Minnesota at Hampton-Roads in 1862
History
United States
Name	USSMinnesota
Namesake	TheMinnesota River
Builder	Washington Navy Yard,Washington, D.C.
Laid down	May 1854
Launched	1 December 1855
Sponsored by	Susan L. Mann
Commissioned	21 May 1857
Decommissioned	2 June 1859
Recommissioned	2 May 1861
Decommissioned	16 February 1865
Recommissioned	3 June 1867
Out of service	Placedin ordinary 13 January 1868
Recommissioned	12 June 1875
Out of service	Loaned toMassachusetts Naval Militia October 1895-August 1901
Fate	Sold August 1901; later burned
General characteristics
Type	Screw frigate[1]
Displacement	3,307long tons (3,360 t)
Length	264 ft 9 in (80.70 m)[1]
Beam	51 ft 4 in (15.65 m)[1]
Draft	23 ft 10 in (7.26 m)[1]
Propulsion	Steam engine
Sail plan	Ship Rig[1]
Speed	12.5 knots[1]
Complement	646 officers and enlisted[1]
Armament	2 × 10 in (250 mm) guns 28 × 9 in (230 mm) guns 14 × 8 in (200 mm) guns

USSMinnesota was a woodensteam frigate in theUnited States Navy. Launched in 1855 andcommissioned eighteen months later, the ship served in east Asia for two years before being decommissioned. She was recommissioned at the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War and returned to service as the flagship of theNorth Atlantic Blockading Squadron.^[2]

During the first day of theBattle of Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862,Minnesota ran aground, and the following battle badly damaged her and inflicted many casualties. On the second day of the battle,USS Monitor engagedCSSVirginia, allowing tugs to freeMinnesota on the morning of 10 March.Minnesota was repaired and returned to duty, and three years later she participated in theSecond Battle of Fort Fisher.Minnesota served until 1898, when she was stricken, beached and burnt to recover her metal fittings and to clear her name for a newly ordered battleship,USS Minnesota (BB-22).

Minnesota was laid down in May 1854 by theWashington Navy Yard on the East Branch of thePotomac River (Anacostia River) in southeastWashington, D.C. She wasnamed and launched on 1 December 1855, sponsored by Susan L. Mann, andcommissioned into the lists of theUnited States Navy on 21 May 1857 with CaptainSamuel Francis DuPont in command.

Minnesota was named for theMinnesota River, tributary to the upperMississippi River. Her sister ships were also named for American rivers: theWabash (first in class),Colorado,Merrimack (salvaged 1861-62 and renamedC.S.S. Virginia by theConfederate States Navy), and theRoanoke (later converted to a monitor-type ironclad warship).

Minnesota, carryingWilliam B. Reed, appointed U.S. Minister to theEmpire of China, departed fromNorfolk, Virginia, on 1 July 1857 for the continent ofEast Asia. During her service with theEast India Squadron, she visited many of the principal ports ofChina andJapan before departingHong Kong to bring Minister Reed home with a newly negotiated commerce treaty, theTreaty of Tianjin, with the Manchu dynasty of the Chinese Empire. Upon arrival inBoston, Massachusetts, on 2 June 1859,Minnesota wasdecommissioned at theBoston Navy Yard on theCharles River inCharlestown, Massachusetts, (across from Boston) the same day and remainedin ordinary (holding status) there until the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War two years later in April 1861.

Minnesota was recommissioned on 2 May 1861, Captain G. J. Van Brunt in command, and becameflagship of theAtlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag OfficerSilas Stringham. She arrived atHampton Roads, Virginia, on 13 May and the next day captured theschoonersMary Willis,Delaware Farmer, andEmily Ann.Minnesota took thebarkWinfred on the 25th and the barkSally McGee on 26 June. SchoonerSally Mears became her prize 1 July and barkMary Warick struck her colors to the steam frigate on the 10th.

Minnesota led a joint Army-Navy expedition, known as theBattle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries, against two importantConfederate forts which had been erected atHatteras Inlet,North Carolina. The squadron opened fire on Fort Clark on the morning of 28 August 1861, forcing the Confederate gunners to abandon the fort at noon. The following day, the fire of the squadron was concentrated on Fort Hatteras. The bombardment was so effective the Confederates were compelled to seek cover in bomb shelters and surrendered.

