The Sassacus-class gunboat was a series of 28 wooden side-wheel gunboats built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. As double-ended gunboats, the vessels were intended for operations in shallow water throughout the Confederate States and were used to maintain the Union Blockade. They were the most produced class of warships built in the United States at the time. Almost every ship participated in the war, although they were obsolete during peacetime. By 1870, eight years after construction began, almost every ship had been sold off for civilian use.
Development and design During the American Civil War, the Union Navy ordered the mass construction of double-ended gunboats. The gunboats, with a shallow draft and identical fore and aft, were intended for littoral and riverine operations against the Confederate States. Compared to other gunboats, the double-ended vessels could shoot in either direction without the need to turn around. The ships were primarily propelled by two side-wheels mounted amidship, although they were also equipped with two masts. The first twelve double-ended gunboats formed the heterogeneous , and the Navy considered the design of best of the class. Criticism of earlier s were that the ships were small and slow, so the Navy enlarged the double-ended gunboat design to produce the Sassacus class.
The Sassacus-class design featured a length along the waterline of , beam of , mean draft of , and a displacement of 1,173 tons. The ships could carry 201 tons of coal, which was fed to two boilers that powered an inclined direct-acting engine to turn two side-wheels that produced and across each ship. The hulls were framed with white oak and planked with white pine, with metal bulkheads on each side of the engine rooms and a wooden bulkhead in the fore and aft. The ships were rigged as schooners and had a complement of 149 enlisted sailors and 14 officers. While varied, initial armament consisted of two pivot guns on the fore and aft along with four Dahlgren guns and two howitzers.
The design was modified in several gunboats. was built with an iron hull, included experimental superheating boilers, and was fitted with machinery designed by E. N. Dickerson to investigate his design, which was a failure. The Sassacus-class design was later enlarged to produce the seven iron-hulled s, the third and final series of American double-ended gunboats built during the war.
Service history
Construction contracts were awarded during the Autumn of 1862, with eighteen awarded to civilian shipyards and ten to government-operated navy yards. All but three ships were completed in time to join the war effort, and Algonquin was the only gunboat not to be commissioned. Several ships suffered from poor construction; problems included deck that threatened to collapse under the weight of the guns and having been condemned due to structural faults less than two months after entering service. Further issues arose when the Navy was unable to find contractors willing to build the ships' engines on short notice. The shortage was resolved by Engineer-in-Chief Benjamin Isherwood, who traveled across the North and negotiated agreements to build the steam equipment. The 28 ships was the most numerous class of warship ever built in the United States at the time, and held the record until World War I.
Once commissioned, the gunboats were assigned to squadrons that maintained the Union Blockade. They captured various Confederate vessels and took part in Union expeditions up Southern rivers or assaults on Confederate forts. The only war-time loss was , which sank after she struck two mines in the Roanoke River. When the Civil War ended, the Navy no longer had a need for double-ended gunboats; by 1869, all of the vessels that remained were decommissioned and sold off for civilian use. The exception was Tallapoosa, which was retained as a training ship for the US Naval Academy and rebuilt in 1872.
Ships in class +DataNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissionedOut of service William D. Lawrence186221 Apr 18639 Mar 1864Sold, 1867 Brooklyn Navy Yard186321 Dec 1863Sold, 1869 G W Jackson18634 Apr 186328 Jul 1864Sold, 1868 Jeremiah Simonson186219 Mar 186329 Feb 1864Sold, 1868 Paul Curtis 18624 Mar 18637 May 1864Sold, 1867 Abrahams1862Feb 18632 Jul 1863Sold, 1867 Larrabee & Allen186220 Mar 186326 Apr 1864Hulked, 1868 E Lupton186228 May 186330 Dec 1864Sold, 1868 Brookyln Navy Yard186222 Apr 186323 Apr 1864Sold, 1867 Curtis & Tilden18628 Mar 18638 Mar 1864Sold, 1867 A & G Sampson186218637 Apr 1864Sold, 1865 F. Z. Tucker 186213 Jan 18632 May 1864Sold, 1867 Thomas Stack18627 Mar 18634 Jan 1864Sold, 1865 D. S. Mershon18626 Aug 186329 Jul 1864Sold, 1867 Curtis & Tilden186229 May 186310 Feb 1864Sold, 1867 Jacob Aaron Westervelt186231 Mar 18631864Sunk, 1864 Portsmouth Navy Yard186219 Mar 186326 Aug 1864Sold, 1867 Brooklyn Navy Yard186229 Oct 186326 Dec 1866Sold, 1868 Birely, Hillman & Streaker186218637 Jul 1864Sold, 1867 William D. Lawrence Shipyard1862May 186310 May 1864Sold, 1866 Portsmouth Navy Yard186223 Dec 18625 Oct 1863Sold, 1868 Brooklyn Navy Yard186217 Mar 186313 Jun 1864Sold, 1868 Philadelphia Navy Yard18627 May 186312 Feb 1864Sold, 1868 Brooklyn Navy Yard186228 Nov 186327 Dec 1865Sold, 1868 Boston Navy Yard186217 Feb 186313 Sep 1864Sold, 1892 Reaney, Son & Archbold186229 Aug 186320 Jan 1864Wrecked, 1868 Boston Navy Yard186230 Jul 186327 Jun 1865Sold, 1868 William Cramp & Sons186212 May 18638 Feb 1864Sold, 1867
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