View source for CSS Teaser

{{Short description|US Civil War ship}}
{{Other ships|USS Teaser}}
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| Ship image = USS Teaser.jpg
| Ship caption = The ''Teaser'' on repairs after capture.
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| Ship country = Confederate States
| Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|1863}}
| Ship name = ''Teaser''
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| Ship operator = [[Confederate States Navy]]
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| Ship fate = Captured 4 July 1862
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{{Infobox ship career
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| Ship country = United States
| Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|United States|1865}}
| Ship name = ''Teaser''
| Ship operator = [[Union Navy]]
| Ship acquired = 4 July 1862
| Ship commissioned = 1862
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| Ship decommissioned = 2 June 1865
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| Ship fate = Sold into merchant service at auction 25 June 1865
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| Ship displacement = 64 tons
| Ship length = {{convert|80|ft|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship beam = {{convert|18|ft|m|abbr=on}}
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| Ship propulsion = Steam engine
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| Ship complement = 25 officers and men
| Ship armament = *1 × 32-pounder rifled cannon
*1 × 12-pounder rifled cannon
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[[File:CSSTeaser.jpg|thumb|276x276px|CSS ''Teaser'' in combat with {{USS|Maratanza|1861|6}}, July 4, 1862.]]
[[File:CSSTeaser12pdr.jpg|thumb|12-pounder on the bow]]
[[File:CSSTeaserDeck.jpg|thumb|Deck detail]]
[[Image:Cannon Banded Rifle 6.4inch CSN1864.jpg|thumb|right|6.4-inch banded rifle, the stern pivot mount on the CSS ''Teaser''. These guns were made by banding and rifling the 32-pounder smoothbore. This image is from the Library of Congress.]]

'''CSS ''Teaser''''' had been the aging [[Georgetown, D.C.]] [[tugboat]] ''York River'' until the beginning of the [[American Civil War]], when she was taken into the [[Confederate States Navy]] and took part in the famous [[Battle of Hampton Roads]]. Later, she was captured by the [[United States Navy]] and became the first '''USS ''Teaser'''''.
[[File:19-N-12602 (37290393486).jpg|thumb|321x321px|The [[CSS Robert E. Lee|CSS ''Robert E. Lee'']] in the image is confused as the CSS ''Teaser''.]]

==CSS ''Teaser''==
''Teaser'' was built at [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]. Purchased at [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]], [[Virginia]], by the State of Virginia in 1861, she was assigned to the naval forces in the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]] with [[Lieutenant]] [[James Henry Rochelle]], [[Virginia State Navy]], in command. Upon the secession of Virginia, ''Teaser'' became a part of the Confederate States Navy and continued to operate in Virginia waters. With Lieutenant [[William A. Webb]], CSN, in command, she took an active part in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8–March 9, 1862, acting as tender to [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']]. She received the thanks of the [[Confederate Congress|Congress of the Confederate States]] for this action.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

''Teaser'' was a pioneer "aircraft carrier", serving as a base for an observation [[gas-filled balloon]]; she also became a pioneer [[minelayer]] when ordered on June 17, 1862, to assist [[General officer|General]] [[Robert E. Lee]]'s [[Army of Northern Virginia]]. Under Lieutenant [[Hunter Davidson]], CSN, she was used by the Confederate Naval Submarine Battery Service to plant and service "torpedoes" ([[Naval mine|mines]]) in the James River. While engaging {{USS|Maratanza|1861|6}} at Haxall's on the James on July 4, 1862, a [[United States|Union]] shell blew up ''Teaser''{{'}}s boiler and forced her crew to abandon ship. When seized by ''Maratanza'', ''Teaser'' was carrying on board a balloon for [[aerial reconnaissance]] of Union positions at [[City Point, Virginia|City Point]] and [[Harrison's Landing]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

===Commanders===
The commanders of the CSS ''Teaser'' were:<ref name=coski>Coski (1996), John M. ''Capital Navy: The Men, Ships and Operations of the James River Squadron'', Campbell, CA: Savas Woodbury Publishers. {{ISBN|1-882810-03-1}}.</ref>

