Andrew Johnson, (Johnson), 1865
Andrew Johnson was President Abraham Lincoln's Vice President and became the seventeenth president of the United States upon Lincoln's assassination. President Johnson served from 1865 to 1869. In March, 1867, the Radical Republicans who controlled Congress effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.
In 1875, Tennessee returned Johnson to the Senate. He died a few months later.
Type/Rig/Class: Schooner/side-wheel steamer; Chase Class
Builder: J & R Gray, Buffalo, New York
Cost: ?
Dates of Service: 1865 – 1897
Disposition: Sold
Displacement: 500 tons
Length: 172'
Beam: 26' 4"
Draft: 10'
Propulsion: Sail / steam
Machinery: Single walking-beam steam engine; side wheels;
Complement: 40 Armament: 3 x 4-pounders; 1 x 30-pounder; 2 x 24-pounders (Johnson, 1889)
Class History:
In 1865 and 1866 five cutters of the Chase Class were constructed for the Revenue Cutter Service: Chase, Fessenden, Johnson, McCulloch and Sherman. They were wooden-hulled sidewheel steamers powered by walking-beam steam engines. Their hulls were constructed with iron diagonal bracing for added strength. They were designed for operations on the Great Lakes, where they were laid up during the winter months, but McCulloch served in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.
History:
The revenue cutter Andrew Johnson, also known as simply Johnson, was commissioned on 1 May 1865 for service on the Great Lakes. She was based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for her entire government career. She patrolled the waters of the Great Lakes during the navigation season and was laid up during the winter months, usually from late-November until May. She was rebuilt in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1879, with two feet being added to her beam. She was placed out of service and sold to Charles E. Benham for $2,250 in May, 1897.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).