The CSS Tallahassee was a twin-screw steamer and cruiser in the Confederate States Navy, purchased in 1864, and used for commerce raiding off the Atlantic coast. She later operated under the names CSS Olustee and CSS Chameleon.
The iron Confederate cruiser Tallahassee was named after the Confederate state capital of Tallahassee in Florida and was built on the River Thames by J & W Dudgeon of Cubitt Town, London for London, Chatham & Dover Rly. Co. to the design of Capt. T. E. Symonds, Royal Navy, ostensibly for the Chinese opium trade. She was previously the blockade runner Atalanta and made the Dover-Calais crossing in 77 minutes on an even keel. She had made several blockade runs between Bermuda and Wilmington, N.C. before the Confederates bought her.
After the Tallahassee was commissioned and prepared for sea she was placed under Commander John Taylor Wood, CSN. Wood was a grandson of President Zachary Taylor and a nephew of Jefferson Davis, who at the time was President of the Confederate States of America. The officers and crew were all volunteers from the Confederate gunboats on the James River and North Carolina waters.
The Tallahassee went through the blockade on August 6, 1864 from her home port of Wilmington, North Carolina. Her first day out, four cruisers chased the Tallahassee without incident.
She made a 19-day raid off the Atlantic coast as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Tallahassee destroyed 26 vessels and captured 7 others that were bonded or released. Wood sailed the Tallahassee into Halifax Harbour on August 18 to take on bunker coal and water. Neutrality laws limited her stay in Halifax to 24 hours. Tallahassee was granted an extra 12 hours to fix a broken mast but was only allowed to load enough coal to take her to the nearest Confederate port. Two Federal war ships, the USS Nansemond and, were rumoured to be waiting for the Tallahassee at the harbour entrance. Wood hired legendary Halifax pilot John "Jock" Flemming, who guided the warship through the narrow and shallow Eastern Passage between Dartmouth and Lawlor Island, a route only suited for small fishing vessels. Tallahassee succeeded in negotiating the passage out of the harbour, although no Northern warships were in fact waiting. The first Northern warship, the gunboat USS Pontoosuc, arrived at the harbour entrance several hours after the Confederate cruiser departed.[1]
Being unable to procure enough coal to continue, Wood was forced to return to Wilmington where he arrived safely on August 26.
The Tallahassee was renamed CSS Olustee after the Battle of Olustee in northern Florida and placed under the command of Lt. W. H. Ward, CSN. The Olustee ran through the blockade off Wilmington again on October 29, 1864 but suffered some damage from Federal guns. She captured and destroyed six ships off the Cape of Delaware before having to return for coal. She stopped attempts by USS Sassacus to capture her on November 6, 1864 and by four other United States ships on November 7, 1864 finally passing into the safety of Wilmington harbor.
The Olustee was renamed the CSS Chameleon with Lt. John Wilkinson (CSN) commanding. The battery had been removed and she ran through the Union blockade on December 24, 1864 while the United States fleet was preoccupied with bombarding Fort Fisher. The Chameleon proceeded to Bermuda to obtain provisions for the Confederate army.
Wilkinson made two attempts to enter one of the southern ports, but finding it impossible, he took Chameleon to Liverpool, England, and turned her over to Comdr. J. D. Bullock, CSN, financial agent of the Confederate Navy Department.
On her arrival in England on April 9, 1865 the Chameleon was seized and sold by the British authorities and was about to enter the merchant service when the United States instituted suit for possession. She was awarded to the United States Government and handed over to the consul at Liverpool on April 26, 1866. Chameleon was sold at auction on orders from the consul on 14 June 1866. She sold for £6,400.[2] On 21 July 1869, telegrams were received at New York stating that she had been wrecked near Yokohama, Japan with the loss of 22 lives.[3]
In 1958, a new school in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, near Lawlor Island, was named after the Tallahassee to commemorate Flemming's 1864 navigational feat. After a replacement school with the same name was built in 1992, the name grew controversial due to the Confederacy's support of slavery. Following several community meetings, the Tallahassee Community School was renamed Horizon Elementary School in 2021.[4]