USS Augusta (1853)

USS Augusta (1853)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Augusta.

USS Augusta
Career
Name:	USS Augusta
Namesake:	Augusta, Georgia
Builder:	William H. Webb
Launched:	1853
Acquired:	by purchase, 1 August 1861
Commissioned:	28 September 1861
Decommissioned:	6 January 1865
Fate:	Sold, 2 December 1868; sank, 27 September 1877
General characteristics
Type:	Steamer
Displacement:	1,310 long tons (1,330 t)
Length:	220 ft (67 m)
Beam:	35 ft 4 in (10.77 m)
Draft:	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine side paddle wheels
Speed:	11 kn (13 mph; 20 km/h)
Complement:	157 officers and enlisted
Armament:	8 × 32 pdr (15 kg) smoothbore guns, 1 × 12 pdr (5.4 kg) rifle

The second USS Augusta was a side-wheel steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for the city of Augusta, Georgia.

Designed and constructed by the noted American shipbuilder, William H. Webb, the second Augusta was completed in 1853 at New York City and operated out of that port carrying passengers and freight for the New York and Savannah Steam Navigation Company on runs to Savannah, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. Early in the Civil War, as the Union Navy was expanding its fleet for the Herculean task of blockading the Confederate coast, the Federal Government purchased the side-wheeler at New York on 1 August 1861. She was fitted out for naval service by the New York Navy Yard and commissioned there on 28 September 1861, Commander Enoch Greenleafe Parrott in command.