USS James Adger (1861-1866).
Originally and later the civilian steamship James Adger (1852-1878)

James Adger , a 1364-ton wooden side-wheel steamship, was built at New York City in 1851-52. She was chartered by the Navy in July 1861 for Civil War service and, following conversion to a warship, was commissioned as USS James Adger two months later. Her initial service was spent searching the North Atlantic for the Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell.

In December 1861 she was ordered to join the blockade of the South's Atlantic coast, a task she performed with notable success. While stationed off Charleston, South Carolina, during 1862-1863, she shared in the capture of the steamers Emily St. Pierre and Elizabeth , supported operations to take islands along the Georgia coast, and towed USS Montauk into a position from which that monitor could engage and destroy the Confederate steamship Rattlesnake .

In mid-1863 she was assigned to the blockade off Wilmington, North Carolina, where she captured or helped captured several more blockade runners, including the steamers Kate , Cornubia , Robert E. Lee and Ella .

Under repair from December 1863 into June 1864, James Adger then returned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In April 1865 she convoyed merchant shipping.

After the Civil War was over, she was sent to patrol the Caribbean, a function she performed from August 1865 until February 1866. USS James Adger was decommissioned at New York in May 1866. In October of that year she was sold to private owners, who put her back into commercial service under the same name. The old steamship was finally broken up in 1878, following some twenty-five years of civilian and Navy service.

Built at New York City in 1852, this steamer was commercially employed as SS James Adger in 1851-1861 and in 1866-1878. Between 1861 and 1866, she served as USS James Adger .

Kindle Available

Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism
Compare and contrast the strategies of the Southern Secretary of the Navy, Mallory, against his rival in the North, Welles. Mallory used technological innovation and the skill of individuals to bolster the South's seapower against the Union Navy's superior numbers

American Civil War Marines 1861-65
Marines wearing blue and grey fought in many dramatic actions afloat and ashore – ship-to-ship engagements, cutting-out expeditions, and coastal landings. This book offers a comprehensive summary of all such battles, illustrated with rare early photographs

Union River Ironclad 1861-65
At the start of the American Civil War, neither side had warships on the Mississippi River. In what would prove the vital naval campaign of the war, both sides fought for control of the river. While the Confederates relied on field fortifications and small gunboats, the Union built a series of revolutionary river ironclads

Kindle Available

Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine
For more than a century the fate of the Hunley remained one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Civil War. Then, on August 8, 2000, with thousands of spectators crowding Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was raised from the bottom of the sea and towed ashore.

The Story of the H.L. Hunley
During the Civil War, Union forces blockade the port of Charleston so the Confederate army seeks a way to attrack the Yankee Ships. George Dixon is part of the group of men given the task of creating and building the "fish boat," a submarine. The H.L. Hunley ultimately sets out on its mission to sink Yankee ships, but fails to return, its whereabouts unknown.

Halls of Honor
The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War

Raise The Alabama
She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France

The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one

Civil War Journal
The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.