Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

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

Photo # NH 86354: USS Octorara, by Alex Stuart

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

USS Octorara (1862-1866)

USS Octorara, a 981-ton "Double-Ender" side-wheel gunboat built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, was commissioned in February 1862. After brief service in the Atlantic, she was sent to the Gulf of Mexico, serving as flagship of Commander David Dixon Porter's mortar schooner flotilla during operations on the Mississippi River. Damaged on 28 June 1862, while attempting to steam upriver past the Confederate fortress at Vicksburg, Octorara was en route to Baltimore, Maryland, for repairs when, on 24 July she captured the blockade runner Tubal Cain.

In September 1862, Octorara, began operations in search of the enemy cruisers and blockade runners, taking several of the latter by May 1863. Beginning in October 1863, the gunboat served in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. She participated in the blockade of Mobile Bay, Alabama, including a bombardment of Fort Powell in February 1864, the 5 August Battle of Mobile Bay, in which she was damaged, and the subsequent bombardment and capture of Fort Morgan. Octorara spent the rest of the Civil War in the Mobile Bay area. On 28 January 1865, she was the target of an unsuccessful attack by the Confederate torpedo boat St. Patrick. In April, Octorara took part in the capture of the city of Mobile. She went to New York in July 1865 and was decommissioned there in August. USS Octorara was sold in November 1866.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Octorara (1862-1866).

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 86354-KN (Color)

USS Octorara (1862-1866)

Watercolor by Alex Stuart.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59220

"The Octorora & Naugatuck shelling the Merrimac"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1862, page 277, depicting the gunboats Octorara and Naugatuck firing on Confederate warships, including CSS Virginia, near Fortress Monroe, Virginia, circa March 1862.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 135KB; 740 x 475 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59061

"Commander Porter's Mortar Flotilla"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the mortar schooner flotilla commanded by David Dixon Porter during the April 1862 attack on the forts below New Orleans.
Vessels shown are (from left to right): Westfield, Adolph Hugel, Para, William Bacon, Oliver H. Lee, C.P. Williams, Henry Janes, George Mangham, Racer, Horace Beals, Sarah Bruen, Samuel Rotan, John Griffith, Rachel Seaman, Maria J. Carlton, Sidney C. Jones, T.A. Ward, Sea Foam, Maria A. Wood, Octorara (Porter's flagship) and Matthew Vassar.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 365 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59137

"Flag-officer Farragut's Gulf Squadron, and Commodore Porter's Mortar Fleet"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting some of the ships involved in the campaign to capture New Orleans.
Identified ships are (from left to right): Richmond, Pensacola, Colorado, Hartford (Farragut's flagship), and Octorara.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 280 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 83136

"Entrance of Rear Admiral Farragut in to Mobile Bay. August 5th 1864"


Chart of the action, prepared by RAdm. D.G. Farragut, Washington, D.C., March 1st, 1865.
See Photo # NH 83136 (complete caption) for further information, as printed on the original chart.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 277KB; 870 x 1200 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59150

Mobile Bay Campaign, August 1864


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 17 September 1864.
Entitled "Admiral Farragut's Fleet Bombarding Fort Morgan, August 22, 1864", it depicts the following U.S. Navy ships (from left to right): Lackawanna, Manhattan, Octorara, Brooklyn, Winnebago and Richmond. Fort Morgan is shown in the right center distance, and a battery is at the far left.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 465 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59153

"Incident on board the 'Octorara', January 26, 1865"


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", February 1865, depicting the attack on USS Octorara by the Confederate torpedo boat St. Patrick, in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 151KB; 570 x 765 pixels

 


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


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 28 April 2001