USS James Adger (1851)

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USS James Adger (1851)

USS James Adger was a sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
during the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
. She retained her former name.

Before being pressed into service by the United States Navy, the SS James Adger was a United States Mail Steamship operating between Charleston, SC and New York, NY. Owned by James Adger II (James Adger & Co) of Charleston SC, she was seized while in New York, NY at the outset of the Civil War and converted for military duty by the United States Navy.

James Adger was built at New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
in 1851, was purchased at New York from Spofford, Tileston & Co., on 20 July 1861; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 20 September 1861, Comdr. John B.

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New York City

Service history

The Trent Affair, 1861

James Adger departed New York on 16 October 1861 in pursuit of the Nashville

CSS Nashville (1861)

CSS Nashville was a brig-rigged passenger Steamboat built at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Brooklyn in 1853. Between 1853 and 1861 she was engaged in running between New York City and Charleston, South Carolina....
, a Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America formed as the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern United States U.S. state of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S....
cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a large type of warship, which had its prime period from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War. The first cruisers were intended for individual raiding and protection missions on the seas....
reported to have escaped from Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County....
with the South's ministers to England

England

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, James M. Mason

James M. Mason

James Murray Mason was a United States Representative and United States Senator from Virginia. He was a grandson of George Mason and represented the Confederate States of America as appointed commissioner of the Confederacy to Great Britain and France between 1861 and 1865 during the American Civil War....
and John Slidell

John Slidell

John Slidell was an United States politician, lawyer and businessman. Originally a native of New York, Slidell moved to Louisiana as a young man and became a staunch defender of southern rights as a United States House of Representatives and United States Senate....
. She arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, after an extremely stormy passage in October and spent November cruising in quest of her elusive quarry; the diplomats were apprehended by on November 8, 1861.

While in port the Captain of the Adger began the legal questions that would be used in the Trent Affair

Trent affair

The Trent Affair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War....
by loudly speaking of his mission while intoxicated on brandy. Earl Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Order of the Garter, Order of St Michael and St George, Privy Council of the United Kingdom , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an England British Whig Party and Liberal Party politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
would hear of his mission and set the Law offices of the Crown to work deciding on the status of diplomats as a form of contraband

Contraband

The English word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," derived via Italian contrabbando from Latin contra "against" + Middle Latin bannum , denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed, sold et cetera....
.

South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1861–1863

James Adger arrived Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia in the United States. Hampton Roads is notable for its year-round ice-free harbor, for United States Navy, U.S....
, Va., on 2 December and three days later was ordered to Port Royal, South Carolina

Port Royal, South Carolina

Port Royal is a town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,950 at the 2000 census. Largely because of annexation, the population of the Port Royal town limits has more than doubled since 2000 ....
for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont

Samuel Francis du Pont

Samuel Francis Du Pont was an United States naval officer who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, and a member of the prominent Du Pont family; he was the only member of his generation to use a capital D....
ordered Comdr. Marchand to sail in James Adger to Georgetown, S.C., and assume command of the blockade there. She arrived off Georgetown, S.C., 24 December and served with such efficiency that on 7 March 1862, Comdr. Marchand was ordered to Charleston to command the blockade at that critical port.

At Charleston smooth teamwork was the key to success; and James Adger was unusually adept in cooperating with other ships in the area to assure the effectiveness of the blockade. As senior ship, she usually remained on station while others chased blockade runners; but, from time to time, she took part in a capture herself. On 18 March 1862 she joined four other Union ships in capturing Emily St. Pierre attempting to slip into Charleston with a cargo of 2,173 bales of gunny cloth sorely needed for baling cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
, the South's main export

Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
and source of foreign credit

Credit (finance)

Credit is the provision of resources by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately, thereby generating a debt, and instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date....
. She helped on 29 May 1862 in capturing Elizabeth, a 250-ton steamer trying to enter Charleston with a cargo of munitions. She assisted Keystone State and in driving off and pursuing her old adversary Nashville, now a blockade runner named Thomas L. Wragg trying to slip into Charleston.

