Fort Jackson moored at Hampton Roads, Virginia, December 1864
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Fort Jackson |
Namesake | Fort Jackson, Louisiana |
Builder | Jeremiah Simonson |
Launched | 30 October 1862 |
Commissioned | 18 August 1863 |
Decommissioned | 7 August 1865 |
Fate | Sold, 27 September 1865 |
United States | |
Name | North America |
Owner | United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company |
Identification |
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Fate | Broken-up in 1879 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Sidewheel steamer |
Displacement | 1,850 long tons (1,880 t) |
Length | 250 ft (76 m) |
Beam | 38 ft 6 in (11.73 m) |
Draft | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
Propulsion | Steam engine |
Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
Armament |
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USS Fort Jackson was a wooden sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was successful in enforcing the Union blockade of Confederate ports, capturing five ships carrying contraband. She participated in the battles for Fort Fisher, which effectively closed the port of Wilmington, North Carolina to the Confederacy. Most notably, the surrender of Confederate forces in Texas was signed aboard the ship, formally ending the Civil War in that portion of the country.
After the war, she was sold by the Navy. Her new owners named her North America. She spent the rest of her career carrying passengers, cargo, and mail between New York and ports in Brazil. She was idled in 1872 in favor of more modern vessels, and was finally broken up in 1879.