USS Memphis (1862)

Memphis — on her maiden voyage, while running the Union blockade of Confederate ports on June 23, 1862 — ran aground off Sullivan's Island, South Carolina while attempting to enter Charleston harbor. Efficient work by Southern troops got her partially unloaded on the following day, and she was towed to safety by the steamships Etiwan and Marlon before Federal warships could hit her with shell fire.[2] They were kept at bay by gunfire from Fort Beauregard.[3] 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.[4]

Memphis was commissioned on October 4, 1862, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Pendleton G. Watmough in command. 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.[4]

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.[4]

On May 6, 1867, Memphis was decommissioned, and sold to V. Brown & Co., at New York on May 8, 1869.[4] Renamed Mississippi, She was sold to William Weld & Co. of Boston, Massachusetts. She was sold c.1875 to Frederick Baker, Boston. In 1879, she was sold to H. Hastings & Co., Boston. Mississippi was sold in 1881 to Edward Lawrence, New York. She was sold in 1882 to the Oregon Improvement Co, Portland, Oregon. On May 13, 1883, when she was gutted by a dock fire at Seattle, Washington.[1]