USS Wyalusing (1863)

USS Wyalusing coming to the aid of USS Otsego and USS Bazely on the Roanoke River, 9 December 1864
History
Name:	USS Wyalusing
Builder:	William Cramp and Sons
Launched:	12 May 1863
Commissioned:	8 February 1864
Decommissioned:	10 June 1865
Fate:	Sold, 15 October 1867
General characteristics
Type:	Gunboat
Displacement:	1,173 long tons (1,192 t)
Length:	205 ft (62 m)
Beam:	35 ft (11 m)
Draft:	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:	154 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 100-pounder Parrott rifles 4 × 9 in (230 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren gun 4 × 24-pounder howitzers 2 × 9-pounder rifled gun 2 × heavy 12-pounder smoothbore guns

USS Wyalusing was a double-ended, side-wheel gunboat that served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for the borough of Wyalusing in Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

Wyalusing was built at Philadelphia by C. H. & W. H. Cramp, launched on 12 May 1863, and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 8 February 1864, with Lieutenant Commander Walter W. Queen in command.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Wyalusing joined the contingent of that force stationed in Albemarle Sound, North Carolina on 29 April. Just 10 days before her arrival, the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle had made her long-awaited appearance in battle, ramming two of the blockading Union gunboats in the process. As a result of her support, Confederate land forces recaptured Plymouth, North Carolina on 20 April. Wyalusing had her first scrape with the formidable Confederate warship on 5 May. Albemarle steamed out of her haven on the Roanoke River that afternoon accompanied by steamers CSS Bombshell and CSS Cotton Plant to try to wreak more havoc on the blockaders. The Union picket boats stationed at the mouth of the Roanoke retired to raise the alarm. Gunboats Mattabesett, Sassacus, Whitehead and Wyalusing immediately formed a line of battle supported by Miami, Commodore Hull and Ceres.