CSS Patrick Henry

History
Confederate States
Name	Patrick Henry
Namesake	Patrick Henry
Launched	1859
Christened	(as Yorktown)
Commissioned	17 April 1861
Fate	Burned to prevent capture 3 April 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	1300 tons
Length	250 ft (76 m)
Beam	34 ft (10 m)
Draft	13 ft (4.0 m)
Propulsion	steam
Complement	150 officers and men
Armament	1 × 10-inch (254 mm) smoothbore, 1 × 64-pounder (29 kg), 6 × 8-inch (203 mm) guns, 2 × 32-pounder (15 kg) rifles

CSS Patrick Henry was a ship built in New York City in 1859 by the renowned William H. Webb for the Old Dominion Steam Ship Line as the civilian steamer Yorktown, a brigantine-rigged side-wheel steamer. She carried passengers and freight between Richmond, Virginia, and New York City. Yorktown was anchored in the James River when Virginia seceded from the Union on 17 April 1861 and was seized by the Virginia Navy and later turned over to the Confederate Navy on 8 June 1861.

Commander John Randolph Tucker, who commanded the ship, directed that Yorktown be converted into a gunboat and renamed Patrick Henry in honor of Patrick Henry, the revolutionary patriot and Founding Father. She also served as the first flagship of the James River Squadron.^[1]