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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Itasca (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Unadilla Class Screw Steam Gunboat:

Laid down, date unknown, by Hillman & Streaker, Philadelphia, PA.

Launched, 1 October 1861

Commissioned, USS Itasca at Philadelphia, 28 November 1861, LT. Charles H. B. Caldwell in command

During the Civil War USS Itasca was assigned to the Gulf Blockading Squadron

Captured schooner Lizzie Weston, 19 January 1862

Reassigned to the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron when Gulf Squadron was split, 20 January 1863

Assisted USS Brooklyn in capturing Confederate steamer SS Magnolia in February 1862

Participated in the attacks on Forts St. Philip and Jackson below New Orleans in April 1862

Took two prizes, Miriam and Sea Drift in June 1862, while on blockade patrol off Galveston, TX.

Participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, capturing Confederate gunboat CSS Selma

Captured English schooner Carrier Mair and destroyed sloop Mary Ann, 30 November 1864, off Pass Cavallo, TX.

Decommissioned, 22 August 1865, at New York.

Sold, 30 November 1865, re-documented SS Aurora, 23 August 1866, resold foreign in 1867

Final Disposition, fate unknown

Specifications:
Displacement 507 t.
Length 158' 8"
Beam 28'
Depth of Hold 12'
Draft 10' 6"
Speed 9 kts
Complement 114 officers and enlisted
Armament

one 11" Dahlgren smoothbore

one 20-pdr Parrott rifle

two 24-pdr howitzers

Propulsion

rigged as a two masted schooner

two 200 imp 30" stroke horizontal back-acting engines

single screw

Size	Image Description	Source
82k	Line engraving published in Harper's Weekly, July-December 1861 volume. depicting the ten "90-Day Gunboats" constructed for the U.S. Navy in 1861-62. Ships, as identified in the image are from left to right; USS Chippewa USS Sciota USS Itasca USS Winona USS Huron USS Ottawa USS Pembina USS Seneca USS Unadilla and USS Sagamore. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Photo #: NH 59367	Robert Hurst
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.
170k	USS Brooklyn inside Mobile Bay after the action, "from a sketch made at the time", showing some of her battle damage. USS Galena (I) 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

USS Itasca (I)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

Commanding Officers
01	LT. Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge	28 November 1861 - 10 October 1862
02	LCDR. Lewis, Robert F. R.	10 October 1862 - 26 October 1863
03	LCDR. Brown, George	26 October 1863 - 25 January 1865
04	LCDR. Green, Nathaniel	1 February 1865 - 22 August 1865


Courtesy Bill Gonyo

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Last Updated 10 June 2016