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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Housatonic (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Ossipee Class Steam Screw Sloop of War:
  • Laid down, date unknown, at Boston Navy Yard
  • Launched, 20 November 1861
  • Commissioned, 29 August 1862, at Boston Navy Yard, CDR. William Rogers Taylor in command
  • USS Housatonic joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 19 September 1862, at Charleston, S.C.
    Aided in the boarding and refloating of the blockade runner SS Princess Royal previous driven ashore by USS Unadilla
    Captured sloop Neptune, 19 April 1863, while attempting to run the blockade out of Charleston
    Assisted in the capture of the steamer Secesh, 15 May 1863
    Her boats with howitzers mounted joined the attack on Fort Wagner, 10 July 1863 and continuing attacks there after
  • Final Disposition, Housatonic would become the first victim of a successful submarine attack on a warship, when she was rammed and sunk by the Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley, outside the bar at Charleston, 17 February 1864. Hunley and her crew perished in the attack, while the Housatonic's losses were two officers and three men
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,240 t.
    Length 207'
    Beam 38'
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Draft 8' 7"
    Speed 9 kts
    Complement 160
    Armament
    one 100-pdr Parrott rifle
    three 30-pdr Parrott rifles
    one 11" Dahlgren smoothbore
    two 32-pdrs
    two 24-pdr howitzers
    one 12-pdr howitzer
    one 12-pdr rifle
    Propulsion sail and steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Housatonic
    091903517    		 186k
    Namesake
    Housatonic - The Housatonic River is a river, approximately 149 miles long, in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut. It flows south to southeast, and drains about 1,950 square miles of southwestern Connecticut into Long Island Sound. Its watershed is just to the west of the watershed of the lower Connecticut River.(Wikipedia)
    The Housatonic River in Cornwall, CT., 19 April 2020. Photo by ©Spacemace1
    Map of the Housatonic river watershed. ©I, Karl Musser, created based on USGS data.     		Tommy Trampp
    Housatonic 68k Wash drawing by R.G. Skerrett, 1902 of USS Housatonic underway.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 53573    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Housatonic 246k Art work of USS Housatonic underway, date and location unknown
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 67727    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Housatonic 147k Destruction of USS Housatonic by a rebel torpedo, 17 February 1864. sketch by the British war artist and illustrator William Waud (1832–1878).
    United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.21443    		 Robert Hurst
    Patapsco patapsco1g 283k Location of shipwrecks on the naval battlefield at Charleston, S.C.
    South Carolina Institute for Archeology and Anthropology    		 Tommy Trampp
    USS Housatonic (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 18 February 2022