Carrabasset

Carrabasset

A stream in Franklin and Somerset Counties, Maine.

SwStr : t. 202 ; 1. 165; b. 31'7" ; dph. 4'7" ; cpl. 4r; ;
a. 2 32-par., 4 24-par. sb.)

Carrabasset a side-wheel steamer, was purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 January 1864, commissioned at New Orleans, La., 12 May 1864, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant E. Leonard in command; and reported to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron.

With the Squadron, Carrabasset operated as transport, picket boat, and tug at the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Berwick Bay and the Atchafalaya River, and in the neighboring lakes and bayous. On several occasions she landed Army forces or her own landing party to engage Confederate forces ashore, capturing men horses, and bales of cotton. One such incident occurred 21 March 1865, when she landed 40 infantrymen, then was attacked herself by a party of Confederates. Putting a party of her own men ashore, Carrabasset succeeded
capturing the equipment of a Confederate picket and several pirogues.

On 17 June 1865, one of her landing party expeditions penetrated to St. Martinsville, La., where the equipment .af three lighthouses, stored there since the taking of the lighthouses by the Confederates early in the war, was recaptured. Carrabasset was decommissioned 2S July 1865 at New Orleans, and sold there 12 August 1865.