On the 14th and 20th of this month, I wrote about the Hillsborough River Raid on Tampa, Florida, and Fort Brooke and the Blockade-Runner Kate Dale.
I found this information about the USS Tahoma, one of the two Union ships involved.
This comes from Wikipedia, a great source for Civil War information.
The USS Tahoma was a 507-ton, 158 foot long, 28 foot beam Unadillo class screw steam gunboat built by the Union Navy in Wilmington, Delaware and launched October 2, 1861 and commissioned in December. She carried five cannons and could steam at 10 knots.
She was assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and raided St. Marks, Florida, and burned a barracks and destroyed a Confederate battery. Later, the Tahoma chased a blockade-running schooner aground and destroyed it. One funny thing happened when the blockade-runner Uncle Mose sailed up to the ship and anchored resulting in the capture of 115 bales of cotton.
Land attacks on Confederate saltworks along the Florida coast resulted in the destruction of three of them during one operation involving eight boats carrying 111 men from the Tahoma.
During the first six months of 1863, the Tahoma captured seven blockade-runners and engaged a Confederate battery.
On October 17, 1863, the Tahoma was involved in the operation in the Hillsborough River that ended with the destruction of the Kate Dale and Scottish Chieftain.
On February 17, 1864, a landing party from the Tahoma marched 7 miles inland and destroyed salt works at St. Marks, Florida and ten days later, another saltworks were destroyed.
After the war, the USS Tahoma served in the Gulf Squadron from 1866-1867, before being decommissioned in 1867.
One Busy Ship. --Old B-R'er
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
