USS Malvern (1863-1865). Briefly named Ella and Annie in 1863
USS Malvern , a 1477-ton (burden) iron side-wheel gunboat, was built in 1860 as the commercial steamship William G. Hewes . She later became a Confederate blockade runner, was renamed Ella and Annie and on 9 November 1863 was captured by USS Niphon while attempting to enter the port of Wilmington, North Carolina.
Soon purchased by the U.S. Navy, she was briefly commissioned under the name Ella and Annie in December 1863 to search for the captured steamship Chesapeake . After finding and seizing that vessel in Nova Scotia waters, Ella and Annie returned to the Boston Navy Yard to complete her conversion to a warship. Commissioned in February 1864 as USS Malvern , she
was employed for much of the remainder of the Civil War as flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. As such, she was present during the capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in January 1865 and received credit for the subsequent capture of the blockade running steamers Charlotte and Stag . During the next month Malvern took part in operations on the Cape
Fear River, N.C., and was active in the James River area of Virginia as the Civil War neared its end. Following the fall of Richmond, Va., in early April 1865, she transported President Abraham Lincoln up the James to visit that city, the former capital of the Confederacy.
In October 1865, some six months after the war's conclusion, USS Malvern was sold at auction. She soon regained her original name, William G. Hewes , and in early 1866 began what was to be nearly three more decades of commercial employment. On 20 February 1895 the old steamship was wrecked during a storm off the Cuban coast.
At the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, circa 1865, while serving as flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Note the ruined buildings in the background.
Kindle Available Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy From Norfolk to Hampton Roads, from Roanoke Island to the nighttime battle on the river below
New Orleans, Glory in the Name tells the story of the Confederate States Navy, and the brave men who carried forward against overwhelming odds
Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, USN , Commanding, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. (center) With members of his staff, on board his flagship USS Malvern in Hampton Roads, Virginia, December 1864.
The officer standing at far left is Lieutenant Commander William B. Cushing, USN.
On the main deck of his flagship, USS Malvern , circa late 1864, leaning on a heavy 12-pounder Dahlgren smooth-bore howitzer that is mounted on a slide carriage.
Kindle Available The H. L. Hunley The Secret Hope of the Confederacy On the evening of February 17, 1864,
the Confederacy H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I "half a century later” would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and
her entire crew of eight
Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65 The blockade runners of the
Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy
Union Monitor 1861-65 The first seagoing ironclad was the USS Monitor, and
its profile has made it one of the most easily recognised warships of all time. Following her inconclusive battle with the Confederate ironclad Virginia on March 9, 1862, the production of Union monitors was accelerated. By the end of the year a powerful squadron of monitor vessels protected the blockading squadrons off the Southern coastline, and were able to challenge Confederate control of her
ports and estuaries
Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861-65
Interesting information and many excellent illustrations. It addresses the CSA David class torpedo boats and the Hunley (and its predecessors), as well as Union examples such as the Alligator and the Spuyten Duyvil
Halls of Honor The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp
through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War
Raise The Alabama She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS
Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France
The Blue and the Gray The Complete
Miniseries The Civil War proved a backdrop for this 1982 miniseries. Complete and uncut three disc set. Two families divided by the War Between the States. A Southerner caught when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper. He finds himself where history's in the making from the Battle of Bull Run to Abraham
Lincoln's assassination
Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil
War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union
Sources: U.S. National Park Service U.S. Library of Congress US Naval Archives
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