* Lieutenant [[James H. Rochelle]] (May–June 1861)
* Lieutenant [[Robert Randolph Carter]] (June–July 1861)<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gill|first1=Harold B.|title=Robert Randolph Carter (1825–1888)|url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Carter_Robert_Randolph_1825-1888|publisher=Encyclopedia Virginia|accessdate=8 July 2015}}</ref>
* Acting Master [[William H. Face]] (June 1861 – January 1862)
* Lieutenant [[William A. Webb]] (February 1862 –)
* Lieutenant [[Hunter Davidson]] (June–July 1862)

==USS ''Teaser''==
Later that summer, ''Teaser'' was taken into the United States Navy and was assigned to the [[Potomac Flotilla]]. With the exception of three brief deployments elsewhere, USS ''Teaser'' [[Wiktionary:Ply|plied]] the waters of the [[Potomac River]] from [[Alexandria, Virginia]], south to [[Point Lookout, Maryland|Point Lookout]], [[Maryland]], to enforce the [[blockade]] by interdicting a thriving trade in [[contraband]] between the Maryland and Virginia shores.

On September 22, she captured [[schooner]] ''Southerner'' in the [[Coan River]]. On  October 19, while operating in the vicinity of [[Piney Point, Maryland|Piney Point]] in [[St. Mary's County, Maryland]], she captured two [[smuggler]]s and their boat as they were nearing the exit of Herring Creek and preparing to cross the river to Virginia. On November 2, near the mouth of the [[Rappahannock River]], the tug surprised three men attempting to violate the blockade in a [[canoe]]. ''Teaser'' took them prisoner and turned their contraband over to pro-Union Virginians living on [[Gwynn's Island]]. Four days later in [[Chesapeake Bay]], ''Teaser'' took the cargo-less [[sloop]] ''Grapeshot'' and captured her three-man crew.

By December 1862, she had moved to the Rappahannock River with other units of the Potomac Flotilla to support General [[Ambrose Burnside]]'s thrust toward Richmond. On December 10, she exchanged shots with a Confederate battery located on the southern shore of the river about three miles below [[Port Royal, Virginia]]. After Burnside's bloody rebuff at [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]], on December 13, ''Teaser'' and her colleagues returned to their anti-smuggling patrol along the Potomac.

''Teaser'' joined {{USS|Primrose|1863|6}} to make March 1863 an active month. On March 24, the two ships sent a boat expedition to reconnoiter [[Pope's Creek, Virginia]]. The landing party found two boats used for smuggling and collected information from Union sympathizers in the area. Almost a week later, on the night of March 30—March 31, they dispatched a three-boat party to [[Monroe's Creek, Virginia]]. The previous day, a Federal [[cavalry]] detachment had surprised a smuggler in the area; and, though the troops captured his goods, the man himself escaped. Boats from ''Teaser'' and ''Primrose'' succeeded where the Union horsemen had failed, and they gathered some intelligence on other contrabanders as well.

In April 1863, ''Teaser'' left the Potomac for duty with Acting [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear Admiral]] [[Samuel Phillips Lee]]'s [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] at Hampton Roads. On April 17, she joined {{USS|Alert|1861|6}} and {{USS|Coeur de Lion|1861|6}} in an expedition up the [[Nansemond River]] west of [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. However, she ran aground, damaged her machinery, and had to retire from the venture.

By mid-summer, ''Teaser'' was back in action on the Potomac. On the night of July 27, she captured two smugglers with a boatload of tobacco in the mouth of the Mattawoman Creek just south of [[Indian Head, Maryland]]. She destroyed the boat and sent the prisoners and contraband north to the [[Washington Navy Yard]]. During the night of October 7, ''Teaser'' and another flotilla ship (extant records do not identify her companion) noticed signalling between [[Mathias Point, Virginia]], and the Maryland shore. The two ships shelled the woods at Mathias Point, but took no action against the signallers on the Maryland shore other than to urge upon the [[United States Army]]'s district [[provost marshal]] the necessity of constant vigilance.

