View source for CSS Ellis

{{Other ships|USS Ellis}}
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|Ship image=CSS Ellis.jpeg
|Ship caption="The captured gunboat ''Ellis''" (from ''The Long Roll'')
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|Ship country=Confederate States
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}} {{shipboxflag|United States|1865}}
|Ship name=''Ellis''
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|Ship builder=Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Delaware
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|Ship launched=1860
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|Ship homeport=Norfolk, Virginia
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|Ship fate=*Captured by U.S. Navy 10 February 1862;
*Destroyed to prevent recapture 25 November 1862
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|Ship displacement=100 tons
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|Ship complement=28 officers and men
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[[File:Ensign of the Confederate States (12 stars).svg|thumb|right|The 12-star "[[Flags of the Confederate States of America#First flag: the "Stars and Bars" (1861–1863)|Stars and Bars]]" Ensign of the CSS ''Ellis''.]]

'''CSS''' '''''Ellis''''' (later '''USS''' '''''Ellis''''') was a [[gunboat]] in the [[Confederate States Navy]] and the [[United States Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]]. It was lost during a raid while under command of famed Navy officer Lieutenant [[William B. Cushing]].

== Confederate Service ==

The ''Ellis'' was purchased at [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], [[Virginia]] in 1861 by the State of [[North Carolina]] and turned over to the [[Confederate States|Confederacy]] when that State became a member. With [[Commander]] [[W. T. Muse]], CSN, in command, she played an important part in the defense of [[Fort Hatteras]] and [[Fort Clark, North Carolina|Fort Clark]] in [[Hatteras Inlet]], North Carolina on August 28–29, 1861, of [[Roanoke Island]] on February 7–8, 1862, and of [[Elizabeth City, North Carolina]] on February 10, 1862; that day she was captured by the [[United States Army|Union Army]] after a desperate struggle in which her commander, [[Lieutenant]] [[James W. Cooke]], CSN, was badly wounded.

== U.S. Navy Service ==

''Ellis'' was taken into the U.S. Navy and assigned to the [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]]. She was placed under the command of Lieutenant C. L. Franklin, USN, and spent her entire U.S. Navy service in the sounds and rivers of North Carolina.

''Ellis'' took part in a combined expedition which captured [[Fort Macon]], near [[Beaufort, North Carolina]], on April 25, 1862. She had a brief engagement with Confederate [[cavalry]] off [[Winton, North Carolina]] on June 27, 1862, and from August 15 to 19, 1862, she made an expedition to [[Swansboro, North Carolina]], to destroy salt works and a battery. On October 14, 1862, she was detailed to the blockade of [[Bogue Inlet]], and a week later, captured and burned the [[schooner]] ''Adelaide'' with a valuable cargo of turpentine, cotton, and tobacco.

== Final Action ==

In November 1862, ''Ellis'', under command of Lieutenant [[William B. Cushing]], sailed up New River Inlet to capture [[Jacksonville, North Carolina]]. The steamer captured two schooners, some arms and mail. On her way down river, ''Ellis'' ran aground on November 24, 1862, and could not be re-floated. After dark, her commanding officer moved all the crew except six and all her equipment and supplies except her pivot gun, some ammunition, two tons of coal, and a few small arms to one of the captured schooners. While the schooners slipped down the river to wait, Cushing and five of his men remained to fight it out. Early on the morning of November 25, 1862, the Confederates opened fire on ''Ellis'', and in a short time, Cushing was forced to decide between surrender and a pull of a mile and a half to a waiting schooner. Cushing chose not to surrender, and before leaving his ship, set fire to her in five places, leaving the gun trained on the enemy to let the ship herself carry on the fight when flames would fire the cannon. Cushing and his men reached the schooner and made for the sea, getting the vessel over the bar just in time to escape several companies of cavalry trying to cut off the schooner at the mouth of the inlet. ''Ellis'' was blown to pieces by the explosion of her magazine on the morning of November 25, 1862.

==See also==
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
*[[List of ships captured in the 19th century#American Civil War|Ships captured in the American Civil War]]
*[[Bibliography of early American naval history#American Civil War|Bibliography of American Civil War naval history]]
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==References==
*Charles F. Johnson, ''The Long Roll'', New York, 1911, 1986.
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa3/ellis.htm Confederate service|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/e3/ellis-i.htm Union service}}

{{CSN Gunboats}}{{1862 shipwrecks}}

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[[Category:Gunboats of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in November 1862]]
[[Category:1860 ships]]
[[Category:Captured ships]]
[[Category:Ship fires]]
[[Category:Naval magazine explosions]]