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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Brooklyn (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Brooklyn Class Screw Sloop of War:
  • Laid down in 1857 at Jacob A. Westervelt and Son, New York
  • Launched in 1858
  • Commissioned USS Brooklyn, 26 January 1859, CAPT. David G. Farragut in command.
  • USS Brooklyn was initially assigned to the West Indies and spent almost the entire Civil War in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the West Gulf Blockading force, blockading ports, capturing Confederate shipping and participating in various campaigns including those at New Orleans, Vicksburg, Pensacola and Mobile Bay
  • War Prizes:
    29 May 1861: H.E. Spearing
    7 June 1861: Pilgrim
    20 June 1861: Nahum Stetson
    5 September 1861: Macao
    19 February 1862: SS Magnolia
    27 May 1963: Blazer
    28 May 1863: Kate
    30 May: Victoria (destroyed) and Star
  • Decommissioned in the autumn of 1861 at Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs
  • Recommissioned, 19 December 1861
  • Decommissioned, 25 August 1863, at New York Navy Yard for repairs
  • Recommissioned, 14 April 1864
  • Decommissioned, 31 January 1865, at New York Navy Yard, for repairs
  • Recommissioned, 4 October 1865 for service in the South Atlantic
  • Decommissioned, 11 September 1867, placed in ordinary
  • Recommissioned, 24 August 1870 for service Home Squadron and later as flagship of the South Atlantic Squadron
  • Returned to the Home Squadron in 1875
  • Decommissioned, at New York, 21 July 1876
  • Recommissioned, 11 November 1881 for duty with the South Atlantic Squadron
  • Decommissioned, 25 October 1884, placed in ordinary
  • Recommissioned, 15 October 1885 for duty with the South Atlantic Squadron
  • Reassigned, 4 April 1887, as flagship of the Asiatic Squadron
  • Decommissioned, 14 May 1889 at New York Navy Yard
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 6 January 1890
  • Sold at public auction at Norfolk, 25 March 1891, to E.J. Butler
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 2,532 t.
    Length 233' (waterline)
    Beam 43'
    Draft 16' 3"
    Speed 11.5 kts.
    Complement 335
    Armament
    As Built
    one 10" smoothbore
    twenty 9" smoothbores
    1862
    twenty-four 9" smoothbores
    two 12-pdr Howitzers
    June 1863
    one 100-pdr muzzle loading rifle
    twenty-two 9" smoothbores
    one 30-pdr muzzle loading rifle
    1864
    two 100-pdr muzzle loading rifles
    two 60-pdr muzzle loading rifles
    twenty 9" smoothbores
    two 12-pdr howitzers
    1869
    two 11" smoothbores
    eighteen 9" smoothbores
    1881
    one 8" muzzle loading rifle
    twelve 9" smoothbores
    Propulsion
    two horizontal directing-acting cross-head steam engines (61" x 2' 9")
    two boilers, 1,116 HHP @ 11.5 kts
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Brooklyn 129k A wood block print of USS Brooklyn titled "THE UNITED STATES SLOOP OF WAR, BROOKLYN", published in "Harper's Weekly" January 1861 Tommy Trampp
    Wyandotte 140k "The United States Fleet off Fort Pickens, Florida" A line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1861, depicting U.S. Navy ships off Pensacola, Florida, in April 1861. Federal troops were landed at Fort Pickens on 12 April. Ships identified in the title line are (left to right): USS Wyandotte (partially visible); USS Supply (in the distance); USS Sabine; USS Brooklyn and USS Crusader (partially visible).
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59121    		 Bill Gonyo
    Battle of Mobile Bay 77k "Battle of Mobile Bay ... Passing Fort Morgan and the Torpedoes". Print after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, 1886, depicting the Union and Confederate squadrons at the moment that USS Tecumseh sank after striking a mine ("torpedo"). Confederate ships (left foreground) are CSS Morgan, CSS Gaines and CSS Tennessee. Union monitors visible astern of USS Tecumseh are USS Manhattan and USS Winnebago. USS Brooklyn is leading the outer line of Union warships, immediately followed by USS Hartford. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 42396. Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.