When Flag OfficerLouis M. Goldsborough relieved Stringham in command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron on 23 September, he selectedMinnesota as his flagship.William B. Cushing, later to distinguish himself for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSSAlbemarle, was assigned as a junior officer to theMinnesota.

While blockading off Hampton Roads, 8 March 1862,Minnesota sighted three Confederate warships,Jamestown,Patrick Henry, and led by the unique revolutionary appearance of theCSS Virginia—the formerUSS Merrimack, (the 1855 steam-powered heavyfrigate, rebuilt since burnt/scuttled in 1861 and now protected by riveted iron plates) — roundingSewell's Point fromNorfolk and theElizabeth River, and heading north across theHampton Roads harbor to the northern peninsula towardNewport News, Virginia.^[3]Minnesota slipped her cables and got underway to engage the Southern warships in a fight that would come to be known as theBattle of Hampton Roads. When about 1.5 miles off-shore from Newport News, theMinnesota grounded.^[3]

Meanwhile,CSS Virginia passed the federal frigateCongress and rammed and sank sailing frigateCumberland.Virginia then engagedCongress compelling her to surrender and setting her afire. Then the rebel iron warshipVirginia, along withJamestown, andPatrick Henry bombarded the strandedMinnesota killing and wounding several of her crew before the Union Navy warship's heavy guns drove them off.Minnesota also fired uponVirginia with herpivot gun. Toward twilight the Southern ironclad withdrew southward back across the harbor towardNorfolk and theElizabeth River.^[3]

The recoil from her broadside guns forcedMinnesota further upon the mud bank. All night, steamtug boats worked to pull and haul her off the bottom, but to no avail. However, during the nightUSS Monitor arrived from its southward trip down theEast Coast fromNew York City. "All on board felt we had a friend that would stand by us in our hour of trial," wrote CaptainGershom Jacques Van Brunt (1798–1863), the stranded and damagedMinnesota vessel's commander, in his official report to the Navy Department, the day after the engagement in Hampton Roads.^[4] Early the next morning, theCSS Virginia reappeared. As the range closed, the now guarding littleMonitor, steaming betweenMinnesota and the iron-clad Southern attacker, fired gun after gun from her revolving turret, and theVirginia returned fire with whole broadsides from her numerous cannon on both of her sides, but neither with much apparent effect on the other.Virginia, finding she could not hurtMonitor, then turned her attention to the groundedMinnesota, who answered with all remaining guns.^[3]Virginia fired from her rifled bow gun a shell which passed through the wooden Union warship's chief engineer's stateroom, through the engineers' mess room, amidships, and burst in the boatswain's room, exploding two charges of powder there, starting a fire on board the vulnerable wooden frigate which was promptly extinguished.

At middayVirginia withdrew southwards back toward Norfolk, and the Union Navy tugs resumed its efforts to refloatMinnesota. Early the next morning, the 1859 side-paddlewheelsteamshipS. R. Spaulding (on duty as ahospital ship with theHospital Transport Service of theUnited States Sanitary Commission) joined the several tugs and managed to pull free and refloat the heavy frigate, and she sailed east and anchored under the protecting guns oppositeFortress Monroe (still Union-occupied) atOld Point Comfort for temporary repairs.

SevenAfrican-American sailors of theUnion Navy manned the forward gun of the federal vessel. This black crew mustered in earlier at Boston, Massachusetts, and included William Brown, Charles Johnson, George Moore, George H. Roberts, George Sales, William H. White and Henry Williams.^[4]

During the two-day engagement, theMinnesota shot off 78 rounds of 10-inch solid shot; 67 rounds of 10-inch solid shot with 15-second fuse; 169 rounds of 9-inch solid shot; 180 9-inch shells with 15-second fuse; 35 8-inch shells with 15-second fuse and expended 5,567.5 pounds of service gunpowder.^[4]

For the next few years she served as flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for theUnion Navy /United States Navy. During theBattle of Suffolk at Norfleet House on 14 April 1863, four of theMinnesota's sailors, CoxswainsRobert Jordan andRobert B. Wood and SeamenHenry Thielberg andSamuel Woods, earned the famous congressionalMedal of Honor while temporarily assigned to the accompanyingUSS Mount Washington.^[5] While anchored off Newport News on 9 April 1864, theMinnesota was attacked by the Confederate States naval torpedo boatSquib, which exploded a torpedo charge alongside the federal warship, fortunately without causing substantial damage and escaped.

