North Carolina Squadron

	Commander: Lt. Joseph W. Alexander
	Original name: Loper
	Tonnage: 106 90/95 tons
	Rig: Tugboat; iron hull screw steamer
	Dimensions: 91 5/10’ x 17 4/10’ x 7 2/10’
	Built By: Merrick & Town
	Location/Year: Philadelphia, PA, 1845
	Description: 1 deck, 2 masts, round stern, no figurehead
	Commissioned: 22 July 1861
	Armament: 1 – 32 pdr.


Service Record · Originally part of the North Carolina Navy; sold to the Confederacy · Defended Forts Hatteras and Clark, Hatteras, NC, 28-29 August 1861 · Captured USS Fanny at Loggerhead Inlet, NC, 1 October 1861 · Defended Roanoke Island, NC, 7-8 February 1862 · Tender to CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, VA, 7 March – 11 April 1862 · Renamed CSS Roanoke in 1863 · Action at Trent’s Reach, VA, 21 June 1864 · Sank in James River at Drewry’s Bluff, VA, 3 April 1865

The CSS Raleigh participated in the battle of Roanoke Island on 7-8 Feb 1862, sustaining damage to her ironwork. Flag Officer Lynch dispatched her to Gosport Navy Yard on 9 February 1862 to locate ammunition for the squadron. She was in Norfolk awaiting ammunition for the “mosquito fleet” during the battle of Elizabeth City, thus avoiding the destruction that befell most of the North Carolina Squadron.

Location/Year: Philadelphia, PA, 1845