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USS Lilac (I)
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons
Civil War Campaign Medal
Screw Steam Tug:
Built in 1863, at Philadelphia
Launched, in 1863
Purchased for the Navy by Como. C.K. Stribling, 15 April 1863, from H. Winsor & C9., for $23,000
Commissioned USS Lilac, 28 April 1863, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, PA.
USS Lilac joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads 2 May
During the remainder of 1863, she operated in the Roads and on the lower James River performing dispatch, picket, and towing duty
On 4 July 1863, the day of Vicksburg's surrender and the day following the retreat of Lee's army from Gettysburg, southern tug Torpedo, carrying Alexander Stephens, steamed up
to Lilac under a flag of truce to request safe conduct to Washington so that the Confederacy's Vice President might confer with Lincoln as Jefferson Davis' personal emissary. For the next 2 days
Lilac carried messages between Union flagship USS Minnesota, Fort Monroe, and Torpedo. However, Lincoln persevered in his resolve to eschew all
direct communications with the Confederate leaders, lest such contact be interpreted as recognition of the South's government
On the 6th Lilac bore Stephens word that his request was "...considered inadmissible" and that "customary agents and channels are adequate for all needful military
Communications...between the U.S. forces and the insurgents."
On the night of 15 October, accompanied by tug USS Young America, Lilac ascended the James River seeking to capture a Confederate steamer
reported above Hog Island. However, the southern ship had fled to safety before the Union ships arrived. On the expedition Lilac shelled a Confederate signal station.
Early in 1864 RADM. S. P. Lee ordered Lilac to Beaufort, N.C., for harbor defense and towing
Her service there continued until December and won her Admiral Lee's praise as "very useful."
As the year waned, Lilac returned to Norfolk to help tighten the noose which Grant and Porter were closing around Richmond
On 4 April, as Lee's army was at last about to be driven from the South's capitol, Lilac captured Confederate Army tug Seaboard at Tree
Hill Bridge which spanned the James below Richmond
As the Confederacy crumbled, Lilac continued to operate in the James until she steamed north late in May
Lilac decommissioned, 16 June 1865, at New York
Sold at public auction at New York to H. G. Farrington 12 July 1865, for $9,200
Redocumented as Eutaw, 5 October 1865
Final Disposition, Eutaw served commercial shipping until abandoned in 1888
Specifications:
Displacement 129 t.
Length 92'
Beam 19'
Depth of Hold 8'
Draft loaded 8', light 6'
Speed 9kts
Complement 17
Armament
one 12-pdr rifle (removed, 9 November 1864)
one heavy 12-pdr smoothbore
Propulsion
one vertical, direct-action, condensing steam engine
two vertical tubular boilers
single screw
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Lilac (I)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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Last Updated 15 July 2022