USS Sangamon (1862)

USS Sangamon was a Passaic-class ironclad monitor constructed for the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War where she operated in the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She was later recommissioned and placed into service during the Spanish–American War.

Construction

The first U.S. Navy ship to be so named, Sangamon was built by the shipbuilding firm Reaney, Son & Archbold under the name Conestoga in the summer of 1862; renamed Sangamon on September 9, 1862; launched on October 27, 1862; and commissioned on February 9, 1863, at Chester, Pennsylvania, Commodore Pierce Crosby in command.

Assigned to the North Atlantic blockade

The monitor was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and soon began efficient but unspectacular operations in Hampton Roads, Virginia and in the many roughly parallel rivers which empty into Chesapeake Bay. Sangamon was one of the vital ships of the Navy which guaranteed the Army control of the waters which border and penetrate the bitterly contested land which separated Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia.

After repairs at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 21, 1864, she was towed by Wachusett to Port Royal, South Carolina for duty with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. After Union blockade duty off Charleston, South Carolina, she returned to Hampton Roads in the summer to support General Ulysses S. Grant's drive on Richmond, Virginia.

Varied river duties

Sangamon performed widely varied duties. She conducted reconnaissance expeditions up the river to obtain information, and often dueled Confederate forces hidden along the banks. She guarded Union troop concentrations and served as part of the Union naval force which patrolled the upper James to prevent the Confederate flotilla from threatening Union transports.