    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 179k USS Brooklyn inside Mobile Bay after the action, "from a sketch made at the time", showing some of her battle damage. USS Galena 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
    Maumee 94k "Bombardment of Fort Fisher" "Jan. 15th 1865"
    Lithograph after a drawing by T.F. Laycock, published by Endicott & Co., New York, 1865, depicting the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron bombarding Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in preparation for its capture. The print is dedicated to Commodore S.W. Godon, USN. Ships present, as named on the original print, are (from left to right in the main battle line):
    USS Tacony;
    USS Maumee;
    USS Ticonderoga;
    USS Shenandoah;
    USS Tuscarora;
    USS Juniata;
    USS Wabash;
    USS Susquehanna;
    USS Colorado;
    USS Minnesotaa;
    USS Brooklyn;
    USS New Ironsides and
    USS Mohican.
    Ships in the foreground are (left to right, from the center of the view):
    USS Powhatan;
    USS Mackinaw;
    USS Vanderbilt and
    USS Malvern (Flagship of Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter).
    Monitors in the right middle distance are:
    USS Monadnock (with two turrets);
    USS Mahopac;
    USS Saugus and
    USS Canonicus.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # LC-USZ62-144 from the collections of the Library of Congress.    		 Bill Gonyo
    Brooklyn 152k USS Brooklyn as she appeared early in the 1870s after the addition of a complete spar deck.
    US Navy photo from the Martin Holbrook Collection. US Naval History and Heritage Command.
    Photo and text from "Warships of the Civil War Navies" by Paul H. Silverstone.    		 Robert Hurst
    Brooklyn 75k USS Brooklyn at anchor dressed overall in flags and crew manning the yards during the Naval Review, 29 April 1899, location unknown.
    Photo from "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905".    		 Robert Hurst
    Brooklyn 73k USS Brooklyn at anchor between 1890 and 1901, location unknown. Detroit Publishing Co. US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Photo image # LC-D4-20166. Robert Hurst
    Brooklyn 24k Chief Engineer Benjamin Edne Chassaing served as 1st Assistant Engineer aboard the USS Brooklyn between 1862 to1863. He entered the Navy as a Third Assistant Engineer on 21 May 1857. He was promoted to Chief Engineer on 10 November 1863. He was assigned as Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Vessels in Charleston, South Carolina as part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He resigned his commission on 12 Feb 1867.
    Photo courtesy of the Missouri History Museum.    		 Bill Gonyo
    Brooklyn 628k Marine Private Charley Morrison conveyed vivid impressions of life on board the Union sloop USS Brooklyn and running the guantlet of Confederate gunfire to the capture New Orleans. Tommy Tramp
    Individual crew member photos probably circa 1870s
    Contributed by Tommy Trampp
    Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn
    Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn
    USS Brooklyn (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01CAPT. Farragut David, Glasgow ;ADM26 January 1859 - 19 October 1860
    02CAPT. Walker, William S.20 October 1860 - April 1861
    03CDR. Poor, Charles HenryApril 1861 - July 1862
     Decommissionedc. September 1861 - 19 December 1861
    04CAPT. Craven, Thomas Tingey219 December 1861 - August 1862
    05CAPT. Bell, Henry HaywoodAugust 1862 - 2 August 1863
    06LCDR. Hatfield, Chester2 August 1863 - 10 August 1863
    07CAPT. Emmons, George Foster10 August 1863 - 25 August 1863
     Decommissioned25 August 1863 - 14 April 1864
    08CAPT. Alden Jr., James 14 April 1864 - 31 January 1865
     Decommissioned31 January 1865 - 4 October 1865
    09CDR. Patterson, Thomas Harmon.4 October 1865 - 11 September 1867
     Decommissioned11 September 1867 - 24 August 1870
    10CAPT. Guest, John24 August 1870 - 1871
    11CAPT. Bryson, Andrew1871 - 1872
    12CAPT. Truxton, William T.1872 - 26 July 1873
     Decommissioned26 July 1873 - 20 January 1874
    13CAPT. Upshur, John H.20 January 1874 - 21 July 1876
     Decommissioned21 July 1876 - 11 November 1881
    14CAPT. Weaver, Aaron Ward11 November 1881 - 25 October 1884
     Decommissioned25 October 1884 - 15 October 1885
    15CAPT. Matthews, Edmund Orville1886 - 1887
    16CAPT. Cook, Francis Augustus1887 - 14 May 1889
    Contributed by Bill Gonyo
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    Last Updated 18 July 2014