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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

CSS Uncle Ben (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Steamer Tug:
  • A Lake Erie tug chartered by the United States Government in April 1861 to accompany an expedition for the reinforcement of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor
  • Departed New York, 7 April 1861, storms forced her to seek shelter in Wilmington, N.C.
  • Seized by the citizens and converted to a gunboat mounting one gun
  • When North Carolina seceded, Uncle Ben was turned over to the Confederacy and operated around Wilmington
  • In late summer of 1862, her engine was transferred to the ironclad CSSNorth Carolina and her hull sold.
  • Under her new owners she was fitted out as a privateer schooner, renamed Retribution, and later Etta
  • Final Dispostion, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 155 t.
    Length unknown
    Beam unknown
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Draft unknown
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament one gun
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Uncle Ben 82k A woodcut engraving of the civilian tug Uncle Ben underway in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras, 20 April 1861.
    Salvaged from a damaged 1885 printing of Frank Leslie's "The Soldier in Our Civil War".    		 Tommy Trampp
    CSS Uncle Ben
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 5 July 2013