On This Day In Alabama History: The CSS Selma Sank

Alabama News Center | June 24, 2018 @ 5:00 am

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

June 24, 1868

The CSS Selma originally was named the Florida, and it sailed the waters of the Gulf Coast in the mid-19th century. When the Civil War started, the Confederate navy commandeered the vehicle and converted the steam-powered, side-wheel ship into a gunboat for service in Mobile Bay and along the Gulf Coast. On Aug. 5, 1864 when Union Admiral David Farragut led 18 vessels into Mobile Bay, the Selma was surrendered after an hour-long running fight. Farragut commissioned the gunboat as the USS Selma, and the ship took part in the Union Navy’s bombardment of Fort Morgan on Aug. 10. The ship was decommissioned in 1865 and went back into commercial service. It sank on June 24, 1868, south of Galveston, Texas.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.

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