Isaac D. Seyburn - Civil War Naval Service

Civil War Naval Service

On August 29, 1861, Isaac D. Seyburn volunteered for service in the United States Navy and was awarded a temporary commission as an Acting Master, a volunteer officer whose term of service was until the end of the Civil War. The naval rank of "Master" was later replaced by that of "Lieutenant (junior grade)." He reported for service in New York on September 10, 1861.

Seyburn was seriously wounded in action aboard the steam sloop of war Mohican during the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861. The battle was a major Union victory and up until then the largest naval and amphibious force ever assembled by the United States. Seyburn was wounded when a 32-pound solid minie ball from defending shore batteries shattered the bones of his lower left leg just above the ankle. Seyburn was treated at the Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, between November 14, 1861 and March 1, 1862. He never regained use of the leg, but was confined to crutches and endured pain for the rest of his life.

Despite his injuries, Seyburn continued with his naval service. During his convalescence, he was assigned to the Monitor Board in New York and was a member of the team supervising the construction of the Passaic-class monitor Weehawken in Jersey City, New Jersey. At about the time the Weehawken was launched on November 5, 1862, Seyburn was ordered to the ironclad steamer Galena where he served until the end of her deployment on May 21, 1863 when the ship arrived in Philadelphia for repairs. Galena, commissioned on April 21, 1862, was one of the first three ironclads, each of a different design, built by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War; it was also the second, after the Monitor, to be put under fire.

On June 10, 1863, Seyburn was given command of the Kittatinny, a three-masted fore-and-aft schooner. While under his command, the Kittatinny was assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron under the overall command of Rear-Admiral David Farragut. The ship is credited with having chased an unidentified schooner ashore on September 22, 1863 where that vessel was burned by her crew, and with having captured the three-masted schooner, Reserve, on October 25, 1863 off Pass Cavallo, Texas.

On December 23, 1863, while on deployment off the coast of Texas, Seyburn was ordered to proceed with the Kittatinny to New Orleans. Shortly after his arrival, Seyburn submitted his resignation. In his letter, dated February 18, 1864, from the station ship Portsmouth, Seyburn indicated that he wanted to resign because he had been crippled by his wound and because "the high handed injustice practiced on me by the Commanding officers of the first division of this Squadron is to me insufferable." His resignation was accepted and Seyburn was honorably discharged on March 24, 1864 in Gardiner, Maine.