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Photo # NH 95121:  USS Ceres and other U.S. Navy gunboats firing on the Confederates at Fort Anderson, N.C., 14 March 1863

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-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Ceres (1861-1865)

USS Ceres, an 144-ton (burden) side-wheel gunboat, was built in 1856 at New York City as a civilian steamer. She was purchased by the Navy in September 1861 and served for the remainder of the Civil War in the waters of North Carolina and southern Virginia. While enforcing the blockade of the Confederacy, Ceres took or destroyed two sailing vessels and two steamers, three in 1862 and one in 1864. She also participated in several combat actions, among them the captures of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City, N.C., in February 1862, and the defense of Federal positions around the North Carolina Sounds in 1863 and 1864. In April and May 1864 she was involved in two fights with the Confederate ironclad Albemarle. Sent north after the war's end, USS Ceres was decommissioned at New York in July 1865 and sold in October. Returning to commercial employment under the same name, she lasted at least until 1887, when she was removed from shipping registers.

This page features the only view we have related to USS Ceres (1861-1865).


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Photo #: NH 95121

"The Battle at Newbern -- Repulse of the Rebels, March 14, 1863"


Line engraving, published in "Harper's Weekly", 11 April 1863, depicting the action at Fort Anderson, Neuse River, North Carolina. U.S. Navy gunboats Hunchback, Hetzel, Ceres and Shawsheen are firing from the river at Confederate forces, as Union artillery and infantry move into position on the near shore.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 525 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 21 December 2003