USS Norfolk Packet (1862-1865)

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USS Norfolk Packet, a 349-ton mortar schooner, was built in 1851 at East Haddam, Connecticut, as a civilian vessel. She was purchased by the Navy in September 1861 and commissioned in February 1862 after conversion to a warship. During the next several months, she operated on the lower Mississippi River, participating in bombardments of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, below New Orleans, in April and Vicksburg, Mississippi, in June and July.

Transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in November 1862, Norfolk Packet served off South Carolina, Georgia and Florida for the rest of the Civil War. She shelled Fort McAllister, Georgia, in March 1863 and later captured three sailing blockade runners. USS Norfolk Packet was decommissioned in July 1865 and sold a month later.

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USS Norfolk Packet (1862-1865)

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