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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Tioga (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Octorara Class Sidewheel Gunboat:
  • Laid down as a double-ended steam gunboat in the summer and fall of 1861, at Boston Navy Yard, Boston, MA.
  • Launched, 18 April 1862
  • Commissioned USS Tioga, 30 June 1862, LT. George W. Rodgers in command
  • USS Tioga was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, James River Flotilla, 5 July 1862
  • USS Tioga ascended the James River to support beleaguered Union troops at Harrisons Landing, covering the final phases of the Army's Peninsular Campaign and frequently exchanged fire with Southern batteries and sharpshooters
  • Reassigned, 29 August 1862, to the Potomac Flotilla
  • Before taking up duty on the Potomac Tioga was again reassigned, this time to the newly established West India Squadron to counter the threat of Confederate commerce raiders
    Took British schooner Avon, 14 February 1863
    Captured British schooner Florence Nightingale, 13 March 1863
    Captured British sidewheel steamer SS Granite City, 22 March 1863
    Took British sloop Justina, 23 April 1863
    Captured the British schooner Julia, 27 June 1863
    Took Confederate steamer SS Herald, 25 September 1863
  • Ordered to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, 22 September 1863
    Participated in the capture of the sloop Last Trial late September 1863
    Took an unidentified schooner off Grand Bahama Island, 4 January 1864
    Captured sloops Swallow, 20 March 1864 and Oriental about the same time
  • Yellow Fever caused Tioga to head north to Portsmouth, N.H., in the spring of 1864
  • Decommissioned, 29 June 1864
  • Recommissioned at Portsmouth, 6 June 1865
  • Transferred to the Gulf Squadron in October 1865, arriving at Pensacola, 30 November 1865
  • Decommissioned, at New York Navy Yard, 8 May 1866
  • Sold, 15 October 1867
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 819 t.
    Length 209'
    Beam 34' 11"
    Draft 10' 2"
    Depth 12' 3"
    Speed 11.5 kts
    Complement 105
    Armament
    one 32-pdr Dahlgren smoothbore
    one 100-pdr Parrott rifle
    six 24-pdr howitzers
    Propulsion steam and sail
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Tioga 153k View looking forward from atop the USS Tioga port paddle box, showing the gun crews at their posts. Taken at Bangor, Maine, during or shortly after the Civil War. Note: large Parrott rifled gun on a slide-pivot mount forward; 32-Pounder smoothbore gun nearer the camera; African-American sailor in the 32-Pounder gun's crew; fire buckets, bearing the ship's name, hung around the capstan; shot rack on the hatch in lower right; sail rigged to the foremast by hoops; windsail ventilator rigged abaft the mast; boat davits and rigging for masts and the smokestack.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 85666 Courtesy LCOL. W. J. O'Brien    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    USS Tioga (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01LT. Rodgers, George Washington30 June 1861 - 9 November 1862
    02CDR. Clary, Albert Gallatin9 November 1862 - 22 September 1863
    03CDR. Newcomb, Henry S.22 September 1863 - 25 October 1863
    04LCDR. Stanton, Oscar F.25 October 1863 - 23 November 1863
    05LCDR. McCauley, Edward Yorke23 November 1863 - 29 June 1864
    06LCDR. Whiting, William D.6 June 1865 - 8 May 1866
    Courtesy Bill Gonyo
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 5 July 2013