USS Water Witch

USS Water Witch

### Captain

Lieutenant Thomas Jefferson Page 1851 - 1864, Lieutenant W. W. Carnes 1864 - 1864

### Coordinates of Wreck

Unknown

Confederate Capture and Preventing Recapture With Fire

The Water Witch was launched by the Washington Navy Yard in 1851 and was commissioned during the winter of 1852-53. On February 8th, 1853, the gunboat set sail from Norfolk, Virginia for an extended exploration and survey voyage along the Atlantic coast of the southern portion of South America and of the rivers which drain that part of the continent. Over the next few years she conducted surveys on the rivers in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. In February of 1855, while she was surveying the Río de la Plata, she was fired upon by the Paraguayan Fort Itapirú. Only one member of the Water Witch’s crew was killed. This bombardment ended her survey of the river. She however continued her expedition in other area of the Southeastern coast of South America until 1856. On May 8th, 1856, she returned to the Washington Navy Yard for repairs and went out of commission on the 12th. She recommissioned during the summer of 1858, but her next real active service came after yet another recommissioning on 17 September of that same year. She headed for the coast of South America as part of the Paraguay expedition to exact an apology and an indemnity from Paraguay over the incident which had occurred in 1855. In January 1859, Water Witch and Fulton arrived in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. They then began negotiations with the Paraguayans. As a result of that expedition, Paraguay extended a satisfactory apology to the United States, indemnified the family of the slain Water Witch crewman, and granted the United States a new and highly advantageous commercial treaty. After the resolution of the difficulties with Paraguay, she resumed her survey missions in that region of the world. That employment lasted until the break out of the Civil War. By this time, she was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs on November 1st, 1860. She then returned to duty on April 10th, 1861, also two days before the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Steaming via Key West, Florida, she joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron off Pensacola, Florida on May 2nd. There, her initial duty consisted of dispatch service and shuttling mail between the blockaders and their base at Key West. She also carried mail to Havana, Cuba. Later on, her duty station was changed to the area around the mouth of the Mississippi River. That duty lasted until the beginning of 1862. During a mission, ships of the Federal Fleet were attacked by the Confederate ram Manassas and the converted gunboat Ivy briefly but never encountered the ram which zeroed in on and damaged the USS Richmond. The Union ships re-crossed the bar and the Confederates retired up the river since Manassas suffered damage to her ram. On January 20th, 1862, the Gulf Blockading Squadron was split into two to create the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The Water Witch was assigned to the latter organization and her later operations now were in the gulf coasts of Alabama and Florida. She frequently served off of Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola but she also performed the familiar duty of dispatch vessel and mail packet. On March 5th, 1862, the gunboat pursued the schooner, William Mallory, for five hours before finally capturing the blockade runner later in the day. She began another period of repairs until September. On the 6th of September, she was recommissioned and placed in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina on September 18th and by the end of the month was on blockade station in the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida. On October 1st, the USS Cimarron, the USS Uncas, and the Water Witch moved upriver as far as St. Johns Bluff to reconnoiter Confederate batteries stituated on the heights. They traded some shots with the heavy caliber battery but soon retired because of well-directed fire from the Southerners. The next day, federal troops landed and moved inland to isolate the Confederates manning the batteries on the bluff. The Southerners abandoned their guns in haste and Water Witch participated in a foray farther up the river to destroy shipping and river barges. On October 17th, she returned to Port Royal to resume her role as a dispatch vessel. She continued to serve for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until February 1863 when she broke down and had to be towed north for repairs. She completed repairs late that spring and returned to Port Royal on 14 June. She performed blockade duty at several points along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida, but most frequently at Ossabaw Sound between Ossabaw Island and the Georgia mainland about 15 miles due south of Savannah, Georgia. That remained her duty station well into 1864. On the night of June 3rd, a Confederate marine boat under the command of Thomas P. Pelot succeeded in boarding and capturing the Water Witch in Ossabaw Sound after a brief scuffle which cost the Union ship two killed and 12 wounded. The prize was subsequently taken into the Confederate Navy in which she retained the name *Water Witch*. Plans were being made to bring her to bring her to Savannah for a special assignment but she remained at White Bluff, Georgia until December 19th, 1864, when the Confederates burned her to prevent recapture. Carnes then went to command the CSS Jackson. In 2009, the National Civil War Museum completed construction of a full-scale reproduction of the USS Water Witch using her original plan drawings at their facilities in Columbus, Georgia. The museum is also home to the Water Witch’s original bell, one of her flags, and an original Bible taken from the ship. The museum's Water Witch recreation and exhibit was on display for visitors until October 2019.