Civil War Photo Essay No. 2:

Images Aboard the "USS Hunchback,"

Part 1: Engineering Officers.

by Terry Foenander.

Acquired by the United States Navy on December 16, 1861, and commissioned January 3, 1862, the USS Hunchback was one of the several New York ferry boats converted into gunboats for operations on the narrow waterways of Virginia and North Carolina. She was a side-wheeled steamer of over 500 tons, with a normal complement of about 99.

After her commissioning at Hampton Roads, Virginia, she was assigned to duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was involved in the amphibious operations against Roanoke Island, North Carolina, under the command of General Ambrose Burnside. Continuing operations in the Sounds and Inlets of North Carolina for some time, she did admirable service in this region, before being sent North for repairs, in early 1864. She returned to Hampton Roads in May of that year, and was assigned to duty on the James River. Just before the end of the war, she returned to the North Carolina Sounds before finally returning to New York to be decommissioned in June, 1865. [1]

Sometime in the final year of the war, a photographer came aboard the vessel and took a number of photographs of the vessel and her crew, eleven different images of which are known to this author. The views show most, if not all of the officers of the vessel, as well as a large number of the crew. All the views are posed, including several showing gun crews of the smaller calibre cannon displaying their skills in loading the guns. A number of the same officers and enlisted sailors can be seen in more than one view of the vessel.

Several factors have helped to narrow down the dates between which the images are known to have been taken. One of these is the number of guns aboard the vessel, and another is the rank insignia on the caps, cuffs and shoulder patches of the officers. As well, warm weather outfits, such as the straw hats worn by the officers indicates that the images were taken around summer of 1864. All these factors have been taken into account while researching the date of the photographs, as well as in attempting to identify certain personnel who were known to have served aboard the vessel at that time. [2]

On this particular page we will concentrate on the two different images known to exist showing the officers of the engineering department of the vessel. The more common image, showing five of the engineers, and reproduced below, is available at the National Archives, and the Naval Historical Center (Photo #: NH 51955). This particular view shows five of the engineering officers on the vessel, but another image, which was reproduced on page 94 in the volume titled The Coastal War: Chesapeake Bay to Rio Grande, of the Time-Life series on the Civil War, shows another view of the same five officers, and a sixth engineering officer not shown in the previous view. This view also shows, on closer examination that the second image was taken on a different deck of the vessel, more than likely at the opposite end of the vessel. This second image, showing six engineering officers, is in the photographic collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society, in Ohio, and a request has been sent to the Society for permission to reproduce the image. Unfortunately without a reproduction, here, of this second image, references to it will be kept to a minimum, and this will not permit a proper comparison to the first image of the engineering officers.

Engineering Officers and Crew of the USS Hunchback on the James River, Summer, 1864.
(Naval Historical Center Image No. NH 51955)

The knowledge that there were six engineering officers aboard the vessel at the time the images (which are all assumed to have been taken within a day or so of each other) were taken, permits us to positively identify at least two, if not all of the engineering officers shown in the images. Examination of lists of the officers aboard the vessel (which can be found in the Navy Register, as well as David D. Porter's volume Naval History of the Civil War, and at least one list of the officers of the vessel as shown in the New York Daily Times of Thursday, August 11, 1864) indicates that at no time other than the period between early or mid-1864, until early 1865, were there six engineering officers aboard the Hunchback, and that the same six officers remained on the vessel during that entire period. These officers were:

First Assistant Engineer, Augustus Barnum (the New York Daily Times list shows him as Second Assistant Engineer; the other lists in Porter and the Navy Register show him as First Assistant Engineer; his promotion to First Assistant Engineer was on July 21, 1864, so the photos were obviously taken after that date.)

Second Assistant Engineer, Bryce Wilson (promoted Acting Second Assistant Engineer on December 28, 1863.)

Third Assistant Engineers: Seth Hartt (promoted Acting Third Assistant Engineer on March 9, 1864.)

George V. Payton (promoted Acting Third Assistant Engineer on March 9, 1864.)

John E. Edwards (promoted Acting Third Assistant Engineer on January 11, 1864.)

Jay Wolbert Smith (promoted Acting Third Assistant Engineer on March 5, 1864.)

The date span between which the images were taken can also be narrowed down even further after examination of records showing the number of lighter calibre cannon aboard the vessel. Series 2, volume 1, of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion includes statistical data of vessels of the Union Navy and the entry for the USS Hunchback on page 104 indicates that the smaller calibre cannon aboard the vessel before December 6, 1864 consisted of only one 12 pounder rifle and one 12 pounder howitzer. The 12 pounder rifle was removed from the vessel after that date. The image of the engineering officers, held at the Western Reserve Historical Society, shows, upon the upper deck of the vessel, both smaller calibre cannon still on the vessel, which would indicate that the image was taken before one of them was removed on December 6, 1864. Thus the images were most certainly taken sometime after July 21, and before December 6, 1864.

Both images show a First Assistant Engineer, and a Second Assistant Engineer, who can most certainly be identified as Augustus Barnum and Bryce Wilson, respectively, when all the evidence stated above point to this positive identification. (Prior to Barnum's promotion to First Assistant Engineer, there had never been any officer of that rank who served aboard the vessel.) The other four engineers, all Third Assistant Engineers are most definitely Hartt, Payton, Edwards and Smith, though in which order is currently unknown. The identification of these other four engineers can be narrowed down even further, as the images show two of them being younger than the other two. Further investigation as to ages and other factors are continuing.

Finally I wish to point out that the two images of the engineers, taken on opposite decks, shows clearly that the Hunchback had a pilot house on each end of the top deck, and, although an image of the vessel in profile is not known to exist, there is an almost true likeness that can be viewed at Orin's Gallery on the world wide web.

Sources:

[1] Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, volume 3, page 395; Naval History Division, Washington; 1977 reprint edition.

[2] See the images of the USS Hunchback at the Naval Historical Center web site, URL: http://www.history.navy.mil/index.html

© Terry Foenander.

March, 2001.