A Secret Ship

The Confederacy secretly took ownership of the CSS Stonewall on January 10^th 1865 from France.

The CSS Stonewall was built in Bordeaux, France for the Confederate Navy at the request of John Slidell the Confederate commissioner to France.  It was a 1390 ton ironclad ram.  Just before she was ready to launch in February 1864, the French government enacted an embargo, and sold the ship to Denmark.  When it was completed however the Danish government would not accept delivery.

The Confederate Navy secretly took possession of the ship January 10^th 1865 and commissioned her the CSS Stonewall.  She was placed under the command of Captain T J Page.  She sailed for the Azores on her way to America, looking for Union Navy and commercial ships to attack.  A storm forced the Stonewall into Ferrol, Spain where she was confronted by the USS Niagara and USS Sacramento in March 1865.  Those two wooden ships declined to attack the heavily armed Stonewall.  She reached Havana, Cuba in May after the Civil War ended, and was turned over to Spanish authorities.

The Stonewall was turned over the United States government in July 1865.  After sitting for two years in the Washington, DC Navy Yard, she was sold to Japan.

A Blockade Runner Catcher

The USS Sacramento was commissioned January 7^th 1863 under Commander Andrew E K Benham.

The USS Sacramento was launched from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine April 28^th 1862.  Her first assignment after being commissioned on January 7^th 1863 with Commander Andrew E K Benham in charge was blockade duty off the North Carolina coast.  She captured the blockade runner the British ship the Wanderer off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina on May 1^st 1863.  In February 1864 the Sacramento was ordered to European waters where she cruised off the British and French coasts looking for Confederate blockade runners.

The Sacramento took part in detaining the CSS Rappahannock in France and the CSS Stonewall off Spain in early March 1865.  Following the end of the Civil War the Sacramento left Queenstown, Ireland July 25^th 1865 and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on August 12^th 1865.  She was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard August 21^st 1865 and remained inactive until 1866.