USS ''Philippi'' was a
blockade runner
A blockade runner is a merchant vessel used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait. It is usually light and fast, using stealth and speed rather than confronting the blockaders in order to break the blockade. Blockade runners usuall ...
captured by the
Union Navy during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. She served the Union Navy’s struggle against the
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
as a picket, patrol and
dispatch vessel
Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message w ...
.
Service history
Union steamer discovered new and fast sidewheeler ''Ella'' 10 November 1863 steaming along the coast north of
Fort Fisher, North Carolina
Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear River' ...
. She immediately gave chase and fired a shot at the blockade runner which glanced off ''Ella’s'' gallows frame and caused her to surrender. The
Boston, Massachusetts,
Prize Court subsequently condemned the prize and sold her to the Navy 23 February 1864. Renamed ''Philippi'' four days later, the steamer commissioned early in April. ''Philippi'' was ordered to
, on the 11th for duty in the
West Gulf Blockading Squadron
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederate States of America, Confederacy from trading.
The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required ...
, ''Philippi'' served the squadron as a picket, patrol, and dispatch vessel until set afire by Confederate artillery and destroyed while following Admiral
David Farragut’s fleet into
Mobile Bay 5 August 1864.
See also
*
Blockade runners of the American Civil War
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philippi
Ships of the Union Navy
Steamships of the United States Navy
Gunboats of the United States Navy
Dispatch boats of the United States Navy
American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States
Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
Shipwrecks of the Alabama coast
Maritime incidents in August 1864