1861

Shortly thereafter, Brooklyn returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and she remained in the Norfolk area through the end of 1860 while enthusiasm for secession swept through the deep South in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency. Early in January 1861, Capt. Walker received orders sending Brooklyn to Charleston, South Carolina, with messages for the steamer Star of the West which had sailed south to relieve beleaguered Fort Sumter. However, when she reached Charleston Harbor, she found the channel leading into port obstructed and learned that the resupply effort had failed. Consequently, she returned to Hampton Roads.

The following month, she received orders for a similar mission which she carried out with great success, relieving Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, Florida. After helping to thwart Confederate attempts to wrest that highly valuable Federal toehold on strategic Florida territory from Union hands, Brooklyn sailed west along the Gulf of Mexico coast to establish the blockade of the Mississippi Passes. She, USS Powhatan, and two gunboats made a number of captures off Pass a l'Outre and Southwest Pass, but so many ships were getting by them that Comdr. Charles Henry Poor – who relieved Capt. Walker as Brooklyn's commander in April 1861—tried to go upriver to the Head of Passes where traffic might better be throttled. Low water, however, caused her to run aground twice before she abandoned the effort. On June 30, 1861, the Confederate warship CSS Sumter raced out of Pass a l'Outre while Brooklyn had left her station in pursuit of another ship. Upon seeing the fleet Southern cruiser, Brooklyn forsook her first chase and used full sail and maximum steam in an attempt to overtake Sumter but to no avail, for her quarry soon escaped over the horizon and out of sight. Badly in need of repairs, Brooklyn sailed north late in the autumn and was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Recommissioned on December 19, 1861, the screw sloop—commanded by Capt. Thomas T. Craven—dropped down the Delaware River on the 27th and stood out to sea, bound for the gulf. After stopping at Key West, Florida, she reached Ship Island, Mississippi, on January 22, 1862. On February 2 she sailed for Pass a l'Outre where, on the 19th, she captured the steamer Magnolia which was attempting to slip out to sea with 1,200 bales of cotton. Meanwhile, the Navy Department had divided its forces in the gulf into two organizations: the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer William W. McKean, and the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut who arrived at Ship Island in March. Besides carrying out the blockade, Farragut had been instructed to lead a fleet of warships up the Mississippi River to capture New Orleans, Louisiana. After spending the latter part of March and the first part of April getting his deep-draft ocean-going vessels over the bar and into the river, Farragut moved his fleet up the Mississippi to a position just out of range of the guns that guarded the river at Confederate Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

1862

Brooklyn under attack by CSS Manassas

Attached to Farragut's force was a flotilla of small sailing vessels each of which carried a 13-inch mortar. In mid-April these little warships—mostly schooners—began a bombardment of the Southern forts and continued the attack until the early hours of April 24 when they increased the tempo of their firing to their maximum rate while Farragut's deep-draft men-of-war got underway for a dash past the Southern guns. Brooklyn was

... struck several times before she could bring her guns to bear. As soon as that could be accomplished we opened fire upon Fort Jackson and also upon Fort St. Philip, fighting both batteries at intervals. We were fouled by one of our gunboats, but received no damage. The ram Manassas attempted to sink us by running into us, but did us little injury. A fire raft came down the river upon us, but we succeeded in crossing it without injury. We came near getting foul of some hulks and rafts of logs, which kept us under fire longer than we otherwise should have been.

Eight men from Brooklyn were killed in the action and 21 wounded before she reached comparative safety beyond the range of the Rebel artillery. Later that day, after making needed repairs, Farragut's warships resumed their movement upriver and reached New Orleans on April 25. When that city had surrendered, Brooklyn—which had been damaged more seriously by her collision with the ram Manassas than Craven had at first realized—received a patch of heavy planking some 24 feet long over a long tear in her hull. One of Brooklyn's sailors, Quartermaster James Buck, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle.^[1]

Farragut's orders called for him to clear the Mississippi of all Confederate forces afloat and of all defensive works along the river banks while moving up stream until meeting another Union squadron—commanded by Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis – which had begun fighting its way downriver from Cairo, Illinois. Hence, early in May after Union Army troops commanded by Major General Benjamin F. Butler had arrived in transports and had taken over New Orleans, Brooklyn and six other warships ascended the river. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi, surrendered with no resistance, but Vicksburg, Mississippi, proved to be another matter. The Confederate Army had so fortified its riverside hills that it could not be taken without the support of a strong land force. Since the Union Army did not have a sufficient number of troops available in the region to accomplish this purpose, Farragut's men-of-war returned to New Orleans.

