USS Carrabasset (1864)

History
United States
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	date unknown
Acquired	23 January 1864; at Cincinnati, Ohio;
Commissioned	12 May 1864; at New Orleans, Louisiana;
Decommissioned	25 July 1865; at New Orleans, Louisiana;
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Fate	sold, 12 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	202 tons
Length	155 ft (47 m)
Beam	31 ft 7 in (9.63 m)
Draught	4 ft 7 in (1.40 m)
Propulsion	steam engine; Side wheel-propelled;
Speed	not known
Complement	45
Armament	two 32-pounder guns; four 24-pounder smoothbores;

USS Carrabasset (1864) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

She supported the blockade of the Confederate States of America in a variety of ways: as a tugboat, a gunboat, and as a transport, depending on the need at the time.

Purchased in Ohio in 1864

Carrabasset, a side-wheel steamer, was purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 January 1864; commissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana, 12 May 1864, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant E. Leonard in command; and reported to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron.

Civil War operations

Assigned to the West Gulf Blockade

With the Squadron, Carrabasset operated as transport, picket boat, and tugboat at the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Berwick Bay and the Atchafalaya River, and in the neighboring lakes and bayous.

Sending ashore raiding parties

On several occasions she landed Union Army forces or her own landing party to engage Confederate forces ashore, capturing men, horses, and bales of cotton. One such incident occurred 21 March 1865, when she landed 40 infantrymen, then was attacked herself by a party of Confederates. Putting a party of her own men ashore, Carrabasset succeeded in capturing the equipment of a Confederate picket and several pirogues.

Recovering equipment for three lighthouses

On 17 June 1865, one of her landing party expeditions penetrated to St. Martinville, Louisiana, where the equipment of three lighthouses, stored there since the taking of the lighthouses by the Confederates early in the war, was recaptured.

Post-war decommissioning and sale

Carrabasset was decommissioned 25 July 1865 at New Orleans, and sold there 12 August 1865.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.