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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Harriet Lane (1861-1863).
Originally USRC Harriet Lane (1858-1861)
USS Harriet Lane, a 750-ton side-wheel gunboat, was
built at New York City in 1857 as the U.S. Revenue Cutter Harriet
Lane. In addition to carrying out her Revenue Service duties,
she served with the Navy during the Paraguay expedition of 1858-59.
Returning to Navy control in late March 1861, as the secession
crisis deepened, Harriet Lane took part in the attempt
to relieve Fort Sumter when that vital position in Charleston
harbor, South Carolina, was beseiged by Confederate forces. While
so engaged, on 12 April 1861, she fired the first U.S. Navy shot
of the Civil War.
In early June 1861, Harriet Lane exchanged fire with
an enemy battery near Newport News, Virginia, and in late August
participated in the Navy's initial major combat operation, the
capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
She was formally transferred from the Revenue Cutter Service to
the Navy in September. Also during 1861, Harriet Lane captured
four prizes while enforcing the blockade and, in December, fired
on Confederate positions at Freestone Point, Virginia.
Harriet Lane was sent to the Gulf of Mexico in February
1862 to serve as flagship of Commander David
Dixon Porter's fleet of mortar schooners. While en route,
she engaged Confederate artillery at Shipping Point, Virginia,
and captured a sailing vessel off the Florida coast. During March
and April, Porter's mortar flotilla played an important part in
the operations that led to the capture of New Orleans. Harriet
Lane accompanied this force at that time, and during some
of its subsequent activities on the Mississippi River below Vicksburg.
In May 1862, she also assisted in the occupation of fortifications
at Pensacola, Florida.
After serving on the blockade off Mobile, Alabama, Harriet
Lane participated in the early October 1862 capture of Galveston,
Texas. She remained in the Galveston area and, on 1 January 1863,
while inside Galveston Bay, she was boarded and captured by Confederate
troops operating from the steamers Bayou City and Neptune. Following this bold action, which resulted in
the recovery of Galveston by Southern forces, Harriet Lane
was employed by the Confederate Army in Texas waters. In about
early 1864, she was sold and converted to a blockade runner. Renamed
Lavina, she left Galveston in late April and went to Havana,
Cuba. Interned there through the end of the Civil War, she subsequently
became the sailing merchant vessel Elliot Richie and remained
in commercial service until May 1884, when she was lost off Pernambuco,
Brazil.
This page features, or provides links to, all the views we
have related to USS Harriet Lane (1861-1863).
For addtional pictures related to USS Harriet Lane,
see:
USS Harriet Lane -- Capture
of Ship, 1 January 1863.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 57514
USS Harriet Lane (1861-1863)
Halftone reproduction of a wash drawing by Clary Ray, circa 1898.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 470 pixels |
![](../../images/h57000/h57514t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 53632
USS Harriet Lane (1861-1863)
Print copied from a 19th Century publication.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 152KB; 740 x 500 pixels |
![](../../images/h53000/h53632t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 73753
USS Harriet Lane (1861-1863)
Engraving, published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper",
1861, depicting Harriet Lane engaging a Confederate battery
at Pig's Point, on the Nansemond River opposite Newport News,
Virginia, 5 June 1861.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 450 pixels |
![](../../images/h73000/h73753t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 59130
"Departure of the Great Southern Expedition, under General
Butler, from Fortress Monroe."
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1861,
depicting the departure of the fleet on 26 August 1861, en route
to attack Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
Ships identified in the title line are (left to right): USS Harriet
Lane; USS Wabash; USS Minnesota; USS Monticello
and USS Pawnee.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 142KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
![](../../images/h59000/h59130t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 66576-KN (Color)
"Bombardment of Forts Hatteras & Clark, by the U.S. Fleet"
"Under the command of Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham, on
the 28th and 29th of August 1861"
Colored lithograph by J.P. Newell after a drawing by Francis
Garland, Seaman on USS Cumberland, published by J.H. Buford,
Boston, Massachusetts, 1862.
Features identified below the image are (from left to right):
USS Susquehanna; transport Fanny; Fort Hatteras;
USS Harriet Lane; Fort Clark; USS Cumberland; steamer
Adelaide; USS Minnesota; steamer George Peabody;
USS Wabash; USS Pawnee; and USS Monticello.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
![](../../images/h66000/h66576kt.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 59059
"Commodore Farragut's Squadron and Captain Porter's Mortar
Fleet entering the Mississippi River"
Line engraving based on a sketch by an officer of USS Mississippi,
published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the
scene at the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi, circa 7 April
1862.
Features identified in the engraving's title lines include (from
left to right): Light-house on Southwest Pass; USS Colorado
(in left foreground); USS Pensacola on the bar; USS Westfield
(seen nearly stern-on); Porter's mortar fleet, heading up the
river; USS Mississippi on the bar; USS Harriet Lane
(side-wheel steamer at the rear of the mortar fleet); USS Connecticut
(in right foreground); USS Clifton; town of Banona.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 131KB; 740 x 560 pixels |
![](../../images/h59000/h59059t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 59064
"The Third Day's Bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip"
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862,
depicting U.S. Navy mortar schooners shelling the Confederate
forts defending the lower Mississippi River, 20 April 1862. Ships
in the foreground are USS Harriet Lane (left) and USS
Oneida (right).
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 94KB; 1200 x 230 pixels |
![](../../images/h59000/h59064t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 46620
CSS Manassas (1861-1862)
Artwork entitled "The Ram as she appeared in passing the
'Harriet Lane' after the 'Mississippi' had got through with her".
It depicts the Manassas during the action off Forts Jackson
and St. Philip, on the Mississippi River, 24 April 1862.
Courtesy of Mrs. A. Hopkins, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
![](../../images/h46000/h46620t.jpg) |
For addtional pictures related to USS Harriet Lane,
see:
USS Harriet Lane -- Capture
of Ship, 1 January 1863.
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Historical Center home page.
Page made 13 October 2001