Explosion on the C.S.S. Chattahoochee - May 27, 1863

I've launched a new web page that might be of interest to Gadsden County history buffs. It focuses on the tragic explosion aboard the C.S.S. Chattahoochee on May 27, 1863.

Based from a home port at Chattahoochee Landing, the Confederate warship was the most powerful Civil War vessel ever to operate on the Apalachicola River. It had been built from green timber in Early County, Georgia, and was commissioned far behind schedule on January 1, 1863.

Although the original plan seems to have been for the Chattahoochee to steam down the river and break the blockade at Apalachicola Bay, it took so long to complete her that by the time she was ready for action, the Confederate army had already obstructed the Apalachicola River. The obstructions near today's Wewahitchka were designed to keep Union warships from coming up the river, but they also prevented the Chattahoochee from making it down to the bay. As a result, she spent her career steaming up and down the river while her crew participated in artillery drills.

On May 26, 1863, however, the Chattahoochee went into action after news reached Chattahoochee Landing of a Union raid into the lower Apalachicola River. Steaming down to Blountstown, the ship was unable to continue due to shallow water. The next day as she prepared to head back up to Chattahoochee, a massive explosion rocked the warship and 16 men were scalded to death where they stood by super-heated steam. It was the deadliest naval accident in Florida during the Civil War.

To learn more, please visit the new page at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/csschattahoochee.

Wreck of the C.S.S. Chattahoochee

Resting in an honored spot in the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia, is an artifact that holds a significant place in the history of Gadsden County.

The C.S.S. Chattahoochee was a Confederate warship completed at Saffold, Georgia (near today's U.S. Highway 84 crossing between Dothan and Donalsonville) in 1863. Built of green timber by craftsmen who had never constructed a warship, the Chattahoochee was a massive gunboat with both masts and steam propulsion. Mounting a number of heavy guns, she was manned by a crew of more than 100 men. Her original captain, Lieutenant Catesby ap R. Jones, fully expected to steam her into action against the Union blockade ships in Apalachicola Bay.

Damaged on her initial trip down the river from Saffold to Chattahoochee, the gunboat was repaired in a makeshift facility at Chattahoochee Landing. Once the repairs were completed, the Chattahoochee became a fully operational Confederate warship. With Chattahoochee Landing as her home port, the boat steamed up and down the Apalachicola River and conducted artillery drills.

The high hopes of the Confederate Navy for the ship, however, were never realized. The assignment of Lieutenant Jones to command the vessel was a clear indication she was intended for combat. He was a Southern hero at the time, having commanded the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia during the second half of her monumental battle with the U.S.S. Monitor. The Confederate army, however, placed obstructions in the Apalachicola River before the Chattahoochee became operation. The barrier prevented Union warships from coming upstream, but also prevented the Chattahoochee from going down to the Gulf.

In May of 1863, while responding to a report of a Union raid up the river, the Chattahoochee sank in an accidental explosion at Blountstown. The dead from the accident were brought up to Chattahoochee and buried, while the wounded were taken upriver to Columbus, Georgia, as soon as they could be moved. Several others died and are buried there.

The Chattahoochee itself was raised, taken to Columbus and repaired. By the end of the war she was again ready for action and was awaiting the completion of the ironclad C.S.S. Jackson in anticipation of an attack on the blockade vessels at Apalachicola. Union troops captured Columbus before the Jackson was finished, however, and the crew of the Chattahoochee took her downstream a few miles and set her on fire. She burned to the waterline and sank in the Chattahoochee RIver.

The boat's stern section was raised by the snagboat Montgomery during the 1960s and now is preserved at the Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus. To learn more about the museum, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/navymuseum. The story of the Chattahoochee is told in much more detail in my 2008 book, The Early History of Gadsden County.

The Last Paddlewheeler on the Apalachicola River

There are many today who remember the last of the real paddlewheel riverboats on the Apalachicola River.

It was only 27 years ago in 1982 that the U.S. Snagboat Montgomery made its final voyage. The beautiful old paddlewheel boat was a spectacular sight as it churned its way up and down the Apalachicola, removing snags and other debris to keep the channel open for navigation.

Built in 1926 in Charleston, South Carolina, the Montgomery was 178 feet long with a maximum width of 34 feet. With a draft of only 6 feet, she was ideally suited for work on the shallow rivers of the Deep South. During the first thirty years of her career, the paddlewheel boat worked on the Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers, but in 1959 she was moved from Alabama to Panama City, Florida, and put to work maintaining the channel of the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint River system.

In one of her remarkable duties, the triple-decked steamboat raised the stern section of the Confederate warship C.S.S. Chattahoochee from its resting place on the bottom of the Chattahoochee River. The Chattahoochee is now a permanent exhibit at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia.

The Montgomery was a common sight and on Lake Seminole during the last 20 years of her career. She was retired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1982.

The boat, remarkably, still survives. Now located at the Corps' Tom Bevill Visitor Center in Pickensville, Alabama, the Montgomery is now a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public. To learn more, please click here to visit the boat's outstanding website.