Editing CSS McRae

{{Short description|Confederate gunboat}}
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|Ship image=[[Image:CSS McRae New Orleans 1860.jpg|300px|CSS ''McRae'']]
|Ship caption=CSS ''McRae'', New Orleans, 1860
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|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Mexico|1823}} [[Mexico]]
|Ship name=''Marqués&nbsp;de&nbsp;la&nbsp;Habana'''
|Ship namesake=[[Marquis]]&nbsp;of&nbsp;[[Havana]]
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|Ship fate=Captured by [[United States Navy|U.S.&nbsp;Navy]] 6 March 1860
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|Ship country=Confederate States
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}}
|Ship name=CSS ''McRae''
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|Ship acquired=17 March 1861
|Ship commissioned=March 1861
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|Ship fate=Scuttled 28 April 1862
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|Ship displacement=Approx. 680 tons
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|Ship propulsion=Single screw, single expansion steam engine
|Ship sail plan=[[Barque|Bark]]-rigged [[sloop]]; three masts
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|Ship armament=One {{convert|9|in|mm|abbr=on|0}} smoothbore, six 32-pounder smoothbores, one 6-pounder [[rifle]]
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[[File:C.S.S. McRAE.jpg|thumb|CSS ''McRae''.]]
'''CSS ''McRae''''' was a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[gunboat]] that saw service during the [[American Civil War]].  Displacing around 680 tons, she was armed with one {{convert|9|in|mm|adj=on|0}} smoothbore and six {{convert|32|pdr|adj=on}} smoothbore [[cannon]].<ref name="silverstone">{{cite book|title=Warships of the Civil War Navies|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|date=1989|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=0-87021-783-6}}</ref>{{rp|230}}
[[File:Engagement at Fort Pillow, Mississippi River, Between Federal and Confederate gun-boats.jpg|thumb|284x284px|CSS ''McRae'' and the cottonclad [[CSS General Earl Van Dorn|CSS ''General Earl Van Dorn'']] engagement federal gunboats at [[Fort Pillow, Tennessee]].]]
Originally operating as a rebel ship under the [[Mexico|Mexican]] flag with the name ''Marqués de la Havana'', the wooden [[sloop]] was captured as a [[piracy|pirate]] ship by the [[United States Navy]] [[sloop-of-war]] {{USS|Saratoga|1842|6}} during the [[Battle of Anton Lizardo]] on 6 March 1860.  A construction plan authorizing the building of ten fast gunboats was funded by the [[Congress of the Confederate States]] on 15 March 1861. Recognizing that no yard could turn out the vessels fast enough, [[Confederate States Secretary of the Navy]] [[Stephen R. Mallory]] sent a commission to [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], to convert existing steamers to commerce raiders. The [[Confederate States Navy]] purchased ''Marqués de la Havana'' at New Orleans on 17 March 1861, and duly fitted her out as CSS ''McRae'' as part of this plan. Extensive engine repairs prevented ''McRae'' from going to sea before the arrival of the [[Union blockade|Union blockading force]].<ref name="hearn">{{cite book|title=The Capture of New Orleans, 1862|last=Hearn|first=Chester G.|date=1995|publisher=Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London|isbn=0-8071-1945-8}}</ref>{{rp|26}}

Placed under the command of [[Lieutenant (naval)|Lieutenant]] [[Thomas B. Huger]], ''McRae'' served as part of [[Flag officer#United States|Flag Officer]] [[George N. Hollins]]' defense of the lower reaches of the [[Mississippi River]], and provided cover for [[blockade runner]]s.  This led to ''McRae'' seeing combat with the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] blockading force on 12 October 1861. ''McRae'' took part in the [[Battle of the Head of Passes]] as part of Hollins′ "[[mosquito fleet]]," driving the Union blockading forces from the [[Head of Passes]] in the [[Mississippi Delta]].

''McRae'' again saw action on 24 April 1862 as the Union fleet attempted to pass [[Fort Jackson (Louisiana)|Fort Jackson]] and [[Fort Saint Philip]] and reach New Orleans. In the resulting [[Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip]], ''McRae'' suffered little damage in the beginning due to her resemblance to the Union [[Unadilla-class gunboat|''Unadilla''-class gunboat]]s. The leading Union ships passed by her without firing. The sloop-of-war {{USS|Iroquois|1859|6}} was an exception, and replied to ''McRae''′s gunfire with an 11-inch (279-mm) shell that set fire to ''McRae''{{'}}s [[sail]] room and threatened her [[Magazine (firearm)|magazines]].<ref>Hearn, ''The Capture of New Orleans, 1862'' pp. 232-3</ref> The officers and crew fought hard in this latter engagement but suffered severe casualties (Huger being amongst those mortally wounded), and ''McRae'' herself was severely damaged. She was run against the shore to put out her fires, and remained there till dawn, after which she returned to the forts. Loaded with wounded from the forts, ''McRae'' was allowed to return to New Orleans on 27 April 1862 under a [[flag of truce]]. After landing the wounded at the city, her crew scuttled and abandoned her at [[Algiers, Louisiana]] (now a neighborhood of New Orleans), after cutting all her steam pipes.<ref>Hearn, ''The Capture of New Orleans, 1862'' p. 246</ref>

James Morris Morgan, a Midshipmen on the ''McRae'' gave a personal account of the battle and the ''McRae'''s end: "The ''McRae'' was in the thick of the fight. Her sides riddled. Heavy projectiles had knocked her guns off the carriages and rolled them along the deck crunching the dead and wounded. Her deck was a perfect shambles.  When day broke the McRae was the only thing afloat with the Confederate flag flying."  In the battle, [[Thomas B. Huger|Captain Huger]] had been mortally wounded and [[Charles Read (naval officer)|LT. "Savez" Read]] taken command.  "Admiral Farragut, with his flagship the Hartford, was by this time at the Quarantine Station, about four miles above the forts. Read sent the only boat he had that would float over to the Hartford to tell [[David Farragut|Admiral Farragut]] the condition of his vessel and the difficulty he was having to keep her afloat--that he did not have a gun left on a carriage, and no one to care for his dying captain or the many other wounded.  Farragut gave him permission to proceed to New Orleans, saying that he would tell him there what disposition he would make of the ship. When we arrived at New Orleans ''McRae'' was leaking like a sieve; the exhausted remnant of the crew refused to continue at the pumps, and as the last wounded men were taken out of the ship--down she went."  <ref name="morgan">{{cite book|title=Recollections of a Rebel Reefer|last=Morgan|first=James M.|date=1917|publisher=Moughton Mifflin|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/morganjames/morgan.html}}</ref>{{rp|73}}

==See also==
* [[Battle of Anton Lizardo]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{CSN gunboats}}
{{Pirates}}{{1862 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Louisiana}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcrae}}
[[Category:Steamships of Mexico]]
[[Category:Vessels captured by the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Gunboats of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Pirate ships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in April 1862]]
[[Category:Ship fires]]
[[Category:Scuttled vessels]]
[[Category:Piracy in the Caribbean]]