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Mediator--a ship rigged, sailing vessel launched at Philadelphia in 1826--was purchased at New York City by the Navy on 27 May 1861 and renamed Ben Morgan soon thereafter. No logs for this ship have survived, and no record of her commissioning ceremony--if any indeed occurred--has been found. Nevertheless, Ben Morgan was fitted out as a hospital ship and was sent to Hampton Roads, Va., to take over the role of the Norfolk Naval Hospital which had fallen into Confederate hands when Union forces evacuated Norfolk on 20 April 1861, three days after the Virginia convention had voted for secession.

The [[USS]] Mediator--a ship rigged, sailing vessel launched at Philadelphia in 1826--was purchased at [[New York City]] by the [[Navy]] on 27 May 1861 and renamed Ben Morgan soon thereafter. No logs for this ship have survived, and no record of her commissioning ceremony--if any indeed occurred--has been found. Nevertheless, Ben Morgan was fitted out as a hospital ship and was sent to Hampton Roads, Va., to take over the role of the Norfolk Naval Hospital which had fallen into Confederate hands when Union forces evacuated Norfolk on 20 April 1861, three days after the Virginia convention had voted for secession.

Commanded by Acting Master James B. Gordon, the ship lay anchored in Hampton Roads as she cared for sick and wounded sailors from the Union warships blockading the Confederate coast. She also served concurrently as a collier and supply ship. Possibly the highlight of her medical service began on 8 March 1862 when she received on board men who had been wounded during the deadly foray into Hampton Roads of CSS Virginia, the former Federal screw frigate Merrimack which Union officers had put to the torch and scuttled just before abandoning the Norfolk Navy Yard almost a year before. Raised, rebuilt, protected by a thick covering of iron plates, and armed with a sharp, strong prow, the Southern ironclad ram had proved to be almost impervious to shot and shell as she destroyed Union frigates Congress and Cumberland and damaged other Federal warships before withdrawing for the night.

Commanded by Acting Master James B. Gordon, the ship lay anchored in Hampton Roads as she cared for sick and wounded sailors from the Union warships blockading the Confederate coast. She also served concurrently as a collier and supply ship. Possibly the highlight of her medical service began on 8 March 1862 when she received on board men who had been wounded during the deadly foray into Hampton Roads of CSS Virginia, the former Federal screw frigate Merrimack which Union officers had put to the torch and scuttled just before abandoning the Norfolk Navy Yard almost a year before. Raised, rebuilt, protected by a thick covering of iron plates, and armed with a sharp, strong prow, the Southern ironclad ram had proved to be almost impervious to shot and shell as she destroyed Union frigates Congress and Cumberland and damaged other Federal warships before withdrawing for the night.