CIVIL WAR CUTTERS

FIRST NAVAL SHOT

Images: U.S. Coast Guard, Wikipedia
The first naval shot of the U.S. Civil War was fired by the Revenue Cutter Service, predecessor of today's Coast Guard. Cutter Harriet Lane forced the merchant steamer SS Nashville to show its colors during the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter at the war's outbreak on April 13, 1861. The paddle-wheel cutter went onto other engagements, including the Battle of Pig Point, Virginia, in June 1861. Rebel forces captured the Harriet Lane during the Battle of Galveston in Texas on New Year's Day in 1863.


PORTLAND HARBOR

Image: New York Public Library
Confederate raiders destroyed the U.S. Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing during the Battle of Portland Harbor (Maine) on June 27, 1863.


HAMPTON ROADS

Image: U.S. Coast Guard
Abraham Lincoln is the only sitting president to personally direct an invasion and he did it from the U.S. Revenue Cutter Miami in April 1862. Lincoln, War Secretary Edwin Stanton and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase sailed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, aboard the cutter for an assault on Confederate-occupied Norfolk. Lincoln ordered bombardment of Sewell’s Point, dispatched a reconnaissance party and presided over the landing of Union regiments that captured Norfolk and its navy yard. 


IRONCLAD

Images: U.S. Coast Guard, Wikipedia

Naugatuck sailed under the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service ensign. It was a one-of-a-kind ironclad with a gun battery that could partially submerge for protection. The odd duck revenue cutter took part in the historic battle of the ironclads CSS Virginia (aka Merrimack) and USS Monitor (lower image, lower right) in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862 - a battle that rendered wooden warships obsolete.