| The first Kansas was named for the Kansas River, which
is formed by the confluence of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers at Junction
City and northeastern Kansas, and flows east some 200 miles before emptying
into the Missouri River at Kansas City. |
| She was built at Philadelphia Navy Yard with machinery taken
from prize steamer Princess Royal; launched 29 September 1863 ; sponsored
by Miss Annie McClellan; and commissioned at Philadelphia 21 December 1863,
Lt. Comdr. Pendleton G. Watmough in command. |
| The day of her commissioning, the gunboat was ordered to Hampton
Roads to join the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She arrived Newport
News, Virginia, 30 December; but engine and boiler trouble required her to
return to the Washington Navy Yard for repairs. |
| In March 1864 the gunboat was stationed at Wilmington, North
Carolina, off New Inlet, where she served during most of the remainder of
the war. With Mount Vernon, Howquah, and Nansemond,
she engaged Confederate ironclad ram Raleigh, (Flag Officer Lynch)
which had steamed over the bar at New Inlet 6 May to attack the Northern
blockaders. The withering fire from the Union ships caused Raleigh,
to withdraw toward safety within the harbor, but she grounded and broke her
back while attempting to cross the bar at the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
After strenuous efforts to save the stricken vessel proved fruitless, she
was destroyed to prevent her falling into Union hands. |
| Shortly before dawn 15 May, Kansas ended a 2-hour chase
by capturing British steamer Tristram Shandy as the blockade-runner
attempted to escape to sea with a cargo of cotton, tobacco, and turpentine.
The next day the proud gunboat towed her prize into Beaufort. On her return
passage, she brought Colonel James Jourdan to reconnoiter Confederate defenses
at Fort Fisher in preparation for future attacks. |
| Throughout the night of 27-28 May, Kansas chased a
blockade-running steamer, which finally escaped. That morning boiler trouble
prevented her getting underway to chase another steamer that dashed out from
Wilmington. After remaining on blockade duty at New Inlet until August, the
gunboat returned to Philadelphia for repairs. |
| Kansas rejoined her squadron late in September; and, after
briefly cruising at sea, she returned to her old station off New Inlet in
mid-October. There she chased and headed off steamer Annie trying
to slip out of New Inlet with a cargo of cotton. This action 31 October enabled
Wilderness and Niphon to capture the chase a short time later.
On 7 December, while Admiral Porter and General B. F. Butler planned joint
operations against Wilmington to close that vital Confederate port once and
for all, Kansas was one of the Union gunboats which were making
blockade-running in that quarter hazardous. That day they forced steamer
Stormy Petrel ashore where she was abandoned by her crew and, a few days
later, destroyed by a gale. |
| At daylight Christmas Eve, Kansas was part of the huge
fleet which formed in line of battle before Fort Fisher and pounded the
formidable Confederate works with a furious bombardment. Although the cannonade
drove the staunch Southern defenders from their guns to shelter in bombproofs,
transports carrying the Union soldiers did not arrive from Beaufort until
too late to launch the assault that day. |
| The next morning, the ships again opened fire on the forts and
maintained the bombardment while troops landed near Flag Pond Battery, north
of the main defensive works. Some 2,000 men established a beachhead under
the protection of naval gunfire that kept the Confederate garrison pinned
down and away from their guns. Late that afternoon, supported by heavy fire
from the Union ships, Army skirmishers advanced to within yards of the fort.
