THOMASVILLE- Members of the John B. Gordon 383 UDC were presented a program about the CSS Chattahoochee by chapter member Florence Harrell. She explained how the gunboat came about. In 1861, the CS Navy made a contract with David Johnston of Saffold, Georgia to build a gunboat. It was delivered 10 months late, as expected, and even then it was not completed. She was commissioned on February 24, 1863 as the CSS Chattahoochee.
The CSS Chattahoochee was a three-masted schooner with two steam engines, 130 feet long, with a beam of 30 feet and drawing 8 feet of water at the stern. When both engines were being bused, it was capable of making a maximum of 12 knots (14mph).
Lieutenant Catesby Roger Jones was assigned as the Commander. He had been in charge of the conversion of the captured USS Merrimack into the iron-clad CSS Virginia. “Jones complained about not having enough supplies to complete the gunboat,” stated Harrell. Things did not go well for the CSS Chatahoochee. Harrell said, “There were problems with the two engines, and she hit a rock, causing a large leak.” So during most of 1863, she continued undergoing repairs.
During April 1863, the CSS Chattahoochee sailed down the river to Chattahoochee, Florida to visit the gun batteries. The Chattahoochee River joined with the Flint River to form the Apalachicola River. The CSS Chattahoochee was asked to aid the blockade runner the Fashion at the city of Apalachicola. But Harrell said, “The CSS Chattahoochee landed on a sand bar near Blounstown, Florida, where the water was only 7.5 feet deep.” The boiler exploded, killing nineteen people aboard. Two people actually drowned while trying to swim ashore.
Harrell said, “Matters became worse. A hurricane was moving toward the valley of the Apalachicola River. The hurricane hit as a category 2 storm.” The wounded lay on the shore unprotected from the wind and rain for over 24 hours as the hurricane passed over them. The bodies and wounded were then taken back for help. The wounded men did not receive proper care or medical treatment until five days after the explosion. A slow leak finally sank the CSS Chattahoochee. She was scuttled near Columbus, Georgia on April 17, 1865, so she would not be captured, just as Union troops were approaching the city.
Harrell explained at the end of her program that the CSS Chattahoochee stayed under water until 1963, where remains were found near Fort Benning. The remains were raised and a portion of her hull and the original steam engines once more returned to Columbus, Georgia. The remains are now on display at the National Civil War Naval Museum.
Sheila Tucker, chapter Historian introduced Florence Harrell. She showed a book The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 , written by Eliza Frances Andrews that will be placed in the Roddenbery Memorial Library in Cairo, Georgia in the speaker’s honor. Mary Margaret Quiggle, President presided over the meeting.