On January 5, 1864, ''Teaser'' and {{USS|Yankee|1861|6}} landed a force of men at [[Nomini, Virginia]], to investigate a rumor that the Southerners had hidden a large [[lighter (barge)|lighter]] and a [[skiff]] capable of boating 80 men there. The force, commanded by ''Teaser's'' commanding officer, Acting [[Ensign (rank)|Ensign]] Sheridan, found both boats, destroyed the lighter, and captured the skiff. During the landing, Confederate soldiers appeared on the heights above Nomini, but the gunboats dampened their curiosity with some well-placed cannon shots.

In April, ''Teaser'', ''Yankee'', {{USS|Anacostia|1856|6}}, {{USS|Fuchsia|1863|6}}, and {{USS|Resolute|1860|6}} accompanied an Army expedition to [[Machodoc Creek, Virginia]]. At 5:00 A.M. on April 13, the five ships cleared the [[St. Marys River (Maryland)|St. Mary's River]] in company with the Army's steamer [[USAT Long Branch|USAT ''Long Branch'']] with a battalion of soldiers under the command of General [[Edward W. Hinks]]. ''Long Branch'' landed her troops at about 8:00 A.M. while the five ships covered the operation. A contingent of Confederate cavalry appeared on the southern bank of the Machodoc, but retired when ''Teaser'' and ''Anacostia'' sent four armed boat crews ashore. The landing party netted a prisoner, probably a smuggler, and a large quantity of tobacco. By April 14, General Hinks' troops reembarked in ''Long Branch'' and headed for Point Lookout. ''Anacostia'' accompanied the Army steamer while the other four warships investigated [[Currioman Bay]] and Nomini. They returned to [[St. Mary's, Virginia]], that afternoon to resume patrols.

During the summer of 1864, ''Teaser'' was called upon to leave the Potomac once more. On this occasion, the Union forces needed her guns to help defend strategic bridges across the rivers at the head of Chesapeake Bay near [[Baltimore, Maryland]], against [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] [[Jubal Anderson Early|Jubal A. Early]]'s raiders. On July 10, she departed the lower Potomac, rounded Point Lookout, and headed up the Chesapeake Bay. That night, she had to put into the [[Patuxent River]] because of heavy winds and leaks in her hull. Before dawn the following morning, she continued up the bay. During the forenoon, the leaks became progressively worse and, by the time she arrived off [[Annapolis, Maryland]], she had to remove her exhaust pipe for temporary repairs. Early that evening, ''Teaser'' reached Baltimore where she put in for additional repairs.

The gunboat did not reach her destination, the bridge over the [[Gunpowder River]], until late on July 12. She was too late; the bridge had already been burned. She returned to Baltimore immediately to report on the bridge and to pick up arms and provisions for the vessels stationed in the Gunpowder River. When she arrived back at the bridge, she found orders to return to the Potomac awaiting her. ''Teaser'' departed the northern reaches of the Chesapeake and reported back to the Potomac Flotilla at [[St. Inigoes, Virginia]], on the St. Mary's River in late afternoon on April 14.

For the remainder of the war, ''Teaser'' and her flotilla-mates plied the Potomac and contributed to the gradual economic strangulation which brought the South to its knees by April 1865. Less than two months after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at [[Appomattox, Virginia]], ''Teaser'' was decommissioned at the [[Washington Navy Yard]] on June 2. Sold at [[public auction]] at Washington to Mr. J. Bigler on June 25, the tug was re-documented as ''York River'' on July 2, 1865, and she served commercially until 1878.

==See also==
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
*[[List of ships captured in the 19th century#American Civil War|Ships captured in the American Civil War]]
*[[Bibliography of early American naval history#American Civil War|Bibliography of American Civil War naval history]]
*[[Union Navy]]

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==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa9/teaser.htm Confederate service|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t3/teaser-i.htm Union service}}

{{CSN gunboats}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teaser}}
[[Category:Gunboats of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships of the Union Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Virginia in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Maryland in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Balloon tenders]]
[[Category:1860s ships]]
[[Category:Captured ships]]