USS Tristram Shandy

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Ship Information (from DANFS)¹,²:

Name: USS Tristram Shandy	Type: Sidewheel Gunboat	Tonnage: 444
Length: 222’	Beam: 23’6”	Draught: Loaded: 6’4”, Light: 5’8”
Speed: Greatest under steam: 14.5 knots; Max: 15 knots; Avg.: 12 knots	Complement: Not Listed.	Class: Not Listed.
Armament: 3 12-pdrs., 1 20-pdr. Parrott Rifle
Namesake: The hero, and the shortened title, of the novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, which was written by Laurence Sterne between the years 1759 and 1767.

Images:

Image Needed (Does One Exist?)

 

Captain(s):
Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Edward F. Devens
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Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Francis M. Green
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Captain 3
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First Offensive Order of Battle (June 13-18, 1864):

• Captain:
• Crew Strength:
• Armament:

Second Offensive Order of Battle (June 19-30, 1864):

• Captain:
• Crew Strength:
• Armament:

Third Offensive Order of Battle (July 1-31, 1864):

• Captain:
• Crew Strength:
• Armament:

Fourth Offensive Order of Battle (August 1-31, 1864):

Hampton Roads, VA (August 12, 1864)³

• Captain: Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Edward F. Devens (August 12, 1864)⁴
• Crew Strength:
• Armament:
• Note: The ship she was commissioned on August 12, 1864, at Hampton Roads, Va.⁵

Fifth Offensive Order of Battle (September 1-October 13, 1864):

• Not present at the Siege of Petersburg.

Sixth Offensive Order of Battle (October 14-31, 1864):

• Not present at the Siege of Petersburg.

Seventh Offensive Order of Battle (November 1-December 31, 1864):

• Not present at the Siege of Petersburg.

Eighth Offensive Order of Battle (January 1-February 28, 1865):

• Not present at the Siege of Petersburg.

Ninth Offensive Order of Battle (March 1-April 2, 1865):

Not listed as part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, so not present at the Siege of Petersburg (March 18, 1864)⁶

Asked to be sent from Norfolk Navy Yard to Rear Admiral David D. Porter at Hampton Roads on March 27, 1865.⁷

Arrived at Fort Monroe (April 2, 1865)⁸

City Point, James River, Va. | North Atlantic Blockading Squadron | Union Navy (April 1 & 15, 1865)⁹,¹⁰

• Captain: Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Francis M. Green (April 1 & 15, 1865)¹¹,¹²
• Crew Strength:
• Armament: 4 x “guns” (April 1 & 15, 1865)¹³,¹⁴
• Note: On April 1, 1865, this ship is noted as a “Paddle Class” vessel.¹⁵
• Note: On April 15, 1865, this ship is noted as a “Paddle Class” vessel and a “dispatch vessel.”¹⁶

 

Siege of Petersburg Battles:

• TBD

 

Siege of Petersburg Involvement:¹⁷

Tristram Shandy, a schooner-rigged, iron-hulled sidewheel steamer completed in 1864 at Greenock, Scotland, was originally owned by Matthew Isaac Wilson, a Liverpool, England, merchant. The ship subsequently sailed for the Bahamas, whence she took part in British efforts to continue trade with Southern states during the American Civil War.

On her first attempt to run the Federal blockade, Tristram Shandy outdistanced a Union pursuer by dumping cargo overboard to gain a few more knots of speed. After reaching Wilmington, N.C., she returned to Nassau to pick up another cargo earmarked for the Confederacy.

Successfully slipping through the blockade, she unloaded at Wilmington and took on board a valuable cargo of cotton, turpentine, and tobacco. In addition, $50,000 in Confederate specie reposed in the ship’s safe. On 15 May 1864, the steamer attempted to slip to sea under the protective covering of a rain squall. The ship was darkened to avoid detection by roving Union patrols, but her funnels suddenly commenced throwing highly visible flames. Union gunboat Kansas spotted the telltale light and gave chase. For two hours, Kansas pursued and slowly gained on the fleeing blockade runner. Meanwhile, Tristram Shandy’s master frantically called down for more steam. The fugitive steamer’s engineer zealously carried out the orders from the bridge until a valve failure stopped her engine. Slowly, the blockade runner lost way and lay dead in the water, an easy prey for Union Sailors. A boarding party from Kansas rigged a towline to the prize, and the blockader towed her to Beaufort, N.C. The erstwhile blockade runner was then taken to Massachusetts where the Navy purchased her from the Boston Prize Court.

Repaired and converted to a gunboat at the Boston Navy Yard, the ship proceeded to Hampton Roads, Va., where she was commissioned on 12 August 1864, Acting Vol. Lt. Edward F. Devens in command…

[SOPO Editor’s Note: This ship’s earlier Civil War service has been omitted.]

On 31 January [1865], Tristram Shandy joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and remained with that group into the spring. Returning north, she served as a dispatch vessel with Union forces operating in Hampton Roads. Admiral Porter embarked in Tristram Shandy on 14 April [1865], after the admiral had previously escorted President Lincoln on a tour of the devastated fallen Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. Two days later, the ship moored at Baltimore, where the admiral was greeted with the sad news that the President had been assassinated the previous night in Washington.

On 26 April [1865], the ship returned to Hampton Roads to continue her duties as a dispatch vessel, operating off the Virginia capes, concurrently serving as a lookout and keeping watch for the Confederate ram Stonewall, believed to be still at sea and unaware that hostilities had ceased.

Tristram Shandy then conveyed Confederate prisoners to Fort Pulaski, Georgia, in late May and returned to Hampton Roads on 2 June [1865]. Upon arrival, she was assigned to duty as a roving vessel operating under the direct orders of the Commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, for his use in inspecting the various ships and stations under his command.

On 21 June 1865, her name was changed to Boxer (q.v.). Her service as a warship finished, Tristram Shandy was laid up at Philadelphia in the late summer of 1865.

 

Bibliography:

Siege of Petersburg Documents Which Mention This Unit:

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