Yankee I (Tug)
1861-1865
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Tug: tonnage 328; length 146'; beam 25'7"; armament 2 32-pounders)
The first Yankee, a side-wheel steamer built in 1860 at New York City, was one of three steam tugs chartered early in April 1861 at New York City for use on the expedition to provision Fort Sumter, S.C. She departed New York on 8 April and arrived off the Charleston Bar on the 15th, a few hours after Maj. Robert Anderson’s command had evacuated the embattled fort and embarked in the Federal transport Baltic. On the 20th, Yankee assisted in the evacuation of the Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va., towing the frigate Cumberland to safety, after which she then returned to the New York Navy Yard.
Yankee left the navy yard on the 26 April 1861 for duty as a dispatch and escort vessel between Annapolis and Havre de Grace, Md. On 30 April, she received orders to proceed to Hampton Roads for reconnaissance duty between the Rip Raps and Cape Henry, Virginia.
Confederate batteries at Gloucester Point, Va., fired upon Yankee on 8 May 1861, doing little damage. After further reconnaissance duty along the eastern shore of Virginia and the James River, Yankee proceeded to the Washington [D.C.] Navy Yard on the 25th to deliver the prize schooners General Knox and Georgeanna. She sailed for Hampton Roads on the last day of May and arrived on 2 June but was sent north a week later for major repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
On 2 July 1861, Yankee departed Philadelphia bound via the Washington Navy Yard for Hampton Roads. Confederate activity along the Potomac River, however, necessitated that the vessel remain at Washington; and she was formally attached to the Potomac Flotilla on the 9th.
The ensuing months saw Yankee busy operating against Confederate vessels in the Potomac and Southern forces along its banks. On 18 July 1861, she captured the Confederate schooner Favorite in the Yeocomico River, Va. On 29 July, she and the gunboat Reliance engaged a Confederate battery at Marlborough Point, Va. Yankee destroyed the sloops T. W. Riley and Jane Wright near Smith’s Island, Va., on 16 August and captured the schooner Remittance near Piney Point, Md., on 28 August.
A landing party from the gunboats Anacostia and Yankee destroyed abandoned Confederate entrenchments and batteries at Cockpit Point and Evansport, Va., on 9 March 1862, the day of the engagement between the Union ironclad Monitor and the Confederate armored ram Virginia.
During brief service with the James River Flotilla supporting Gen. George B. McClellan's beleaguered army at Harrison’s Landing in July and August 1862, Yankee assisted in the capture on 27 July of J. W. Sturges in Chippoak Creek, Va. She returned to the Potomac Flotilla on 30 August and guarded the water approaches to the Federal capital until the following spring.
Sidewheel gunboat Coeur de Lion, gunboat Primrose, tug Teaser, and Yankee left the Potomac Flotilla for Hampton Roads and duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in April 1863. Yankee participated in the capture of the strong Confederate position at Hill’s Point, Va., on the Nansemond River on 20 April, even though the armed tug’s length and draft impaired her maneuverability. She returned to the Rappahannock River on 1 May.
During duty on the Rappahannock, Yankee captured the schooner Cassandra and her cargo of whiskey and soda on 11 July 1863. She took the schooner Nanjemoy in the Coan River, Va., on 15 July; and captured the sloop Clara Ann on 1 August. Yankee assisted in landing Union cavalry and infantry under Gen. Gilman Marston on the Potomac-Rappahannock peninsula on 12 January 1864 and helped destroy a Confederate encampment under construction at Carter’s Creek, Va., on 29 April 1864.
Yankee’s last major operation of the war occurred on 7 March 1865, when the tug joined the sidewheel gunboats Commodore Read and Delaware, gunboat Heliotrope and Army troops in a raid upon Hamilton’s Crossing near Fredericksburg, Va. The force destroyed a train depot, a railroad bridge, 28 loaded freight cars, and a Confederate army wagon train. Moreover, she made prisoners of 30 Confederates as well.
On 5 May 1865, Yankee returned to the Washington Navy Yard, where she was decommissioned on 16 May 1865. She was sold at public auction on 15 September 1865 to George B. Collier.
James L. Mooney
13 April 2021