James Adger sailed for Baltimore on 19 September for repairs and departed for the South 31 December touching at Hampton Roads 2 January 1863 to take monitor in tow before proceeding to Beaufort and Port Royal in preparation for an attack on Charleston. Arriving Port Royal 19 January, the ships learned that Nashville, now a privateer

Privateer

A privateer was a private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Strictly, a privateer was only entitled by its state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime....
called Rattlesnake, was in the Ogeechee River

Ogeechee River

Ogeechee River is a long river in the United States state of Georgia . It heads at the confluence of its North Fork Ogeechee River and South Fork Ogeechee Rivers, about SSW of Crawfordsville and flowing generally SSE to Ossabaw Sound about south of Savannah, Georgia....
. James Adger stood out of Port Royal, monitor Montauk in tow, 22 January and steamed to Ossabaw Sound, where she arrived two days later. Montauk ascended the Ogeechee independently to begin operations which resulted in the destruction of Rattlesnake 28 February. Meanwhile James Adger, her vital towing service completed, returned to Port Royal 29 January.

On 2 April the veteran ship became flagship

Flagship

A flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, a designation given on account of being either the largest, fastest, newest, most heavily armed or, for publicity purposes, the most well known....
for Rear Admiral Du Pont while he supervised final preparations for his powerful monitor attack upon Charleston. After the tough ironclads were driven back by incredibly intense fire from Confederate batteries, James Adger towed crippled monitors to Port Royal and on 29 April sailed from Port Royal towing north for repairs, arriving New York 4 May.

Back in Port Royal 16 May, James Adger was assigned blockade duty off Charleston. A month later she was recalled to Port Royal to embark prisoners captured with Atlanta for passage to Fort Monroe

Fort Monroe

Fort Monroe is a Hampton, Virginia, military installation located at Old Point Comfort, which is on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. Along with Fort Calhoun, later renamed Fort Wool, it guarded approach by sea of the navigational shipping channel between the Chesapeake Bay and the entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads, which itself is fo...
, whence she steamed to Philadelphia for repairs. She arrived Philadelphia 25 June but immediately after coaling sailed in pursuit of Confederate commerce railer Tacony

CSS Tacony

CSS Tacony was originally a barque captured by the Confederate States of America cruiser CSS Clarence during the American Civil War and converted into a Confederate cruiser for commerce raiding....
, then operating against Union merchantmen far up the East Coast. She arrived New York 3 July.

North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1863

Four days later James Adger, not yet repaired, received orders to Wilmington

Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington is a city in and the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States. The population was 75,838 at the United States Census, 2000....
for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Arriving Wilmington 27 July, she was stationed off New Inlet, where five days later she assisted and in taking Confederate steamer Kate. On 8 November with the assistance of she captured Cornubia, an iron side wheeler bringing in a valuable cargo of arms, ammunition, and chemicals. Moreover, a package of documents thrown overboard before the capture, when plucked out of the sea, divulged information so important to the South that Cornubia's captain lamented, "though the Cornubia is a small vessel the Confederate Government could better have afforded to lose almost any other..." The next morning James Adger took Confederate steamer Robert E. Lee coming into Wilmington from Bermuda with a cargo of arms and Army clothing sorely needed by Lee's soldiers. Schooner Ella, approaching Wilmington with a cargo of salt and yard goods from Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau is the Capital , largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 260,000 , nearly 80 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas ....
, was James Adger's next victim, surrendering 26 November.

Without the normal overhaul periods due ships and men, service was taking a daily toll in wear and tear. When the ship's long postponed repairs could be delayed no longer, James Adger sailed north and decommissioned at Philadelphia 28 December for the necessary yard work.

South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Caribbean, 1864–1865

After recommissioning 17 June 1864, James Adger served in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until the end of the war. On 21 April 1865, Secretary Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles was the United States United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the United States Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the American Civil War....
ordered her to Mariguana Passage (now Mayaguana Passage) in the Bahamas to escort a convoy of California-bound ships. Following a visit to New York, she cruised in the Caribbean off Panama and Colombia from August 1865 to February 1866.

James Adger decommissioned at New York Navy Yard on 2 May and was sold at New York to James B. Campbell on 9 October 1866.

As of 2005, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named James Adger.