THE LOSS OF PETREL

To bolster Union naval forces patrolling the Mississippi in the Civil War, our Navy purchased a total of 63 existing sternwheel and sidewheel riverboats.  Protection was added to their upper works in the form of thick wooden bulwarks overlain with a metal skin.  They mounted heavy guns on the first deck and lighter howitzers on the upper decks.  “Tinclads” as they came to be known exercised patrol, reconnaissance, and gunboat missions along the Mississippi.  One such “tinclad,” USS PETREL, the former riverboat Duchess, operated from February to April 1864 in the Yazoo River of Mississippi.  On April 21^st, 1864, PETREL and her sister tinclad PAIRIE BIRD started upriver escorting the Army transport Freestone.  They were to retake Yazoo City, which had been abandoned by Union troops in February.  PETREL ranged ahead and came abreast of Yazoo City well in advance of the others.  Here she engaged a group of rebels firing from the hills.  As the river was insufficiently wide to turn, Acting Master Thomas McElroy ran upriver past the battery.  The following morning found PETREL against the bank with her crew ashore, collecting rails to stack against the boilers.

Suddenly the gunboat came under fire from a force of enemy infantry with two 12-pounder Parrott rifles.  “Minnie” balls and shot screamed through the air, some piercing completely through PETREL.  McElroy beat his crew to quarters, but found that the position of his boat against the bank prevented his heavy guns from being brought to bear.  The Yankees defended with muskets while McElroy attempted to back down into the stream.  But an enemy shot cut the tinclad’s steam lines; followed by another that struck the magazine and cut off the legs of Gunner’s Mate Charles Seitz.  Enemy sharpshooters began picking off the Union crewmen through the gun ports.  Several of the officers “behaved badly,” falling back out of fear.  Disabled and unable to counter-fire, McElroy decided to burn his vessel.  But just as Asst. Engineer Arthur M. Phillips was setting the gunboat ablaze, another rebel shot raked the stern and burst the boilers, bathing the ship in steam.  The steam doused the fires, and many of McElroy’s officers and crew jumped ashore and ran.  Only the pilot, Kimball Ware, and an enlisted sailor, Quartermaster John H. Nibbe, stayed to assist McElroy in defending PETREL’s flag.  Nibbe helped get the wounded ashore, then all three re-fired the gunboat by spreading coals from the boiler across the deck.

The Confederates surrounded and captured the three brave sailors.  The fires were again extinguished long enough for the rebels to strip every gun and salvageable store.  PETREL was then burned to prevent her re-capture.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. IV-46.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 276.

McElroy, Thomas.  Report of loss of Petrel.  IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I-Volume 26:  Naval Forces on Western Waters (March 1, 1864-December 21, 1864).  Washington, DC: GPO, 1914, pp. 248-49.

Porter, David D.  The Naval History of the Civil War.  Mineola, NY: Dover Pub., 1886, pp. 560-61.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 165, 176.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, p. 859.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  PETREL was taken with her flag still flying.  Quartermaster John H. Nibbe was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions this day (officers were not eligible at the time).  RADM David Dixon Porter berated PETREL’s remaining officers and crew for their apparent cowardice.

Union “tinclads” also had an enclosed pilothouse constructed on the upper-most deck.  This feature easily identifies such craft in period photographs that survive today.  Our modern system of hull numbering was not adopted until the 1920s, however each of the 63 tinclads had a number painted boldly on the outside of her pilot house.  PETREL was tinclad number 5, and PRAIRIE BIRD was number 11.

The rank of “Master” has an interesting history as well.  Early in the 1800s our Navy had four commissioned officer ranks–Sailing Master, Lieutenant, Master Commandant and Captain.  The Master Commandant rank was changed to “Commander” in 1837, the same year the lowest rank was shortened simply to “Master.”  During the Civil War, to accommodate an expanded force structure, on 16 July 1862 the new ranks of RADM and Commodore were created as Flag ranks above Captain; LCDR was inserted below Commander; and Ensign was inserted below Master.  In 1883 “Masters” became “Lieutenants Junior Grade,” which they remain today!

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                               CONFEDERATE PRIVATEER PETREL

When South Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 December 1860, the State’s officials seized Federal property including the US Revenue Cutter Service schooner WILLIAM AIKEN, 2, who had operated out of Charleston since 1855.  WILLIAM AIKEN thus earned the dubious distinction of being the first Federal ship lost to the Rebels.  But by 1861, AIKEN was aging ungraciously, having served for years before her USRCS purchase as the pilot boat Eclipse.  The Confederate Navy deemed her unseaworthy and she was sold instead to private investors who sought to convert her to a privateer.  The Confederate government was issuing Letters of Marque allowing private citizens to arm private vessels to pursue and capture Union merchant ships for profit.  On 10 July 1861, WILLIAM AIKEN’s investors received their letter of marque and AIKEN became the Rebel privateer PETREL.  Her career would prove a short one!

In the early morning hours of this day, PETREL’s captain, William Perry, took his schooner out of Charleston on her first cruise.  He spotted what he took to be an East Indiaman.  He approached cautiously, flying British colors, until he had closed sufficiently to observe uniformed sailors on her deck!  Clearly, she was a military vessel, in fact, she was USS ST. LAWRENCE, a 50-gun frigate under the command of CAPT Hugh Y. Purviance, who had been sent to blockade the Rebel city.  Some accounts suggest that CAPT Purviance had disguised his frigate as a merchantman, or, more likely, Perry simply mistook the frigate.  The chase was on after lookouts aboard ST. LAWRENCE spotted the schooner off their lee bow at 0600.  In four hours, the frigate closed enough to hail the stranger.  Perry now had no escape and ran up Confederate colors.  He rounded and sent three shots from PETREL’s guns.  One passed through ST. LAWRENCE’s mainsail and splintered the main yardarm.  Purviance’s gunnery was more telling.  His fo’c’sle battery opened with two shots that struck PETREL’s hull.  The privateer’s bows were smashed and flooding forced her abandonment in 30 minutes.  Thirty-six Confederates were fished from the water and put aboard the north-bound steamer Flag to be tried and hanged as pirates in Philadelphia.  The accusation did not hold up in court however, and PETREL’s sailors were instead confined to Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia for the duration of the war.

Confederate privateers enjoyed some limited success in the early days of the war.  However, the establishment of the blockade made trade with the Confederacy risky.  Northern merchants shifted trade elsewhere, avoiding the South, and Rebel privateers suffered for lack of targets.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 AUG 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

American Civil War website.  “The USS St. Lawrence sinks Confederate Privateer Petrel.”  AT: http://www.civilwar-online.com/2011/07/july-28-1861-uss-st-lawrence-sinks.html, retrieved 18 March 2014.

“Capture of C.S. Privateer Petrel, William Perry commanding, by the U.S.S. St. Lawrence, Captain Purviance, U.S. Navy, commanding, July 28, 1861.”  IN:  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol 1: The Operations of the Cruisers from January 19, 1861, to December 31, 1862.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1894, p. 51.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. I-20.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 242-43.

Robinson, William.  The Confederate Privateers. 

US Coast Guard History website.  “William Aiken, 1855.”  AT: http://www.uscg.mil/history.webcutters/Aiken1855.asp, retrieved 18 March 2014.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  USRCS WILLIAM AIKEN honored William Aiken, Jr., (1806-1887) the 61^st Governor of South Carolina

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