Civil War, 1862–1864 Pensacola departed
Alexandria, Virginia on January 11, 1862, for the
Gulf of Mexico to join
Admiral David Farragut's newly created
West Gulf Blockading Squadron. She steamed with that fleet in the historic dash past
Confederate Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson which protected
New Orleans,
Louisiana on April 24. The next day,
Pensacola engaged batteries below that great Confederate metropolis. On April 26, a landing party of Marines raised the
United States flag over the mint at New Orleans. Four of her sailors were awarded the
Medal of Honor for their part in the battle: Boy
Thomas Flood, Seaman
Thomas Lyons, Captain of the Foretop
James McLeod, and Quartermaster
Louis Richards. Operations along the Atlantic Coast and a cruise along the coast of
Africa ended when the ship returned to
New York in May 1890. In August she headed back to familiar haunts in the Pacific, arriving in
San Francisco on August 10, 1891. Following a visit to
Hawaii, she decommissioned at
Mare Island on April 18, 1892.
Training and receiving ship, 1898–1911 Recommissioned on November 22, 1898,
Pensacola served as a training ship for Naval apprentices until going back into ordinary on May 31, 1899. She was back in commission July 14, 1901, subsequently used as
receiving ship at
Yerba Buena Training Station, San Francisco until finally decommissioning on December 6, 1911, and struck from the Navy Register on December 23. She was burned and sunk by the Navy in San Francisco Bay near
Hunters Point early in May 1912. ==See also==