USS Otsego (1863)

USS Otsego was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

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History
United States
Name	USS Otsego
Builder	Jacob A. & D. D. Westervelt, New York City
Launched	31 March 1863
Commissioned	spring of 1864
Fate	Sunk by mine, 9 December 1864
General characteristics
Class and type	Sassacus-class gunboat
Displacement	974 tons
Length	205 ft 0 in (62.48 m)
Beam	35 ft 0 in (10.67 m)
Draft	9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Depth of hold	11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Propulsion	steam engine side-wheel propelled
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	145
Armament	two 100-pounder Parrott rifles two 20-pounder Parrott rifles four 9" Dahlgren smoothbores two 24-pounder guns

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Otsego, a wooden, double-ended, side-wheel gunboat, was launched 31 March 1863 by Jacob A. & D. D. Westervelt, New York City, New York, and apparently commissioned in the spring of 1864, Commander John P. Bankhead in command . Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 2 May 1864, Otsego reached Hampton Roads, Virginia, on the 24th, and got underway on 12 June for New Berne, North Carolina, and served in the North Carolina Sounds where she served throughout her career, helping tighten the Union grip on these strategic waters and adjoining territory, primarily guarding the mouth of the Roanoke River against an attack by Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle.

When Lt. Cushing returned from his bold raid which destroyed the dreaded Southern ram on the night of 27–28 October, Otsego, in a group of Union ships under Comdr. Macomb ascended the Roanoke River and attacked Plymouth, North Carolina forcing it to surrender after a bitter fight, 1 November. The Federal forces took 37 prisoners, 22 cannon, vast stores, 200 stands of arms, and the hulk of sunken but still important Albemarle. For more than a month thereafter, Otsego performed reconnaissance and mop up work up the Roanoke River. On 9 December she struck two torpedoes (mines) in quick succession and sank in that river near Jamesville, North Carolina.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

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