Tennessee I (Sidewheel Gunboat)
1862-1864
The first U.S. Navy ship named Tennessee retained the name she carried at the time of her capture.
I
(Sidewheel Gunboat: tonnage 1,275; length 210'0"; beam 33'0"; draft 16'6"; armament 2 32‑pounders, 1 30‑pounder Parrott rifle, 1 12‑pounder [1863])
The first Tennessee, built at Baltimore, Md., in 1854 for Charles Morgan's Texas Line, was seized by Maj. Gen. M. Lovell, CSA, at New Orleans, La., on 15 January 1862, and put into service as a Confederate government‑operated blockade runner. Captured by U.S. forces at New Orleans on 25 April 1862, however. she was commissioned as Tennessee on 8 May 1862, Acting Master John D. Childs in command.
Assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Tennessee took part in the capture of Port Hudson, La.,on 9 July 1863, and of Forts Morgan, and Gaines in August 1864. Able to vie in speed with the faster blockade runners, she captured or assisted in the capture of seven Confederate vessels: Alabama, Friendship, and Jane in 1863, and Allison, Annie Verden, Louisiana, and Emily in 1864. Her speed also brought numerous assignments as a dispatch boat for the squadron, taking her from Pensacola to gulf coast points as far away as the mouth of the Rio Grande.
On 1 September 1864, following the capture of Confederate ironclad Tennessee and her commissioning as a ship of the U.S. Navy, the side‑wheel gunboat was renamed Mobile (q.v.)
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
12 June 2024
