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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 270:  USS Tallapoosa.  Wash drawing by Clary Ray, showing the ship in her Civil War appearance

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Tallapoosa (1864-1892)

USS Tallapoosa, a 1173-ton Sassacus class "double-ender" gunboat built at the Boston Navy Yard, was commissioned in September 1864. In early November, while participating in the extensive search for the Confederate raider Tallahassee, she was seriously damaged by a storm and had to return to Boston for repairs. Tallapoosa spent the rest of the Civil War with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. In January 1865, she helped salvage equipment from USS San Jacinto which had been stranded in the Bahamas.

Tallapoosa remained in the Gulf of Mexico area until 1867, when she was laid up. She returned to active duty in 1869 in the role of dispatch vessel. The next year, she carried Admiral David Glasgow Farragut on his last voyage, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Training service at the Naval Academy followed in 1872 and in 1873 she was assigned to transport work.

In 1874-75, Tallapoosa was extensively rebuilt, emerging with a reconfigured hull and extended superstructure. She served as a dispatch vessel for nearly a decade, until sunk off Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, in August 1874 in a collision with the schooner James S. Lowell. Raised and repaired, Tallapoosa recommissioned in January 1886 with additional superstructure. She was sent to the South Atlantic Squadron in July of that year and remained in that area until sold at Montevideo, Uruguay, in March 1892.

This page features all our views of USS Tallapoosa.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 270

USS Tallapoosa (1864-1892)


Wash drawing by Clary Ray, circa 1900, depicting Tallapoosa as she appeared during the Civil War.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 485 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 43864

USS Tallapoosa
(1864-1892)

Photographed after reconstruction, circa 1874-1884.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 480 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42479

USS Tallapoosa
(1864-1892)

Tied up at the Sheer Wharf, Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, circa 1876, after she was reconstructed.
Note the sheer legs on the wharf, and the sterns of USS Wabash and USS Ohio at the left.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 480 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61193

"U.S. Naval Review at Hampton-Roads, Va."


Lithograph after a drawing by Joseph L. Jones, circa 1877-1880, dedicated to Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson.
Ships present include (from left): Marion, Tallapoosa (flying the Secretary of the Navy's Flag), Constitution, Kearsarge, Saratoga, Powhatan, Portsmouth and Minnesota.

Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42231

USS Tallapoosa
(1864-1892)

In drydock, probably at the New York Navy Yard in 1884 or 1885, showing damage received in August 1884 when she was sunk in a collision with the schooner James S. Lowell. The view looks toward her starboard side, just forward of the midships superstructure.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 158KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 43865

USS Tallapoosa
(1864-1892)

At the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa 1886, following her final rebuilding.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 58947

Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine


View of the waterfront, circa 1886, with the floating drydock at left.
Ships present are (from left to right): USS Constellation; USS Dale; USS Tallapoosa; and USS Constitution (housed over).

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, 1971.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42232

USS Tallapoosa
(1864-1892)

Ship's officers, 1873. Her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant David G. McRitchie, is seated in the center.

Courtesy of Admiral William D. Leahy, December 1938.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 5 July 2001