Finger Lakes Civil War Facts

Once we left Seneca Lake, we traveled a little over an hour to Canandaigua Lake. There was nothing Civil War related to see here but I did find some information connected to our visit to Fort Sumter, SC. Hope you find it as interesting as I did. Here goes...again some of the info was taken from Wiki.

The USS Canandaigua (1862) was built in the Boston Navy Yard. It  was a sloop of war, launched March 28, 1862, acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the Civil War. She had a speed of 12 mph and had heavy guns. That made her an ideal and successful gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederacy. After the war, she was renamed Detroit and was broken up in 1884.

Canandaigua reported to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Charleston, SC on August 26, 1862, adding to the Union capability to isolate the Confederacy from overseas supplies. She later took the sloop Secesh in May 1863; later she destroyed another blockade runner and aided in the capture of a schooner and a steamer in the same area. In addition to blockading, Canandaigua cooperated with Union army forces taking part in the long series of attacks on positions in Charleston Harbor in 1863-1864.

On February 17, 1864, she rescued 150 members of the crew of the Housatonic  when she fell victim to the historic attack of the Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley. We saw the Hunley info at Ft. Sumter. It was 40 ft. long with a crew of 9 men. The air supply was limited and had to resurface after 30 minutes. The Hunley set out from Sullivan’s Island  

with a torpedo attached on her bow. The Housatonic was anchored four miles offshore.  Union lookouts spied the torpedo approaching and sounded an alarm. 

Before the ship could move away the torpedo hit its target and the Housatonic sank. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship. She was MIA and people searched for it for 131 years. May 1995 she was discovered 1,000 ft. seaward of the Housatonic. In August 2000 she was raised and returned home.

There is a site created by Diane Thomas in which she lists approximately 550 soldiers and seamen from Canandaigua who served in the Civil War. The list indicates many were deserters, many were KIA or died soon after they were wounded. Some died at Andersonville Prison which we visited in May.

We have enjoyed our wine touring on Seneca, Cayuga, Keuka and Canandaigua Lakes. The Finger Lakes are so beautiful. Yesterday we were on Conesus Lake with my brother and sister-in-law. Maybe I'll blog some more about that tomorrow.