by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent
It was a formidable though motley Northern armada that descended upon New Bern in March 1862. For the remainder of the War Between the States, powerful Union gunboats were a common sight on the local waterfront and along the rivers Trent and Neuse. Ideally suited to the city’s riverine geography, steam-powered gunboats acted as mobile artillery, quickly bringing fire support to any point threatened by marauding rebel troops.
One example is the USS Agawam. A fast 205-foot double-ended side-wheel gunboat at New Bern in 1864-1865, Agawam sported ten guns. Two of them fired hundred-pound shells. Four were the famous Dahlgren guns, shaped like soda bottles, and firing nine-inch rounds. According to a newspaper report, the ship was further equipped with “four long-range howitzers, besides a plentiful supply of small arms.” Drawing about eight feet of water, the ship could exceed eleven knots with a full head of steam. Two masts were available to add sail power when required.
The Agawam’s crew of 145 officers and enlisted men was diminished in April 1864 when five of them jumped ship at New Bern. A reward of $25 was offered in the local paper “for the apprehension and delivery of each of the deserters.” The missing sailors ranged in age from 18-35, but there’s no further word on what became of them.
Built in Portland, Maine, Agawam shelled Confederate forces along the James River in Virginia before being sent to North Carolina as part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Following the war, the ship was sold at a Norfolk auction and became a lumber-hauling schooner. In 1868, Agawam sailed for Buenos Aires and out of the pages of history.