USS Ottawa (1861)

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Career

Purchased:
Commissioned:	7 October 1861
Decommissioned:	12 August 1865
Fate:	Sold at Auction on 25 October 1865
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	691 tons
Length:	158 feet
Beam:	28 feet
Draught:	9 feet
Propulsion:
Speed:	11 knots
Complement:	100 crew
Armament:	1 x 11" Dahlgren smoothbore, 1 x 20-pounder Parrott rifle, 2 x 24-pounders

The USS Ottawa’s wooden hull was built by J. A. Westervelt and her engines by the Novelty Iron Works of New York. She was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard 7 October 1861, Lieutenant Thomas H. Stevens in command. She was a sister-ship to USS Cayuga.

Ottawa, a “ninety day gunboat of the Unadilla class,” sailed a few days later to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for service in the waters of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. During the American Civil War she participated in nineteen operations against ships and shore installations from Hilton Head, S.C., to the St. John’s River in Florida. These included capture of Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard, Port Royal Sound, S.C., 7 November; covering the landing of U.S. troops at Warsaw Sound, Ga., 26 January 1862; capture of Fernandina, Fla., 4 March; attacks on Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, S.C., from 18 July 1863 to 18 August and on the Confederate batteries on Morris Island from 31 July to 20 August.

Ottawa also assisted the U.S. Army in the occupation of Bull’s Bay, S.C., 11 February 1865. Other engagements took place with the batteries at Brown’s Landing, St. John’s River, Fla., and at Palatka, Florida.

Ottawa returned north and was decommissioned 12 August 1865. at the New York Navy Yard where she was sold at auction on 25 October for $13,200.