Name Memphis Commissioned October 4, 1862 Launched 1861 | Name USS Memphis Decommissioned May 6, 1867 Length 69 m | |
 | ||
Fate Captured, July 31, 1862 Acquired by capture July 31, 1862
Purchased, September 4, 1862 Builder William Denny and Brothers | ||
The second USS Memphis was a 7-gun screw steamer, built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1861, which briefly served as a Confederate blockade runner before being captured and taken into the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
Contents
Confederate blockade runner
Memphis — while running the Union blockade of Confederate ports on June 22, 1862 — ran aground while attempting to enter Charleston harbor, South Carolina. Efficient work by Southern troops got her partially unloaded on the following day, and she was towed to safety before Federal warships could hit her with shell fire. Memphis was captured by sidewheel gunboat USS Magnolia outbound from Charleston with a cargo of cotton on July 31, 1862, and purchased by the Union Navy from a prize court at New York City on September 4, 1862. Memphis was commissioned on October 4, 1862, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Pendleton G. Watmough in command.
Union blockade ship
Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Memphis sailed for Charleston and began service on October 14 with the capture of British steamer Ouachita bound for Havana, Cuba. She continued patrol in 1862–1863. On January 4, 1863, she joined sidewheel steamer Quaker City in taking Confederate sloop Mercury with a cargo of turpentine for Nassau, Bahamas. On January 31, Confederate ironclads CSS Palmetto State and CSS Chicora made a dash out of Charleston Harbor into the midst of the blockading ships. Screw steamer Mercedita was rammed and disabled by Palmetto State while sidewheel steamer Keystone State was next attacked and left for Memphis to take in tow. The two rams then retired.
By March of the following year, Memphis was operating in the North Edisto River. On March 6, 1864, Confederate torpedo boat CSS David attempted a run on the Union blockader. The spar torpedo struck Memphis' port quarter but did not explode. After her second torpedo misfired, David retreated upstream out of range of her foe's heavy guns. Memphis, uninjured, continued her blockading duties to the end of the Civil War.
Post-war
On May 6, 1867, Memphis was decommissioned, and sold to V. Brown & Co., at New York on May 8, 1869. Renamed Mississippi, the screw steamer operated as a freight ship until May 13, 1883, when she was gutted by a dock fire at Seattle, Washington, and her wreck abandoned.