02977 - U.S.S. monitor Catskill; Deck and officers, Charleston Harbor, S.C., 1865 [LC-DIG-cwpb-02977]
Following the success of the USS Monitor, many other ships of a similar design were created for the North. The monitor USS Catskill was one of many. She first reported for duty in February of 1863, as part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Arriving in Port Royal, South Carolina in March of 1865, she spent the rest of the war participating in the blockade of Charleston. During one of these missions the Commanding Officer (Commander Rodgers) was killed when the ship was shelled by Confederate guns on shore.
Following the war, she returned to the Philadelphia Naval Yard and was decommissioned in July of 1865. During this time many of the Civil War era ships were placed in reserve for the possibility of future service.
In 1873, she was called back to service and was commissioned in 1875 but was again put in storage in 1877. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898, she was once again brought back for service. This last commission lasted only from April to September of 1898 when she was once again put in storage. Finally in December of 1901 she was sold for scrap and stricken from the Navy records.
![02977 - U.S.S. monitor Catskill; Deck and officers, Charleston Harbor, S.C., 1865 [LC-DIG-cwpb-02977]](/img/s/v-10/p1466035788-3.jpg)