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CSS
Appomattox Lt. Charles C. Simms, Commanding |
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The CSS Appomattox,
originally the Empire, was chartered in 1861 as part of the Virginia Navy.
After Virginia joined the Confederacy, she was chartered during much of 1861
as an army transport. The navy turned down buying the Empire after
inspecting her in the fall of 1861. Flag Officer Lynch mentioned in a 22
October 1861 letter the possibility of using the Empire’s engines in a new
gunboat he had contracted with Gilbert Elliott, builder of the CSS
Albemarle, to build in Elizabeth City. (This gunboat was burned in the
stocks during the battle of Elizabeth City.) The Empire, renamed the CSS
Appomattox, was pressed into service in response to Burnside’s
Expedition arriving at Hatteras in January of 1862. Early in the battle of
Elizabeth City, the Appomattox’s forward gun was accidentally spiked
when a primer wire broke off in the vent hole. Lt. Simms turned the ship
around and fired with the stern 12-pounder as he circled around the sharp
bend at Elizabeth City and escaped upriver. Her freedom was short-lived,
however. When she reached the locks of the Dismal Swamp Canal in South Mills,
she was too wide to fit through the locks. Lt. Simms backed the Appomattox
away from the locks and scuttled her. One report has him blowing her up.
However, in the Official Records of the Navy, she is reported as
having been dismantled. Supporting this is the possibility that Simms
returned to South Mills the following week and salvaged the wreck. A note in
the National Archives states that Simms returned to South Mills on 19
February 1862 with a lighter; while there, he rented a second lighter and a
pair of oxen to pull it. Simms returned to Gosport with these two lighters of
material from South Mills. |
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Original Name |
Empire |
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Tonnage |
120 82/95 tons |
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Rig |
Tugboat; wood-hulled propeller steamer |
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Dimensions |
86’ x 20 5/10’ x 7 6/10’ |
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Built By |
Fredrick A. Phillips |
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Location/Year |
Philadelphia, PA; 1850 (enrollment #89) |
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Home Port |
Baltimore (enrollment #116 – 10 July 1860) |
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Description |
1 mast, square stern |
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Engine/Boilers |
N.A. |
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Owner(s) |
Cumberland Coal & Iron Co. |
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Commissioned |
N.A. |
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Armament |
1 long 32 pdr.; 1 brass boat howitzer |
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