decommissioned, 30 May 1865, at Boston, MA.
  • During the Civil War USS Tuscarora cruised independently in European and US Atlantic coastal waters protecting American shipping and searching for Confederate raiders and saw service with both North Atlantic and South Atlantic Blockading Squadrons
  • Recommissioned later in 1865 and sailing to join the South Pacific Squadron, 2 November 1865
  • Reassigned to the Atlantic 12 May 1869
  • Decommissioned, 10 February 1872, at Portsmouth, N.H.
  • Recommissioned, 16 May 1872, assigned to the South Pacific Station
  • Reassigned to the North Pacific Station, 11 October 1874
  • Decommissioned, 14 September 1876, at Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Struck from the Naval Register in 1883
  • Sold at Mare Island to W. E. Mighell, 20 November 1883
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,457 t.
    Length 198' 6"
    Beam 33' 2"
    Draft 14' 10"
    Speed 11 kts.
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    two 11" Dahlgren smoothbores
    two 32-pdrs hundred-weight
    four 32-pdrs 57 hundred-weight
    one 30-pdr Parrott rifle
    Propulsion steam and sail
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    CSS Nashville
    098646607    		 229k "The 'Nashville' and 'Tuscarora' at Southampton"
    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1862, page 96, depicting CSS Nashville in dock at Southampton, England, circa January 1862, with USS Tuscarora keeping watch in the right distance. Other identified ships in the distance are probably HMS Dauntless and HMS Moulton, British warships present to protect English neutrality.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59348    		 Bill Gonyo
    CSS Nashville
    098646614    		 525k "The Modern Janus" is a political cartoon from the Civil War era depicting a symbolic Janus enforcing British Maritime law. British maritime law required belligerents from the same country finding themselves in the same British port, in this case Southampton, could only leave the port separated by no less than 24 hours. In the version on the left the banner reads, "Now then you Villains sheer off" requiring USS Tuscarora to remain at Southampton for at least 24 hours after CSS Nashville had departed. On the right the carton is flipped over 180°s and the banner reads "All right my lads, I'll protect ye." Allowing CSS Nashville at least 24 hours head start before USS Tuscarora would be allowed to leave Southampton in per3suit. Tommy Trampp
    CSS Sumter 112k USS Kearsarge, USS Tuscarora and CSS Sumter at Gibraltar.
    Artwork published in "Service Afloat: or, the Remarkable Career of the Confederate Cruisers Sumter and Alabama" ..., by Admiral Raphael Semmes, CSN, 1887. It depicts the Tuscarora and Kearsarge keeping watch on the Confederate cruiser Sumter, on 12 April 1862.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59410    		 Robert Hurst
    Tuscarora 474k USS Tuscarora in Southhampton water.
    "The Illustrated London News" 25 January 1862.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Tuscarora 110k From the action report submitted by Commander James Madison Frailey to Admiral David Porter it was noted Acting Masters Mate Arthur F. Aldrich (from the USS Tuscarora) was seriously wounded in the hip during the attack on Fort Fisher, North Carolina on 16 January 1865. The following day on 17 January Aldrich was transferred to the USS Santiago de Cuba for transportation the Naval Hospital in Norfolk. On 28 June 1865 he was promoted to Acting Ensign. Bill Gonyo
    Pensacola 76k USS Tuscarora after the Civil War tied up to mooring buoy with ensigns at her masthead to celebrate a holiday.
    US Navy photo # NR&L(O) 2806 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 Robert Hurst
    Tuscarora 838k USS Tuscarora at anchor off Navy Yard Mare Island, circa 1872-76. Darryl Baker
    Tuscarora 161k USS Tuscarora at anchor off Navy Yard Mare Island, circa 1872-76.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 45207, courtesy of Naval Historical Foundation, Rear Admiral R.R. Belknap Collection    		 Mike Green
    Tuscarora 1319k USS Tuscarora at anchor off Navy Yard Mare Island, circa 1866-83. USS Camanche is at anchor aft of Tuscarora. The small ship in the foreground is the Mare Island build Coast Survey Vessel Mc Arthur. Darryl Baker
    USS Tuscarora
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 20 November 2020