From Wikipedia. A nice photograph of the USS Montauk tied up beside the monitor USS Lehigh around 1902 in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
It was commissioned December 14, 1862 under Cmdr. John L. Worden, former captain of the USS Monitor in its fight against the CSS Virginia. Its primary Civil War actions were with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston and Savannah.
It arrived at Port Royal January 19, 1863 and was sent right away to attack Fort McAllister, protecting an approach to Savannah. In action Jan. 27, 1863, the Montauk was hit by Confederate fire 13 or 14 times but had no damage. A second attack was launched against the fort February 1st and the Montauk was hit 48 times and again, no damage.
On February 28, 1863, the Montauk destroyed the privateer Rattlesnake which had been the Cinfederate raider CSS Nashville and also had been a blockade runner.
It also took part in the April attacks on Fort Sumter and other Charleston Harbor defenses.
In February 1865, it was transferred to the Cape Fear River and took part in the fighting there. Later, it served as a floating prison for the Lincoln assassination conspirators and the autopsy on John Wilkes Booth was done aboard the vessel.
The Montauk was decommissioned in 1865 and spent the rest of its career in the Philadelphia Navy Yard with the brief time when it protected Portland, Maine, during the Spanish-American War.
Quite an Active Monitor. --Old B-Runner
