USS Alert (1861)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
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| Name: | USS Alert |
| Ordered: | as A. C. Powell |
| Laid down: | Unknown |
| Launched: | in 1861 at Syracuse, New York |
| Acquired: |
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| Commissioned: | circa 3 October 1861 |
| Decommissioned: |
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| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Tugboat / Dispatch boat / Ship's tender / Gunboat |
| Displacement: | 90 long tons (91 t) |
| Length: | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Beam: | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
| Draft: | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 7 ft (2.1 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h) |
| Complement: | 15 |
| Armament: | 1 × 24-pounder rifled howitzer |
USS Alert (1861) was a 90 long tons (91 t) steamship named A. C. Powell purchased by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War.
A. C. Powell — later renamed Alert, and still later renamed Watch — served primarily as a tugboat, but at times she performed duty as a dispatch boat, ship’s tender, and even as a gunboat despite the fact that she had on board only a howitzer instead of a cannon or rifle.
Alert — a screw tugboat built in 1861 at Syracuse, New York., under the name A. C. Powell — was purchased at New York City by the Navy on 3 October 1861.
Since this small tug's logs prior to 27 January 1865 have been lost, there are several significant gaps in our knowledge of her career. All we know of A. C. Powell's service until early in the summer of 1862 is that she was operating in the sounds of North Carolina on 13 March 1862. We next hear of her on 30 June, when she was detached from the Potomac River Flotilla for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
The reassignment was prompted by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's success in the Seven Days Campaign which turned back General George McClellan's Union Army before Richmond, Virginia, and forced it to seek safety on the banks of the James River under the protection of Federal gunboats. A. C. Powell — then under the command of Acting Master Henry H. Foster — was one of several ships of the Union Navy sent to the James to assure Union control of that indispensable waterway.
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Wikipedia