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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

CSS Beaufort

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Screw Steamer - Iron-hull Gunboat :
  • Laid down in 1854 as Caledonia at Pusey & Jones, Wilmington, DE.
  • SS Caledonia operated out of Edenton, N.C.
  • In 1856 her home port changed from Edenton to Plymouth, N.C.
  • At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Caledonia, now renamed SS Beaufort, was put in commission at Norfolk, VA., 9 July 1861, by LT. Robert C. Duvall, North Carolina Navy
  • Caledonia sailed immediately for New Bern, N.C., while enroute engaging USS Albatross in an inconclusive battle off Oregon Inlet (ORN 6: 21, 790ff)
  • After North Carolina seceded, Beaufort was turned over to the Confederate States Navy, and on 9 September 1861, LT. William Harwar Parker, CSN, was placed in command
  • Beaufort participated in the battles of Roanoke Island, 7-8 February 1862, and Elizabeth City, N.C. two days later
  • Just before the battle of Elizabeth City Beaufort was called upon to supply most of her crew to man Cobb's Point Battery on the south shore of the Pasquotank River
  • Deprived of most of his crew LT. Parker ordered Beaufort to escape via the Dismal Swamp Canal to Norfolk, VA. (ORN 6: 596f)
  • In March 1962 Beaufort was tender to CSS Virginia off Hampton Roads on March 8–9, 1862
  • During the battle Beaufort moved alongside the USS Congress to accept her surrender, however heavy rifle fire from the shoreline drove her away with several casualties (Parker 1985: 276ff)
  • Beaufort also caused heavy damage to USS Minnesota before nightfall
  • From May 1862, Beaufort operated on the James River until the evacuation of Richmond, VA., 3 April 1865, when she was captured and taken into the United States Navy
  • Beaufort was the only Confederate naval vessel, besides the unfinished casemate ironclad CSS Texas of the James River Squadron to fall unscathed into the hands of its captors.
  • Beaufort was sold 15 September 1865
  • Redocumented as SS Roanoke, 31 October 1865
  • Converted to a barge in 1878
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown

    References
     Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 12, p. 101, 1901 Coski (1996), John M. Capital Navy: The Men, Ships and Operations of the James River Squadron, Campbell, CA: Savas Woodbury Publishers. ISBN 1-882810-03-1
    . Sources
    Alexander Crosby Brown, Notes on the Origins of Iron Shipbuilding in the United States, 1825–1861, Masters Thesis, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1951.
    US Navy Department, Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I: Volume 6. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894–1922.
    Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, Certificates of Enrollments issued at North Carolina Ports 1815–1911, Abstracts, Record Group 41, National Archives, Washington, DC. William Parker, Recollections of a Naval Officer, Naval Institute Press, 1985.
    William Lytle & Forrest Holdcamper, Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States, 1790–1868, Steamship Historical Society, New York, 1975.

    Specifications:
    Displacement 85 t.
    Length 85'
    Beam 17'5"
    Draft 5'
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    one gun
    one spar torpedo
    Propulsion steam
    single propeller
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    CSS Beaufort
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    CSS Beaufort
    Commanding Officers
    01LT. Duvall, Robert C. North Carolina Navy1861–1862
    02LT. Parker, William Harwar, CSN1862
    03LT. Sharp, William, CSNOctober 1863
    04LT. Means, Edward J., CSNNovember 1863 – June 1864
    05LT. Gardner, J. M., CSNJune 1864
    06LT. Mason, William Pinckney, CSNOctober 1864
    07LT. Alexander, Joseph W., CSN19 December 1864 – February 1865
    08LT. Arledge, George Henry, CSN (Officer in Charge)12 February 1865
    Courtesy Robert Hurst
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    Last Updated 30 April 2021