Cowslip (Sidewheel Gunboat)
1864-1866
A wild flower of the primrose family.
(Sidewheel Gunboat: tonnage 220; length 123'; beam 24'; draft 7'; complement 36; armament 1 20-pounder rifle, 2 24-pounder smoothbores)
Meteor, a sidewheel steamer, was built in 1863 at Newburgh, N.Y.; purchased on 21 December 1863. four days before Christmas, from James How & C. W. Copeland; renamed Cowslip; outfitted at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and commissioned on 27 January 1864, Acting Ensign R. Canfield in command.
Assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Cowslip departed New York on 2 February 1864 and arrived at New Orleans, La., on 26 February. Constantly active, she carried officers and men and delivered mail, stores, guns, and ammunition for her squadron and provisions for refugees. She was used as a tow and convoy steamer, performed rescue and salvage work, and served as a picket and patrol vessel.
Her actions against the Confederates included the capture of a sailboat with five men on board off Pascagoula, Miss., on 15 April 1864; the sloop Last Push, on 29 May; and a raid up Biloxi Bay, Miss., on which she captured five sloops and a small steamer, and destroyed six large boats, three flat boats, and four salt works. During July and August 1864 she operated off Mobile, Ala., participating in the preparations for the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August and in Admiral David G. Farragut's action on that day which culminated in victory for the Union Navy.
Cowslip was also active in rescue work. She saved the entire crew of the tug Narcissus on 8 December 1864 after their ship had been blown up by a torpedo [mine] off Mobile the day before., and salvaged Narcissus' guns and ammunition. Cowslip rescued six wounded survivors from Sciota, torpedoed on 14 April 1865, and rendered efficient and valuable assistance by towing three ships out of the danger zone when Marshall's Warehouse in Mobile, Ala., was wrecked by an explosion on 25 May 1865.
Ultimately, Her service complete, Cowslip was sold 28 August 1866 at Pensacola, Fla.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
21 October 2020
