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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Stepping Stones

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Campaign Medal

Sidewheel Gunboat:

Built in 1861 as the wooden ferryboat Stepping Stones, at New York City

Launched in 1861

Purchased by George D. Morgan for the Navy at New York City, 30 September 1861, from Edward Haight for $20,000

Commissioned on or before 21 October 1861 as USS Stepping Stones at New York Navy Yard

USS Stepping Stones departed New York, 21 October, served briefly at Hampton Roads, reached the Washington Navy Yard, 5 November, and was promptly placed in service as a dispatch boat in the Potomac Flotilla

These first few weeks of her service typified her fortunes throughout the Civil War. Her services were wanted both in the Potomac Flotilla and in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for service along the west coast of the Chesapeake Bay and on the rivers, roughly parallel to the Potomac, which drain Tidewater Virginia. As a result, the ferry was shuttled between the two commands as ground operations ebbed and flowed over the Virginia farmlands which separated Washington and Virginia

When assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the ship was moved from the James, to the York, or to the Rappahannock as demanded by the military situation ashore.

Highlights of Stepping Stones service were the operations on the James in July 1862 to help protect General McClellan's beleaguered army at Harrison's Landing; her rescuing, under heavy fire, of USS Mount Washington when that ship had been grounded and disabled near Suffolk, VA.; and her participation in a mid-April 1864 Army-Navy expedition up the Nansemond River

In May 1864, she became part of a torpedo sweeping and patrol force on the James

On 9 November, she captured two blockade-running sloops, Reliance and Little Elmer, in Mobjack Bay

In March 1865, less than a month before Lee surrendered, Stepping Stones was in a naval expedition up Mattox Creek to Colonial Beach, VA., where the Union ships attacked a supply base for Confederate guerrillas operating on the peninsula between that river and the Potomac

After the war ended, Stepping Stones was decommissioned at the Washington Navy Yard, 23 June 1865

Sold at public auction, 12 July 1865 to W. D. Wallach for $6,000

Redocumented as Cambridge, 27 July 1865

Reduced to a barge, 2 August 1871 and soon disappeared from maritime records

Final Disposition, fate unknown

Specifications:
Displacement 226 t.
Length 110'
Beam 24'
Depth of Hold 8'
Draft 4'6"
Speed 14kts
Complement 21

Armament

30 December 1862 - one 12-pdr howitzer

2 May 1863 - one 20-pdr Parrott rifle, three 12-pdr rifles, two heavy 12-pdr smoothbores

23 May 1863 - three 12-pdr rifles, two heavy 12-pdr smoothbores

31 March 1865 - three 12-pdr rifles, three heavy 12-pdr smoothbores

Propulsion

one beam steam engine; cylinder diameter 30", stroke 6'

boiler(s)

two sidewheels

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Stepping Stones
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

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Last Updated 29 July 2022