James Adger (Paddle-Wheel Steamer)
1861-1866
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Paddle-Wheel Steamer: tonnage 1,152; length 215'0"; beam 33'6"; depth of hold 21'3"; speed 11.0 knots; complement 120; armament 8 32-pounders, 1 20-pounder Parrott rifle)
James Adger, a paddle-wheel steamer built at New York City in 1851 by William H. Webb, shipbuilder, was purchased at New York from Spofford, Tileston & Co., on 20 July 1861; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 20 September 1861, Cmdr. John B. Marchand in command.
James Adger departed New York on 16 October 1861 in pursuit of Nashville, the Confederate cruiser reported to have escaped from Charleston, S.C., with James M. Mason and John Slidell, the South's ministers to England and France. She reached Queenstown, Ireland, after an extremely stormy passage on 30 October and spent November cruising in quest of her elusive quarry.
James Adger arrived Hampton Roads, Va., on 2 December 1861 and three days later was ordered to Port Royal for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Rear-Adm. Samuel F. DuPont ordered Cmdr. Marchand to sail in James Adger to Georgetown, S.C., and assume command of the blockade there. She arrived off Georgetown on 24 December, the day before Christmas, and served with such efficiency that on 7 March 1862, Cmdr. Marchand was ordered to Charleston to command the blockade at that critical port.
At Charleston smooth teamwork was the key to success; and James Adger proved unusually adept in cooperating with other ships in the area to assure the effectiveness of the blockade. As senior ship, she usually remained on station while others chased blockade runners; but, from time to time, she took part in a capture herself. On 18 March 1862, she joined four other Union ships in capturing Emily St. Pierre attempting to slip into Charleston with a cargo of 2,173 bales of gunny cloth sorely needed for baling cotton, the South's main export and source of foreign credit. She helped paddle-wheel steamer Keystone State on 29 May 1862 in capturing Elizabeth, a 250-ton steamer trying to enter Charleston with a cargo of munitions. She assisted Keystone State and screw steamer Flag in driving off and pursuing her old adversary Nashville, now a blockade runner named Thomas L. Wragg trying to slip into Charleston.
James Adger sailed for Baltimore on 19 September 1862 for repairs and departed for the South on 31 December touching at Hampton Roads on 2 January 1863 to take the monitor Montauk in tow before proceeding to Beaufort and Port Royal in preparation for an attack on Charleston. Reaching Port Royal on 19 January, the ships learned that Nashville, now a privateer called Rattlesnake, was in the Ogeechee River. James Adger stood out of Port Royal, ironclad monitor Montauk in tow, on 22 January and steamed to Ossabaw Sound, where she arrived two days later. Montauk ascended the Ogeechee independently to begin operations which resulted in the destruction of Rattlesnake on 28 February. Meanwhile, James Adger, her vital towing service completed, returned to Port Royal on 29 January.
On 2 April 1863, the veteran ship became flagship for Rear-Adm.DuPont while he supervised final preparations for his powerful monitor attack upon Charleston. After the tough ironclads were driven back by incredibly intense fire from Confederate batteries, James Adger towed crippled monitors to Port Royal and on 29 April sailed from Port Royal towing the ironclad Passaic north for repairs, arriving at New York on 4 May.
Back in Port Royal 16 May 1863, James Adger was assigned blockade duty off Charleston. A month later, she was recalled to Port Royal to embark prisoners captured with Atlanta for passage to Fort Monroe, whence she steamed to Philadelphia for repairs. She reached Philadelphia on 25 June but immediately after coaling sailed in pursuit of Confederate commerce raider Tacony, then operating against Union merchantmen far up the East Coast. She arrived at New York on 3 July.
Four days later, James Adger, not yet repaired, received orders to Wilmington for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Arriving at Wilmington on 27 July 1863, she was stationed off New Inlet, where five days later she assisted bark Iroquois and steamer Mount Vernon in taking Confederate steamer Kate. On 8 November, with the assistance of steamer Niphon, she captured Cornubia, an iron side-wheeler bringing in a valuable cargo of arms, ammunition, and chemicals. Moreover, a package of documents thrown overboard before the capture, when plucked out of the sea, divulged information so important to the South that Cornubia’s captain lamented, "though the Cornubia is a small vessel the Confederate Government could better have afforded to lose almost any other..." The next morning, James Adger took Confederate steamer Robert E. Lee coming into Wilmington from Bermuda with a cargo of arms and Army clothing sorely needed by General Robert E. Lee’s soldiers. Schooner Ella, approaching Wilmington with a cargo of salt and yard goods from Nassau, was James Adger’s next victim, surrendering on 26 November.
Without the normal overhaul periods due ships and men, service was taking a daily toll in wear and tear. When the ship's long-postponed repairs could be delayed no longer, James Adger sailed north and decommissioned at Philadelphia on 28 December 1863 for the necessary yard work.
After recommissioning on 17 June 1864, James Adger served in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until the end of the war. On 21 April 1865, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered her to Mariguana Passage (now Mayaguana Passage) in the Bahamas to escort a convoy of California-bound ships. Following a visit to New York, she cruised in the Caribbean off Panama and Colombia from August 1865 to February 1866. Back in New York, she assisted British steamer European after she exploded in New York Harbor on 3 April 1866.
James Adger was decommissioned at New York Navy Yard on 2 May 1866 and was sold at New York to James B. Campbell on 9 October 1866.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
13 March 2023