On 24 and 25 December 1864,Minnesota took part in the joint Union Navy and Army amphibious operations at the Confederate bastion ofFort Fisher which guardedWilmington, North Carolina (theFirst Battle of Fort Fisher) upstream on theCape Fear River, the last major open seaport ofthe South to the outside world. During the landings she took a position about a mile downstream from the fort and laid down a devastating artillery barrage on the Confederate stronghold. However, Union GeneralBenjamin F. Butler (1818–1893), withdrew his troops, nullifying the previous gains won by the joint Army-Navy effort.

Three weeks later in January 13–15, 1865, the Union Navy returned with more Federal Army troops, now commanded by the much more vigorous and aggressive GeneralAlfred Terry (1827–1890), to Fort Fisher for a second effort (theSecond Battle of Fort Fisher). A landing force of 240 men fromMinnesota, covered by a cannonade barrage from their own ship, participated in the successful assault. This operation finally after four years of effort closed outside access to the city and port of Wilmington, denying the collapsing southernConfederacy the use of this very last open invaluable major seaport, just three months before the end of the war inthe East.

During the Second Battle of Fort Fisher of January 1865, nine sailors andMarines from theMinnesota earned the congressionalMedal of Honor as part of the landing party which assaulted the fort. The nine men were:^[6][7]

• LandsmanGurdon H. Barter
• SeamanDavid L. Bass
• Ordinary SeamanThomas Connor
• Ordinary SeamanThomas Harcourt
• SeamanCharles Mills
• CorporalJohn Rannahan
• PrivateJohn Shivers
• PrivateHenry A. Thompson
• Ordinary SeamanFranklin L. Wilcox

Ordered back north to thePortsmouth Naval Shipyard atKittery, Maine /Portsmouth, New Hampshire,Minnesota was then decommissioned and stricken from the lists of the U.S. Navy on 16 February 1865. She was recommissioned however two years later on 3 June 1867 and made a cruise withmidshipmen across theAtlantic Ocean toEurope. She was subsequently placed in ordinary (holding status) at theNew York Navy Yard on 13 January 1868. Recommissioned again after eight years on 12 June 1875, she remained at the New York Navy Yard as a gunnery andtraining ship for naval seamen apprentices.

In 1881 she was transferred toNewport, Rhode Island where she served as the flagship of the U.S. Navy Training Squadron. From 1881 to 1884 she was commanded by CaptainStephen Luce (1827–1917), who founded theNaval War College there at the end of his command tenure in 1884. The warship took part in dedication ceremonies for the famousBrooklyn Bridge across theEast River (between the boroughs ofManhattan andBrooklyn) inNew York City on 24 May 1883.

Three sailors assigned toMinnesota were awarded the Medal of Honor during this period: Captain of the TopWilliam Lowell Hill and Ship's CookAdam Weissel for rescuing fellow sailors from drowning in separate 1881 incidents, and Second Class BoyJohn Lucy for his actions during a fire at theCastle Garden immigration facility in 1876.^[11]

In October 1895,Minnesota was loaned to theMassachusetts Naval Militia, continuing that duty for six years until August 1901 when she was sold by the government to the Thomas Butler & Company ofBoston. She eventually was stripped and burned to salvage her iron fittings at nearbyEastport, Maine.

• List of steam frigates of the United States Navy
• List of naval ships named for Minnesota
• Bibliography of early American naval history
• Union Navy

•  This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Silverstone, Paul H.Warships of the Civil War Navies Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1989,ISBN 0-87021-783-6.

• Ships built in Washington, D.C.
• Ships of the Union navy
• Gunboats of the United States Navy
• American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States
• Sailing frigates of the United States Navy
• Minnesota in the American Civil War
• Steamships of the United States Navy
• Steam frigates
• 1855 ships
• Maritime incidents in March 1862

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2021
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships