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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive
USS Acacia
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons
Civil War Medal
Screw steamer, schooner-rigged tug:
Built in 1863 as the screw steamer Vicksburg at East Boston, MA.
Launched in September 1863
Purchased, 28 October 1863, by the Navy at Boston, MA. from C. W. Wilder
Renamed and commissioned USS Acacia at the Boston Navy Yard, 8 December 1863, Acting Master John D. Childs in command
While Acacia was fitting out for service in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Confederate agents disguised as passengers seized the steamer Chesapeake off Cape Cod, MA., 7 December 1863
On 9 December Acacia sailed in search of Chesapeake
While enroute to search for Chesapeake, Acacia began taking on water so fast that she began sinking and was forced to put in at Portland, ME.
While Acacia was undergoing repairs at Portland, other Union ships continued to hunt for Chesapeake
Acacia returned to Boston and resumed her preparation for blockade duty along the coast of the Carolinas
When ready, she proceeded south via Hampton Roads, VA., and arrived off Morris Island, S.C., on the evening of 6 January 1864
Acacia served in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the remainder of the war, spending most of her time near Breach Inlet in the line of Union warships
outside the Charleston bar
On the morning of 23 December 1864, while off her blockade station, enroute to Georgetown, S.C., with provisions for the screw sloop
USS Canandaigua as she was passing Cape Romain Shoal, a lookout in the masthead reported two white smokestacks close inshore
Acacia altered course turning toward shore where she discovered the blockade runner Julia, a fast shallow-draft iron-hulled steamer of about 400 tons
built at Renfrew, Scotland apparently for the express purpose of running the Union blockade
Acacia moved in as close to shore as she could to the stranded steamer, fired a shell over her, and lowered her boats sending an armed boarding party to
the steamer.
The trapped steamer then sent up white flags as her own boats began pulling toward the mouth of Alligator Creek where they escaped.
Not a soul remained on board the blockade runner when the Union sailors boarded her
Acacia's boarding party managed to get Julia afloat and underway on her own power shortly after daylight on the following morning, and she
was ultimately sent to Key West where she was condemned by the prize court.
After the end of the Civil War, Acacia sailed for Philadelphia, 24 April 1865
She was decommissioned at Philadelphia, 12 May 1865, and sold at public auction there and redocumented as Wabash 13 October 1865
Final Disposition, Wabash served as a merchantman until abandoned in 1881
Specifications:
Displacement 300 t.
Length 125'
Beam 23.2'
Depth of Hold 12'
Draft 11'
Speed 12 kts
Complement 58
Armament
two 30-pdr rifles
one 12-pdr rifle
one 12 pdr smoothbore
Propulsion
boiler(s)
steam engine(s)
propeller
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Acacia
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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Last Updated 24 March 2023