![]() The city of New Orleans, captured largely intact by the Union in 1862, had been the southern hub of Federal war efforts and was a thriving, busy city – but due to war, “hard money” (or Gold and Silver coin) was in very short supply. According to her captain, she was carrying passengers and a cargo of $400,000 in coins, mostly in Gold $10 and $20 pieces, intended for use as hard currency after the Civil War. The Republic left New York on October 18, bound for New Orleans. She was lost on her fifth civilian voyage after the war. She was sold at auction in March, 1865, renamed SS Republic, repaired, and soon returned to the New York – New Orleans route hauling passengers and cargo. Upon inspection, the ship was judged too expensive to re-fit and was taken out of U.S. USS Mobile was damaged in a hurricane off the mouth of the Rio Grande in October, 1864, and sent to New York for repair. This second CSS Tennessee had been taken during a dramatic encounter at Mobile Bay. In September, 1864, she was renamed USS Mobile to allow a famous Confederate armored ram ship to carry the name Tennessee after its capture. As USS Tennessee, she was not only a fast and effective blockade ship in the West Gulf Squadron, but also a powerful gunship used to bombard Ft. Farragut for the conclusion of the Mississippi Campaign. After the Union capture of New Orleans, the ship was put into armed Union service, including as the flagship of United States Navy Admiral David G. She was tied up in harbor at New Orleans when the American Civil War began on April 12, 1861.Īt the outbreak of the Civil War she was trapped in port at New Orleans, Louisiana, and was seized for use as a Confederate blockade runner as the CSS Tennessee in 1861, although she was never able to escape blockade of the New Orleans harbor. Tennessee for several years regularly served the Vera Cruz, Mexico – New Orleans route, often transporting immigrants to America as well as large sums of Mexican Gold and Silver. The Tennessee delivered the last group of “immigrants” volunteering as mercenary soldiers for William Walker in Nicaragua, and, after defeat of Walker’s forces, took home hundreds of disconsolate, defeated survivors. A short time later Tennessee was used to open the first regular passenger steamship service between New York City and Central America.ĭuring the California Gold Rush, the Tennessee transported “49’ers” to the eastern shores of Panama and Nicaragua to travel to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Not long afterward, she was sent on the first trans-Atlantic crossing by a Baltimore steamship, sailing to Southampton, England, and Le Havre, France. She began her service as a merchant vessel plying the Baltimore – Charleston route. The ship, built in Balti more, Maryland, for the famed War of 1812 Veteran, James Hooper, was launched in 1853, as the Tennessee.
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