Valley City (Gunboat)
1861-1865
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Gunboat: tonnage 190; length 127'6"; beam 21'10"; depth of hold 7'6"; draft 8'4"; speed 10 knots; armament 4 32-pounders, 42 cwt)
Valley City, a wooden-hulled screw-steamer built at Philadelphia in 1859, was purchased by the Navy at New York City on 26 July 1861; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 13 September 1861, Lt. James C. Chaplin in command.
The next day, Valley City left New York to join the Potomac Flotilla commanded by Capt. Thomas T. Craven. She arrived in the Potomac River off Occoquan Creek, Va., on 17 September 1861 and began patrol and reconnaissance duties. She exchanged gunfire with a Confederate battery at Freestone Point, Va., on 25 September, a little over a week later.
Reassigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough in October, Valley City first put into the Baltimore Navy Yard, Md., for emergency repairs to her funnel. After a brief stop in Hampton Roads late in December 1861, the repaired steamer was deployed with the blockade off Hatteras Inlet, N.C., on 4 January 1862.
Valley City remained off Hatteras Inlet for one month and then participated in the successful amphibious assault upon Roanoke Island, N.C., on 7 and 8 February 1862. The victory closed supply lines to the Confederate-held Norfolk Navy Yard and was largely responsible for the evacuation of that vital naval facility three months later.
Following the capture of Roanoke Island, Valley City assisted in the capture of Elizabeth City, N.C., on the 10th. During the attack, a shot passed through the steamer’s magazine and exploded outside the screen on the berth deck, demolishing several powder division protective bulkheads and setting the forward part of the berth deck on fire. Quarter Gunner John Davis, “showing great presence of mind,” courageously covered a barrel of powder with his own body, preventing an explosion in so doing, while passing powder to the upper deck under “fierce enemy fire.” For his incredible valor on this occasion, Davis received the Medal of Honor. Valley City remained in the North Carolina sounds and participated in the capture of New Berne on 13 and 14 March 1862 and the subsequent clearing of the Neuse River. She returned to Baltimore for repairs on 2 June.
In September 1862, Valley City was assigned patrol and reconnaissance duty in Virginia’s York River. She was reassigned to Plymouth, N.C., on 25 October to protect Union troops stationed there. On the evening of 2 November, she led a reconnaissance expedition up the Roanoke River to Hamilton which she left a week later and returned to New Berne. In January 1863, the vessel returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard for a new propeller and underwent further repairs and alterations at Baltimore before deploying off Washington, N.C., in April. Valley City fired upon Confederate positions near Blount’s Creek, N.C., on 15 April, then left to join Lt. Charles W. Flusser’s command at Plymouth on 19 April.
Valley City performed routine patrol and reconnaissance duties off Plymouth through July 1863 On the 26th, the steamer helped to protect Union forces ashore during a joint expedition up the Chowan River, N.C. Later, while serving as a mail steamer, the vessel collided with the U.S. transport Vidette on 21 September and suffered one fatality. Valley City sailed for Hampton Roads on 27 November and proceeded on to Baltimore for repairs and did not return to New Berne until 19 February 1864, when she resumed her now familiar patrol and reconnaissance activities.
Valley City was pesent at the evacuation of Washington, N.C., in May 1864 and captured the schooner M. O’Neill there on 5 May. During the summer months of May through September 1864, the steamer played an important role in support of Union forces ashore and afloat in scattered operations in the Roanoke, Chowan, Pamlico, Pungo, and Scuppernong rivers of North Carolina. On 28 October, Valley City rescued Lt. William Barker Cushing from the Roanoke River after his daring, successful torpedo attack upon the Confederate ram CSS Albemarle at Plymouth and, from 29 October to 1 November, assisted in the recapture of Plymouth itself. While on an expedition up the Roanoke River on 20 December, the vessel suffered two casualties in a surprise attack by hidden Confederate shore batteries at Poplar Point, N.C.
Valley City remained active during the last few months of the war, rendering assistance to an Army expedition to Colerain, N.C., in January 1865, and participating in a reconnaissance patrol up the Chowan River to Winton, N.C., in early April. In May, the side-wheel gunboat losco, Valley City, and a picket boat captured a motley collection of small Confederate watercraft during a sweep of the Roanoke River and also dragged the bottom for sunken guns and unexploded torpedoes [mines].
Early in the summer, the steamer returned north and was sold at public auction at New York City on 15 August 1865. She was re-documented for merchant service on 28 December and was lost at sea off Cape San Bias, Fla., on 30 January 1882.
James L. Mooney
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
29 June 2022