Lt. Aeneas Armstrong of the Confederate Navy later described the effectiveness
of the bombardment: "The whole of the interior of the fort, which consists
of sand, merlons, etc., was as one 11-inch shell bursting. You can not inspect
the works and walk on nothing but iron. "However, General Butler, considering
the works too strong to be carried by assault with the troops available,
aborted the operation by ordering his troops to re-embark |
| Undaunted by this setback, the Navy was not to be denied. At Porter's
request Grant sent him a new commander. Kansas was one of some five
dozen ships which Porter sent against Fort Fisher 13 January 1865. A naval
landing party of 2,000 sailors and marines reinforced 8.000 soldiers under
Major General Alfred H. Terry. The ensuing onslaught was a classic example
of complete Army-Navy coordination. New Ironsides led three monitors to within
1,000 yards of Fort Fisher and opened on its batteries. Meanwhile,
Kansas and the other wooden warships formed in line of battle in close
order and shelled Flag Pond Battery and the adjacent woods at 0715. Half
an hour later, they sent in boats to assist in disembarking the landing party
that went ashore out of range of the fort's guns. Once the beachhead had
been established, Kansas stood toward Fort Fisher to join in the
bombardment of the main Confederate works. She continued the bombardment
intermittently for the next 2 days. Shortly before noon 15 January, her launch
went ashore with 20 men to join the naval brigade for the final push. The
gunboat maintained heavy fire during the following hours while soldiers,
sailors, and marines braved the deadly fire of the stouthearted Southern
defenders. Finally, at 2200 loud cheering and illumination of the fleet announced
the fall of the forts. |
| After cleanup operations in the Wilmington area, Kansas
moved to the James River late in February to support General Grant's final
drive to Richmond. From time to time during the closing weeks of the war,
Kansas supported Army operations ashore with her guns, particularly
near Petersburg. The day after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court
House, the gunboat was ordered to a station off Cape Henry to prevent the
escape of Confederate sympathizers who were reportedly planning to capture
vessels in the bay. |
| Kansas entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard 23 April and
decommissioned 4 May. She recommissioned 28 July, Lt. Cmdr. Clark H. Wells
in command, and departed Philadelphia 5 August to begin a 4-year voyage in
the South Atlantic which took her to Cape Town, Africa, as well as to many
ports in the Caribbean and South America. This long and interesting deployment
ended 15 September 1869, when the gunboat arrived Washington Navy Yard, where
she decommissioned a week later. |
| After a year in ordinary at Washington, she recommissioned 26
September 1870, Lt. Cmdr. Norman H. Farquhar in command. She stood down the
Potomac 10 October and arrived Hampton Roads 3 days later to join
Mayflower
for the Tehuantepec surveying-expedition sent to southern Mexico to determine
the feasibility of constructing an interoceanic canal across the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec which separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Pacific Ocean.
The ships sailed via Key West for Vera Cruz 14 October. The expedition carefully
surveyed the narrow neck of land and recorded invaluable scientific information
making "many calculations to prove that a ship canal across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec is not only practicable, but that the obstacles in the way of
the canal route are of the most ordinary nature." |
| When she returned to Washington 15 June 1871, her crew was seriously
debilitated by fever contracted in the tropics. As a result, she was ordered
to the North Atlantic to join a special squadron under Vice Admiral Rowen
at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She stood in to Staten Island 10 October to
participate in the reception given the Russian Fleet. She departed New York
Harbor 29 November for Cuba and arrived Havana 5 December. The gunboat left
that port 25 February 1872 to obtain supplies and await Comdr. A. F. Crossman
who headed another Nicaraguan surveying expedition. She was employed gathering
data on potential interoceanic canal routes until returning to Key West 13
July. |
| Kansas departed Key West 6 August to determine positions
for a submarine cable between Key West and Havana and returned a week later.
She departed Key West 21 August and arrived Halifax, N.S., 5 September. She
stood out of Halifax 17 September and arrived New York 21 November after
visiting Salem, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island, en route. She got
underway for another surveying expedition of Central America 1 January 1873,
which ended when she returned to Key West 15 July. |
| In November, Spanish authorities in Cuba seized arms running ship
Virginias, illegally flying the American flag on the high seas, and
summarily shot 53 of her passengers and crew. On hearing of this incident,
Wyoming sailed
without orders to Santiago and entered a vigorous protest. Kansas
stood out of New York 14 November to join Wyoming in checking brutal action
and in protecting the nation's interests. After battling severe weather,
she arrived Santiago 2 December. As a host of other warships from the Home
Fleet, the South Atlantic and the European station converged on Cuba, the
102 survivors of Virginias, owing their lives to the prompt naval
action, were delivered on board the first arrival, Juniata, and taken
to New York. |
| Kansas returned to Key West Christmas Day. In February
1874, she participated in a naval drill in Florida Bay. Her final year of
active service was devoted to cruising in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
of Mexico, at the time a region of considerable unrest. She sailed from Pensacola
8 July 1875, and arrived Portsmouth, New Hampshier, on the 21st. She
decommissioned there 10 August and laid up until sold at Rockland, Maine,
to Captain Israel L. Snow 27 September 1883. |
Tonnage 625 ; Length 129'6" ;Beam 29' ; Draft 10'6" ; Speed. 12
knots; Complement 108 ; Armament one 150-pdr. rifle, two12-pdr. rifle, two
20-pdr. Dahlgren rifle, two 9" Dahlgren smoothbore |
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