USS Constellation Museum - Baltimore City, MD
N 39° 17.137 W 076° 36.659
18S E 361061 N 4349709
This wonderful attraction focuses on the The USS Constellation, the last all sail warship for the United States, which was instrumental in helping the Union defeat the Confederacy as well as stymieing Southern slave trade on the open waters.
Waymark Code: WMGNRJ
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 03/25/2013
Views: 16
There is lots to do with this tour of this famous ship. First, you can visit the visitor center and museum and after that you can climb aboard and experience Civil War history firsthand. This Museum Gallery/museum is where USS Constellation's history is portrayed through artifacts and personal effects which belonged to the ship's crew.
This beautiful ship is on the NRHP and is also itself a kind of museum. Amid the pomp of commerce and the hype of the sea port is the legacy of the Civil War for Marylanders and specifically, the role the USS Constellation played in the defeat of the Confederacy. as told by the museum. There is a marker to be found on the far right outside of the USS Constellation museum. The marker features two illustrations, one of the Constellation and one of a powder monkey.
USS CONSTELLATION
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Flagship of the Anti-Slave Trade
Though the Civil War was a period of great innovation for the navy with the widespread use of steam power and the innovation of ironclads, there was still a place in the fleet for sailing ships. Built at the Gosport yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1854, USS Constellation was the flagship of the anti-slave trade African Squadron when the Civil War began in April 1861. The following month it made one of the first captures for the Union when it took the slaver Triton of Charleston, South Carolina. After briefly being recalled to American waters, Constellation was ordered to the Mediterranean where it fulfilled a variety of missions, including protecting American commerce from Confederate raiders. The U.S. Navy's role in the Civil War is often overlooked in favor or armies, but the navy was crucial to achieving a Union victory. Naval vessels actively blocked the Southern coastline, strangling the Confederacy's trace, patrolled for commerce raiders, and enabled the army to conduct effective amphibious operations.
There is also a little text on the side bar which reads:
Powder monkey Aspinwall Fuller
Boys such as Aspinwall Fuller were a common sight aboard U.S. Navy vessels during the Civil War. A native of New York, the 13--year-old Fuller enlisted here in Baltimore in 1864, and was assigned to USS New Hampshire. Throughout the war, the Navy recruited 13- to 18-year-olds to serve at sea as ship's boys. These young sailors were entrusted with the important job of bringing the powder charges to guns during combat, and earned the nickname "powder monkeys." During its Civil War cruise, Constellation had 12 of these brave teenagers as part of its crew.
USS Constellation, constructed in 1854, is a sloop-of-war and the second United States Navy ship to carry the name. According to the US Naval Registry the original frigate was disassembled on 25 June 1853 in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and the sloop-of-war was constructed in the same yard, possibly with a few recycled materials from the old frigate. Constellation is the last sail-only warship designed and built by the US Navy. Despite being a single-gundeck "sloop", she is actually larger than her frigate namesake, and more powerfully armed with fewer but much more potent shell-firing guns. The sloop was launched on 26 August 1854 and commissioned on 28 July 1855 with Captain Charles H. Bell in command. SOURCE