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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
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Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Para (1862-1865)

USS Para, a 190-ton mortar schooner, was built in 1860 at Wilmington, Delaware, for commercial purposes. Purchased by the Navy in September 1861 and outfitted with guns and other military features, she was commissioned in February 1862 and sent to join the Mortar Flotilla on the lower Mississippi River. In April 1862, Para bombarded the Confederate forts below New Orleans. She also shelled Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the following June and July.

After transfer to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Para helped bombard Fort McAllister, Georgia, in March 1863. She captured a blockade running schooner in June 1863, and participated in an attack on New Smyrna, Florida, a month later. Other operations along the Florida coast followed, including the capture of the steamer Hard Times in February 1864. In July of that year Para took part in an expedition on South Carolina's Stono River. Decommissioned in August 1865, USS Para was sold in September 1865.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Para.

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 59061 "Commander Porter's Mortar Flotilla" Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the mortar schooner flotilla commanded by David Dixon Porter during the April 1862 attack on the forts below New Orleans. Vessels shown are (from left to right): Westfield, Adolph Hugel, Para, William Bacon, Oliver H. Lee, C.P. Williams, Henry Janes, George Mangham, Racer, Horace Beals, Sarah Bruen, Samuel Rotan, John Griffith, Rachel Seaman, Maria J. Carlton, Sidney C. Jones, T.A. Ward, Sea Foam, Maria A. Wood, Octorara (Porter's flagship) and Matthew Vassar. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 365 pixels
Photo #: NH 59288 Bombardment of Fort McAllister, Georgia, 3 March 1863 Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1863, page 196, depicting the bombardment of Fort McAllister by the U.S. Navy monitors Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant. The engraving is based on a sketch by "an eye-witness" on board USS Montauk, which is in the right center foreground. In the left foreground, firing on the fort, are the mortar schooners C.P. Williams, Norfolk Packet and Para. Among other U.S. Navy ships involved were gunboats Wissahickon, Seneca and Dawn and tug Dandelion. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 295 pixels
Photo #: NH 59287 Bombardment of Fort McAllister, Georgia, 3 March 1863 Line engraving, after a sketch by W.T. Crane, published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War", Volume II, page 39. It depicts the U.S. Navy monitors Patapsco, Passaic and Nahant firing on Fort McAllister (at far left) from the Ogeechee River. Other U.S. Navy ships are in the foreground. Montauk is the monitor in this group (farthest from the artist). Firing on the fort from the right foreground are mortar schooners, including C.P. Williams, Norfolk Packet and Para. Among other U.S. Navy ships involved were gunboats Wissahickon, Seneca and Dawn and tug Dandelion, all screw steamers. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 380 pixels

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Page made 4 October 2001