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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Cambridge (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Screw Steamer:
  • Built in 1860 by Paul Curtis, Medford, MA.
  • Purchased by the US Navy at Boston, 30 July 1861
  • Commissioned USS Cambridge, 29 August 1861, CDR. W A. Parker in command
  • During the Civil War USS Cambridge to the Atlantic Blockading Squadrons
  • North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 9 September 1861 to 5 October 1864 - took part in the capture and destruction of eleven would-be blockade runners, which included the fast steamers Modern Greece and Dee. On 17 March 1862 she was present when the Confederate cruiser CSS Nashville escaped from Beaufort, N. C., in a successful attempt to reach a friendly port further south.
  • South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 9 February 1865 - to the close of the war Cambridge spent the Civil War's final months with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron
  • Decommissioned at Philadelphia and sold 20 June 1865
    Specifications:
    Displacement 868 t.
    Length 200'
    Beam 32'
    Draft 13' 6"
    Speed 10 kts
    Complement 96
    Armament
    two 8" rifles
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Cambridge 68k USS Cambridge depicted during the Civil War. This 19th Century photographic print may be of an artwork, or possibly a model.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61565.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Cambridge 132k Acting Ensign Walter Coffin Odiorne enlisted in the Navy at the age of eighteen. His first assignment was to the Gunboat USS Cambridge. He served aboard Cambridge until captured in November 1862. Four weeks later he was exchanged for Confederates prisoners. He took a leave of absence until spring of 1863 when he was assigned to USS Wissahickon, another gunboat. He remained in Wissahickon until May of 1864, when he was transferred to the mortar schooner T.A. Ward. Odiorne ended the war in Charleston, and stayed in the navy as an Acting Ensign until March 16th, 1866.
    Information and image courtesy of the Friends of Gettysburg Foundation    		 Bill Gonyo
    Cambridge
    098612803    		 447k Pencil sketch of USS Cambridge. Library of Congress John Spivey
    Gemsbok
    098687701    		 194k Currier & Ives lithograph "The Blockade on the 'Connecticut Plan'"
    Library of Congress Catalog: http://lccn.loc.gov/90711961     		Robert Hurst
    USS Cambridge (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    This page is created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Michael Junge
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    Last Updated 14 August 2024