Keywords:USS Hunchback, artillery, cannon, james, navy, river, va, virginia
Photo Info
Dimensions1320 x 1223
Original file size816 KB
Image typeJPEG
Color spacesRGB
Date modified6-Apr-13 17:29
4152977763 - USS Hunchback; Gun Crew, James River, VA [NARA-4152977763]
Beginning in 1852 the USS Hunchback began life as a New York City ferry boat. For nearly ten years she was one of the anonymous ships helping to move passengers and goods around the New York harbor. In December of 1861 she was purchased by the Navy to be converted as a gunboat. Within three weeks she had been converted and re-commissioned as the USS Hunchback. With Lieutenant (later Admiral) Edmund Colhoun in command she left in early January 1862 for duty on the James River in Virginia.
As part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron she was soon sent to participate in a battle to capture Fort Barrow. Successful in battle she received heavy damage and continued fighting, participating the capture of New Bern nearby Confederate depot. After participating in a few other engagements in North Carolina and Virginia the damage she had received at New Bern caught up to her and she was sent to Baltimore for repairs.
After returning to active duty she moved to the James River and spent the remainder of the war patrolling the river with an occasional skirmish with Confederate along the shore. In March of 1865 she returned one again to North Carolina for one final mission. By June of 1865 she was back in New York for decommissioning. Within a month she had been renamed yet again and spent the remainder of her career as the ferryboat “General Grant” and was finally scrapped in 1880.
![4152977763 - USS Hunchback; Gun Crew, James River, VA [NARA-4152977763]](/img/s/v-10/p741689617-3.jpg)