CSS Selma (1856) - Service As Selma

Service As Selma

With the advent of cruiser CSS Florida, she was renamed Selma in July 1862, Lieutenant Peter U. Murphey, CSN, assuming command.

On February 5, 1863, while steaming down Mobile Bay with 100 extra men in search of a blockader to carry by boarding, Selma was bilged by a snag in crossing Dog River Bar, entrance to Mobile, and sank in 8 feet of water. Pumped out hastily, she was back in service February 13.

By the following year, Selma, CSS Morgan and CSS Gaines, the only ships capable of defending lower Mobile Bay, were having a serious problem with deserting seamen, and intelligence reported Selma's crew as having fallen as low as 15 men about mid-February.

At the crucial Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, Selma particularly annoyed Rear Admiral David Farragut, USN by a steady, raking fire as she stood off USS Hartford's bow. After passing the forts, Farragut ordered gunboat USS Metacomet cast loose from Hartford to pursue Selma. After an hour-long running fight, Murphey, unable to escape to shallows out of reach, had to surrender to faster, more heavily armed Metacomet. Selma lost 7 killed and 8 wounded, including her captain.

That evening, Admiral Farragut commissioned the prize gunboat as USS Selma and placed her under the command of Lieutenant Arthur R. Yates, USN. Five days later, Selma joined in the Union Navy's bombardment of Fort Morgan. On August 16, she participated in a reconnaissance expedition up the Dog River.

In January 1865, Selma was transferred to New Orleans where she served until decommissioned on July 16, 1865. Sold at auction the same day to G. A. Hall, Selma was redocumented for merchant service on August 17, 1865 and foundered on June 24, 1868 south of Galveston, Texas, off the mouth of the Brazos River.