There awaiting him were orders from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles reiterating the importance of a junction with Davis's force above Vicksburg, Mississippi. Thus the Union warships again reversed course and painfully worked their way upstream to a position just out of range of Vicksburg's guns. This time they had the support of the Mortar Flotilla which conducted an intense preliminary bombardment of the riverside fortress. At two hours past midnight on June 28, the fleet got underway in two columns and began steaming up stream. Unfortunately, the steamers that had towed the mortar schooners up stream got in the way of Brooklyn and two gunboats and prevented their getting upstream past the Vicksburg batteries. As a result they drew much of the Southern fire while Farragut's other ships pushed upstream and out of range. Shortly before dawn, Brooklyn dropped down stream to a place of greater safety and remained there to be on hand to support Farragut in any way possible should an opportunity to do so occur before the Flag Officer returned below in mid-July. As the hot summer days passed, more and more illness broke out among the ship's crew and the falling water level in the river made it necessary for the ship to retire downstream toward New Orleans.

Meanwhile, on July 2, Capt Henry H. Bell relieved Capt. Craven in command of Brooklyn. On August 6, the screw sloop engaged Confederate batteries at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, driving the Southern artillerymen from their guns; and, on the 9th and 10th, she took part in combined operations which partially destroyed that city in reprisal for guerrilla attacks on Union shipping from that town. Soon thereafter, Brooklyn left the Mississippi and steamed to Pensacola for more permanent repairs to the damage she had suffered while fighting her way past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and colliding with Manassas. On October 6, orders sent the ship to blockade duty off Mobile Bay, and she spent the rest of 1862 in that vicinity alert for blockade runners and the appearance of Confederate cruisers which might threaten Union gunboats guarding the coast.

1863

Early in January 1863, when word reached Farragut that a surprise Southern attack against Union warships at Galveston, Texas, had recaptured that port and broken the blockade there, he placed Bell in charge of the small force sent to reestablish Union control. Shoal water prevented Brooklyn from participating in a bombardment of Confederate gun positions in Galveston harbor on January 10; and on the night of the 11th, CSS Alabama sank Brooklyn's most formidable consort the sidewheel steamer USS Hatteras, in a fierce but rapid engagement some 30 miles off Galveston. This setback prompted Bell to give up his plan to retake that port pending the arrival of powerful shallow draft reinforcements. Brooklyn did continue to blockade the Texas city into the summer. On 25 May, Bell " ... left Commander James Robert Madison Mullany in the USS Bienville in charge of the blockade of Galveston ... and proceeded down the coast of Texas as far as the Rio Grande, to ascertain the amount of interior coast trade and its exit...On the morning of the 27th, Brooklyn captured the 17-ton, cotton-laden sloop, Blazer, which was heading for Matamoros, Mexico. The next day, boats from Brooklyn took the small sloop Kate. Three days later, she anchored off the bar outside Brazos Santiago, Texas", and sent " ... an expedition of four boats and 87 men ... to capture vessels there …"

As the Union boats approached Point Isabel, the Southerners " ... set fire to a large schooner." They brought out the 100-ton schooner Star and a fishing scow. At Point Isabel, they captured the 100-ton, British sloop Victoria of Jamaica but ran that vessel aground while attempting to get out to sea and so burned her. After the landing parties had returned to the ship, Brooklyn returned to Galveston. Late in July she returned to New Orleans where, on August 2, Lt. Comdr. Chester Hatfield relieved Bell in command to free the commodore to take temporary command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron while Farragut returned home in USS Hartford for a well-earned leave. On the 10th, Capt. George F. Emmons relieved Hatfield and sailed Brooklyn north on the 13th to receive badly needed repairs. She emerged from the Southwest Pass the next day; touched at Port Royal, South Carolina, on the 21st, at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 22d, and reached the New York Navy Yard on the 25th.

