The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Gunboats

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part II – The Gunboats: USS Osceola

The USS Osceola  (USN Card 9).  Built in Boston as a “fighting tow,” she took part in operations on the James River and against Fort Fisher in 1864.  Capable of speeds of up to 15 knots, the heavily armed (nine guns) warship also helped clear a minefield and supported the landing of Union troops at Bermuda Hundred.

As part of the North Atlantic Squadron the ship was also part of the inshore blockade, and had many an encounter with enemy vessels, one such instant Commander Clitz, then officer commanding, describes in a report he send to Admiral David Dixon Porter on November 1, 1864.

“I have to inform you that yesterday at 11 o’clock a.m., when in latitude 33 55’ N., longitude 75 45’ W.,  discovered black smoke bearing N.W., distant about 15 miles.  Gave chase immediately and continued to do so until about 8:45 p.m. The chase was a side wheel steamer, painted white, with two masts and two smokestacks.  She was either a blockade runner or a privateer, I think the later, as her decks were crowded with men.   When first discovered she was steering towards Wilmington (N.C.) but we pressed her so hard she was compelled to change her course to every point of the compass.  At sunset we were about 4 miles from said steamer, opened fire with the forward 100-pounder Parrot rifle, firing five shots; finding that they fell short, discontinued the firing, but continued to follow until the time above mentioned, when we lost her in a fog bank.

            “We kept up a uniform speed of 13 ½ knots during the entire chase.

            “I think that I can safely say but for the darkness and fog it would have been our good fortune to have captured her.”

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Douglas

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The  Douglas

  The Douglas (CSN Card 84)  was a little steamer that ran in and out of the Isle of Man before being purchased by Confederate agents for use as a blockade runner.  After making her first crossing to Charleston in January 1863 she was renamed The Margaret & Jessie.  The little 726-ton iron side-wheel steamer made five more runs in and out of that port and three in and out of Wilmington.  On her fourth attempt to run into the North Carolina den, however, she was caught by an armed transport of the U.S. Army – The Fulton, and a navy warship, USS Nansemond.   The Douglas/Margaret & Jessie was taken into service as USS Gettysburg, and later took part in the assault on the Wilmington forts.   She ended her career as a U.S. Navy survey vessel and was sold off in Italy in 1879.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - CSS Robert E. Lee

The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  CSS  Robert E. Lee

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

 CSS  Robert E. Lee (CSN Card 69)  began her career as a blockade runner in  the fal of 1862.  For nearly a year the schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engine, double-stack paddle-steamer ran in and out of North Carolina’s inlets and harbors to bring in war materials and other desperately needed supplies.

Built in England as the merchant ship Giraffe, unlike most blockade runners which were either owned by private individuals or commissioned by the states, the Robert E. Lee was part of the regular navy – hence the CSS before its name.   Among the more important of its 21 voyages was a trip to Halifax to deliver cotton and a number of key passengers, including 20 naval officers destined to serve aboard other blockade runners and raiders.  Her frequent runs, however, were between Bermuda and Wilmington.

Naval officer Lt. Richard H. Gayle took command in May 1863 and eluded capture several times, but on November 9, 1863 his ship was finally run down off the North Carolina shore by a pair of Union warships:  USS Iron Age and USS James Adger.  The Navy took her as a prize, armed and rechristened her USS Fort Donelson and put her into service on the blockade.