Richard Hamilton

He Rode a Torpedo Boat Into an Ironclad

Richard Hamilton was born in 1836 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the American Civil War, he entered the United States Navy and served as a coal heaver, a physically demanding shipboard rating responsible for handling the fuel that powered steam vessels.

By the autumn of 1864, Hamilton became part of one of the most daring naval operations of the Civil War.

The target was CSS Albemarle, a powerful Confederate ironclad operating around Plymouth, North Carolina. The vessel had become a serious threat to Union naval forces in the region. Protected by heavy armor and armed for close combat, Albemarle had already demonstrated its ability to challenge Federal warships and strengthen Confederate control along the Roanoke River.

Union commanders needed to eliminate it.

Lieutenant William B. Cushing devised an extraordinary plan. Rather than attempt another conventional attack with larger warships, he would take a small steam-powered picket boat directly up the river toward the ironclad and strike it with a spar torpedo—an explosive charge mounted at the end of a long pole extending from the attacking boat.

The mission required the crew to approach almost directly alongside the Confederate ironclad.

Richard Hamilton volunteered for that crew.

On the night of October 27, 1864, Cushing and his men moved upriver aboard U.S. Picket Boat No. 1 toward Plymouth. Darkness offered some protection, but the river approach was guarded, and the crew knew that discovery would bring immediate fire from Confederate troops and the ironclad itself.

As the boat neared Albemarle, the attackers encountered defensive obstacles placed around the ironclad. Logs had been positioned in the water to prevent a small craft from getting close enough to use a torpedo.

Cushing pressed the attack.

The picket boat was driven over the obstruction and brought within striking distance of the ironclad. Enemy fire erupted around the tiny vessel as the crew continued toward their target.

At close range, the spar torpedo was positioned beneath Albemarle's armored hull and detonated.

The explosion tore a large hole in the Confederate ironclad below the waterline. Albemarle sank at its moorings, removing one of the most dangerous Confederate naval threats in North Carolina waters.

The attack also destroyed or disabled the Union picket boat and placed its crew in extreme danger. The operation had required Hamilton and the other sailors to remain aboard a small, exposed craft while moving directly toward an armored warship and through concentrated enemy defenses.

Hamilton survived the mission.

His participation in the destruction of CSS Albemarle was later recognized with the Medal of Honor. The award acknowledged the extraordinary danger faced by the crew of U.S. Picket Boat No. 1 and their role in carrying the attack through to its target.

The destruction of Albemarle had an impact far beyond the fate of a single ship. Without the ironclad to dominate the river, Confederate naval strength around Plymouth was greatly reduced, helping Union forces regain greater freedom of operation in the region.

For Hamilton, the operation became the defining moment of his naval service.

His Medal of Honor was authorized in General Order No. 45, dated December 31, 1864. The formal presentation followed on March 15, 1865, when he received the decoration at the Washington Navy Yard.

Hamilton's award placed him among the sailors recognized for one of the most dramatic small-boat attacks of the Civil War. Unlike the crews of large warships protected by heavy hulls and multiple gun batteries, the men of the picket boat approached their target with little protection and only the success of the torpedo attack offering any hope of defeating the ironclad.

Richard Hamilton lived for more than fifteen years after the war.

He died on July 6, 1881, in Camden, New Jersey, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Camden.

His legacy remains closely tied to the night of October 27, 1864. Serving as a coal heaver in the United States Navy, Hamilton joined a small crew that carried an explosive weapon directly against a Confederate ironclad under enemy fire.

The mission succeeded.

For his participation in the daring attack that destroyed CSS Albemarle, Richard Hamilton received the Medal of Honor and earned a lasting place in the naval history of the American Civil War.