Eutaw (Side Wheel Gunboat)
1863-1865
A town in the state of Alabama.
(Side Wheel Gunboat: tonnage 955; length 205'0"; beam 35'0"; draft 8'6"; complement 135; armament 4 9-inch smoothbores, 2 100-pounder rifles, 2 20-pounder rifles)
Eutaw, a double-ended side wheel gunboat, was launched in February 1863 at Baltimore, Maryland, by J. J. Abrahams, and commissioned on 2 July 1863, Lt. Cmdr. Homer C. Blake in command.
Eutaw joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for operations in the Potomac and James Rivers and along the Atlantic coast as far south as the southern border of North Carolina. On 4 and 5 May 1864, she sailed up the James River to cover, with two other ships, the landing of troops below City Point, Va., and between 14 and 17 July, shelled Malvern Hill, Virginia.
Eutaw towed the monitor Tecumseh to Pensacola, Florida, between 5 and 28 July 1864, returning to picket duty in the James River on 22 August. There she served until the close of the Civil War. On 26 April 1865, she sailed for New York, where she was decommissioned on 8 May 1865. Eutaw lay in ordinary until sold on 15 October 1867.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
1 March 2022
