East India Squadron, 1859–1861 Hartford was launched on 22 November 1858 at the
Boston Navy Yard; sponsored by Miss Carrie Downes, Miss Lizzie Stringham, and Lieutenant G. J. H. Preble; and commissioned on 27 May 1859, Captain Charles Lowndes in command. After shakedown out of
Boston, the new screw sloop of war, carrying Flag Officer
Cornelius K. Stribling, the newly appointed commander of the
East India Squadron, sailed for the
Cape of Good Hope and the
Far East. Upon reaching the
Orient,
Hartford relieved as
flagship. In November, she embarked the American Minister to
China,
John Elliott Ward, at
Hong Kong and carried him to
Canton,
Manila,
Swatow,
Shanghai, and other Far Eastern ports to settle American claims and to arrange for favorable consideration of the Nation's interests.
Civil War, 1861–1865 With the outbreak of the
American Civil War,
Hartford was ordered home. She departed the
Sunda Strait with on 30 August 1861 and arrived
Philadelphia on 2 December to be fitted out for wartime service. She departed the
Delaware Capes on 28 January as
flagship of Flag Officer
David G. Farragut, the commander of the newly created
West Gulf Blockading Squadron. (See also:
Confederate blockade mail.) An even larger purpose than the important
blockade of the
South's Gulf Coast lay behind Farragut's assignment. Late in 1861, the Union high command decided to capture
New Orleans, the South's richest and most populous city, to begin a drive of sea-based power up the
Mississippi River to meet the Union Army which was to
drive down the Mississippi valley behind a spearhead of armored gunboats. "Other operations,"
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles warned Farragut, "must not be allowed to interfere with the great object in view—the certain capture of the city of New Orleans."
Hartford arrived 20 February at
Ship Island, Mississippi, midway between
Mobile Bay and the mouths of the Mississippi. Several Union ships and a few Army units were already in the vicinity when the squadron's flagship dropped anchor at the advanced staging area for the attack on New Orleans. In ensuing weeks a mighty fleet assembled for the campaign. In mid-March Commander
David Dixon Porter's flotilla of
mortar schooners arrived towed by steam gunboats. When Farragut arrived on the scene a few days later, he learned that heavy Southern guns mounted on the bluff at Vicksburg some above the river could shell his ships while his own guns could not be elevated enough to hit them back. Since sufficient troops were not available to take the fortress by storm, the Flag Officer headed downstream on 27 May leaving gunboats to blockade it from below. led a fleet consisting of four ironclad
monitors and 14 wooden vessels. The Confederate naval force was composed of newly built ram , Twelve of
Hartfords sailors were awarded the
Medal of Honor for their actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Their names follow: She served as training ship until 24 October 1912 when she was transferred to
Charleston, for use as a station ship.
Final years, 1926–1956 in
Washington, D.C. . Again placed out of commission 20 August 1926,
Hartford remained at Charleston until moved to
Washington, D.C., on 18 October 1938. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to build a naval museum there featuring the
Hartford, , and a four-stack destroyer from World War I. When Roosevelt died, plans to establish this museum and to save the ships were abandoned. On 19 October 1945,
Hartford was towed to the
Norfolk Navy Yard and classified as a relic. The ship was allowed to deteriorate, and as a result,
Hartford sank at her berth on 20 November 1956. She proved to be beyond salvage and was subsequently dismantled. ==Remains==