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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Lilian

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Wide sidewheel Steamer:

Lilian, an iron wide-wheel steamer, built by J&G Thomson, at Govan on the Clyde River, Scotland, in 1863, for Henry Lafone, Liverpool as the agent for the Importing & Exporting Co., of Georgia, to serve as a blockade runner. LT. John Newland Maffitt, CSN in command

Captured about 100 miles east of Cape Fear, N.C., 24 August 1864, by USS Keystone State and USS Gettysburg

Among the prisoners were five Wilmington, N.C., pilots being carried to Bermuda to guide Confederate ships through the blockade

Purchased by the Navy from the Philadelphia, PA., Prize Court, 6 September 1864,

Commissioned USS Lilian, 6 October 1864, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Acting Volunteer LT. T. A. Harris in command

Lilian participated in attacking Fort Fisher, Cape Fear River, 23 to 24 December 1864 and 13 to 14 January 1865

She landed troops above the fort on the 13th, and then bombarded it

After this attack, Lilian patrolled the inlet, and with USS Tristram Shandy captured the British steamer SS Blenheim, 25 January 1865

Lilian was decommissioned, 5 April 1865, and sold at public auction at New York City, 30 November 1865

Documented, 8 October 1866, Lilian operated in merchant service until 1868

In 1870 she was acquired by the Spanish Navy and became the Spanish Gunboat Victoria De Las Tunas

Final Disposition, lost in a hurricane off Mariel, Cuba in November 1870

Specifications:
Displacement 670 t.
Length 225'6"
Beam 25'
Draft 8'2"
Depth of Hold unknown
Speed 13 kts
Complement unknown
Armor iron

Armament

one 20 pdr

one 90 pdr

Propulsion

reciprocating steam engine

four boilers

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
098683602	143k	Captain Maffitt aboard CS Lilian trying to break the blockade. Engraving appeared in the Illustrated London News.	Tommy Trampp
098683601	144k	The chase of the Confederate steamer CS Lilian by Union warships, 100 nautical miles off Cape Fear, N.C., 24 August 1864. Image from "Histories of the several regiments and battalions from North Carolina, in the great war 1861-65", by Walter Clarke (1846-1924), Pub., E.M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1901.	Robert Hurst
098683604	39k	Watercolor of CS Lilian, unknown artist. clydebuiltships	John Spivey
Victoria de las Tunas
098683603	330k	The Spanish Navy Gunboat *Victoria de las Tunas* from the "La Ilustracion de Madrid (The "Enlightenment of Madrid" an illustrated magazine published in the city of Madrid in 1870 and 1872)	Tommy Trampp

USS Lilian
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Blockade Runner or Filibustero

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This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo

Last Updated 18 November 2022