|
CSS Appomattox |
|
|
Commanders: Lt. James Cooke |
|
Lt. Charles Simms |
|
|
Original name: Empire |
|
|
Tonnage: 120 82/95 tons |
|
|
Rig: Tugboat; wood hull screw
steamer |
|
|
Dimensions: 86’ x 20 5/10’ x 7
6/10’ |
|
|
Built by: Fredrick A. Phillips |
|
|
Location/Year: Philadelphia, PA;
1850 (enrollment #89) |
|
|
Home Port: Baltimore (enrollment
#116 – 10 July 1860) |
|
|
Description: 1 mast; square
stern |
|
|
Owner(s): Cumberland Iron &
Coal Co. |
|
|
Armament: 1 long 32 pdr.; 1
brass boat howitzer |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Service
Record:
· Part of Virginia Navy during early 1861 · Served as an army troop transport · Rejected for navy use after inspection in October of 1861 · Pressed into service for the battle of Roanoke Island, 7-8 February 1862 · Defended Elizabeth City, NC, 10 February 1862 · Scuttled to prevent capture at South Mills, NC, 10 February 1862 |
|
|
|
|
|
The CSS Appomattox,
originally the CSS Empire, was chartered in 1861 as a Confederate Army
troop transport. Lynch mentioned the possibility of using the Empire’s
engines in a new gunboat he contracted with Gilbert Elliott to build on 22
October 1861. (Elliott later built the ram CSS Albemarle.) This
gunboat was burned in the stocks to prevent her capture at the battle of
Elizabeth City. The Appomattox survived the battle of Elizabeth City
only to be destroyed at South Mills when she was too wide to fit through the
locks. |
|