Battle of Mobile Bay

Recommissioned on April 14, 1864, Brooklyn put to sea on 10 May under the command of Capt. James Alden, Jr. and rejoined her squadron off Mobile Bay on the last day of the month. There Farragut—who had resumed command—was eager to capture that strategic port, but was held up by the perennial lack of available Union Army troops—needed for the projected combined operation. He was also awaiting the arrival of monitors to strengthen the squadron for the forthcoming battle. Brooklyn helped to blockade Mobile Bay while Farragut waited for deficiencies to be corrected. Finally, late in July she and her squadron mates received orders to make ready for the long awaited attack. On the morning of August 5, Farragut took his squadron of 18 ships, including four monitors, against the heavy Confederate defenses of Mobile Bay. Soon after 6 am, the Union ships crossed the bar and moved into the bay. The four monitors formed a column to starboard of the wooden ships in order to take most of the fire from Fort Morgan, which they had to pass at close range. Brooklyn led the second column,^[2] consisting of the seven smaller wooden ships lashed to the port side of the larger wooden screw steamers, as in the passage of Fort Hudson.

Shortly before 7 o'clock, Tecumseh opened fire on Fort Morgan,^[3] and the action quickly became general. As the 4-ship Confederate squadron engaged the attackers, a terrific explosion rocked the Union monitor USS Tecumseh. She careened violently and went down in seconds, the victim of one of the much-feared torpedoes (Naval mine) laid by the Confederates for harbor defense.^[3] Alden, in Brooklyn, was to Tecumseh's port when the disaster occurred; the heavy steamer stopped and began backing to clear "a row of suspecious [sic] looking buoys" directly under Brooklyn's bow. The entire line of wooden vessels was drifting into confusion immediately under the guns of Fort Morgan. Farragut, lashed in the rigging to observe the action over the smoke billowing from the guns, acted promptly and resolutely. The only course was the boldest—through the torpedo field. "Damn the torpedoes", he ordered "full speed ahead." His flagship Hartford swept past Brooklyn into the rows of torpedoes; the fleet followed. The Union force steamed into the bay.^[3]

In the ensuing battle, the ironclad CSS Tennessee attempted in vain to ram Brooklyn. The Union fleet dispatched three of the Confederate ships, leaving Tennessee as the only defender. The lone ironclad then engaged the entire Union fleet. After a fierce battle lasting more than an hour, Tennessee was forced to surrender, resulting in a Union victory. During the battle that lasted a bit more than three hours, Brooklyn suffered 54 casualties, 11 killed and 43 wounded, while firing 183 projectiles. Twenty-three of Brooklyn's sailors and marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for their part in the battle. Their names were:^[1][4]

Attack on Fort Fisher

After spending the next few weeks helping reduce the Confederate land works guarding the entrance, Brooklyn departed Mobile Bay on September 6 and headed for Hampton Roads for service in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Soon thereafter, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter began to concentrate his warships for a joint Army-Navy operation against Fort Fisher, North Carolina. The fort guarded the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major Confederate port still open for blockade runners. Brooklyn took part in the attack against that Southern stronghold which began with a bombardment on Christmas Eve. She helped to cover the landing of troops the next day, but the whole effort was brought to naught later that day when the Union Army commanding officer, Major General Benjamin F. Butler, decided that his forces could not carry the Confederate works and ordered his soldiers to re-embark. Porter strongly disagreed with this decision in dispatches to Washington. General Ulysses S. Grant responded by placing a new commander over a larger Army force earmarked for another attempt to take Fort Fisher. Brooklyn was in the task force that arrived off Fort Fisher on January 13, 1865, and her guns supported the attack until the fort surrendered on the 15th. Since this victory completed the last major task of the Union Navy during the Civil War, Brooklyn sailed north and was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on January 31, 1865.

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