USS Wyandotte (1864) - Service History

Service History

Wyandotte operated with the North Atlantic Squadron off the east coast into 1879, on exercises and training cruises, basing for a time out of Hampton Roads, VA. She later served as station ship at Washington, DC, before being laid up in 1885 and placed in ordinary - first at Richmond, VA and then at Norfolk, VA.

Transferred to the Connecticut state militia in 1896, she was serving in this capacity when, at the opening of the Spanish-American War, some citizens along the eastern seaboard felt apprehensive, lest the Spanish Navy attack American cities. Their anxiety was fed by the fact that the major warships of the United States Navy had gathered around Key West far from the major metropolitan centers to the north. This uneasiness swept over the east coast and produced a clamor for the Navy to take steps to protect the "endangered" cities.

As a result, the Navy reactivated old ships - for the most part, of Civil War vintage - for local defense. Recommissioned on 30 April 1898, with Lt. John B. Milton in command, Wyandotte sailed from New Haven, CT, on 17 May, to guard Boston, MA. The venerable warship remained on station from 19 May to 5 September, but no Spanish armada ever appeared.

After hostilities ended, Wyandotte steamed to Philadelphia, PA, where she arrived on 9 September. She was decommissioned there on 20 September and later sold for scrap on 17 January 1899.