|
Tinclad
The Union Navy used tinclad warships during the American Civil War. These vessels were generally converted civilian ships, although a few were purpose-built for the United States War Department; some had formerly been in Confederate States of America, Confederate service. Conversion of civilian steamboats into tinclad warships included arming the vessels, adding a wooden casemate, and armoring portions of the vessel. Compared to ironclad warships, tinclads were cheaper, required smaller crews, and could enter shallower water due to their light draft (nautical), drafts. While tinclads were poorly suited to engage heavy artillery or other warships, they were better equipped to combat small groups of enemy soldiers. Tinclads were frequently used for escort and patrol duties, and sometimes provided naval support for other military actions. A total of 74 saw service during the war. Background During the American Civil War, the control of the rivers of the United States of America ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Marmora (1862)
USS ''Marmora'' was a sternwheel steamer that served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War. Built in 1862 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, as a civilian vessel, she was purchased for military service on September 17 and converted into a tinclad warship. Commissioned on October 21, the vessel served on the Yazoo River beginning the next month. She encountered Confederate naval mines on the Yazoo on December 11, and was present the next day when the ironclad USS ''Cairo'' was sunk by two mines. After further service on the Yazoo during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December, ''Marmora'' was assigned in January 1863 to a fleet that was preparing to operate against Confederate Fort Hindman, but was not present when the fort surrendered on January 11. From February to April, ''Marmora'' participated in the Yazoo Pass expedition, and in June burned and destroyed the settlements of Eunice and Gaines Landing, Arkansas, after Union vessels w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinclad Warship
The Union Navy used tinclad warships during the American Civil War. These vessels were generally converted civilian ships, although a few were purpose-built for the United States War Department; some had formerly been in Confederate service. Conversion of civilian steamboats into tinclad warships included arming the vessels, adding a wooden casemate, and armoring portions of the vessel. Compared to ironclad warships, tinclads were cheaper, required smaller crews, and could enter shallower water due to their light drafts. While tinclads were poorly suited to engage heavy artillery or other warships, they were better equipped to combat small groups of enemy soldiers. Tinclads were frequently used for escort and patrol duties, and sometimes provided naval support for other military actions. A total of 74 saw service during the war. Background During the American Civil War, the control of the rivers of the United States of America and the Confederate States of America was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Alfred Robb
USS ''Alfred Robb'' was a stern wheel steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate rivers and other waterways. Operating as a Confederate transport ''Alfred Robb'' – a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamboat built at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1860 – operated on the Ohio River and the other navigable streams of the Mississippi watershed system until acquired by the Confederate Government at some now-unknown date during the first year of the Civil War for use as a transport. Capturing ''Alfred Robb'' on the Tennessee River Reconnaissance probes up the Tennessee River by Federal gunboats had convinced leaders of the Union Navy in the area that Southern forces had destroyed this vessel after the fall of Fort Henry, lest she fall into Northern hands. Nevertheless, ''Alfred Robb'' remained safe and active until Lieutenant William Gwin – who commanded the si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Signal (1862)
USS ''Signal'' – a small 190-ton steamship – was acquired during the second year of the American Civil War by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat. She also served other types of duty, such as that of dispatch vessel and convoy escort. Service history The first ship to be named ''Signal'' by the Navy—a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamer built in 1862 at Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia)—was purchased by the U.S. Navy on 22 September 1862 at Saint Louis, Missouri. Although no record of her commissioning has been found, it is known that she was in operation on 22 October 1862, when she departed Carondelet, Missouri and headed down the Mississippi River to join in the campaign against the Confederate river fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant John Scott was mentioned as her commanding officer in an order issued on 14 November and presumably commanded the ship from the start of her service. ''Signal's'' first weeks were devoted to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Decades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion into the west. An initial seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and, in 1861, forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. Led by Confederate President Jefferson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Brilliant (1862)
USS ''Brilliant'' was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways. ''Brilliant'', a wooden stern-wheel steamer, was built in 1862 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and purchased by the War Department, August 13, 1862 at St. Louis, Missouri and converted to tinclad by Edward Hartt; transferred to the Navy with the Western Flotilla October 1, 1862; and commissioned the following day. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Charles G. Perkins in command. Assigned to the Mississippi Squadron After undergoing repairs ''Brilliant'' sailed from St. Louis, Missouri, September 25, 1862 to join the Mississippi Squadron at Cairo, Illinois. Throughout the Civil War she operated very actively on the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers until August 2, 1865. Assisting in driving off Confederate attackers of Fort Donelson On February 3, 1863 she assisted in repelling the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee. The river flows generally west from a source in the Appalachian Mountains to its confluence with the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky, and the mouth of the Tennessee River. Major tributaries include the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, and Red rivers. Although the Cumberland River basin is predominantly rural, there are also some large cities on the river, including Nashville and Clarksville, both in Tennessee. Also, the river system has been extensively altered for flood control. Major dams impound areas of both the main stem and many of its important tributaries. Geography Its headwaters are three separate forks that begin in Kentucky and converge in Baxter, KY, located in Harlan County. Martin's Fork st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morgan's Raid
Morgan's Raid was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863, and is named for the commander of the Confederate troops, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. Although it caused temporary alarm in the North, the raid was ultimately classed as a failure. The raid covered more than , beginning in Tennessee and ending in northern Ohio. It coincided with the Vicksburg Campaign and the Gettysburg Campaign, and it was meant to draw Union troops away from these fronts by frightening the North into demanding its troops return home. Despite his initial successes, Morgan was thwarted in his attempts to recross the Ohio River and eventually was forced to surrender what remained of his command in northeastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. Morgan and other senior officers were held in the Ohio Penitentiary, but they tunneled their w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Little Rebel
''Little Rebel'' was a cotton-clad ram that had been converted from a Mississippi River steamer to serve as the flagship of the Confederate River Defense Fleet in the American Civil War. Sent from New Orleans to defend against the Federal descent of the Mississippi, she was among the force that engaged vessels of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla at the Battle of Plum Point Bend on May 10, 1862. On June 6, she again was involved in an action with the Federal gunboats, this time at the First Battle of Memphis. In the battle, a shot from a Federal gun pierced her boiler, disabling her, and she was then pushed aground by the Federal ram and captured. Subsequently, repaired and taken into the Union Navy, she served through the remainder of the war, seeing only limited action. After the war, she was deemed surplus by the Navy Department. Sold, she reentered the merchant service, where she remained until 1874. Confederate service ''Little Rebel'' was built as ''R. E. and A. N. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Donelson
Fort Donelson was a fortress built early in 1862 by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River, which led to the heart of Tennessee, and thereby the Confederacy. The fort was named after Confederate general Daniel S. Donelson. The Union Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, who later became president, captured the fort in February 1862 from the Confederate Army in the Battle of Fort Donelson. This was a great strategic victory for the Union forces, and part of Grant's campaign to gain control of the Mississippi River. Union forces occupied the fort (and much of Tennessee) for the remainder of the war. A small detachment of Confederate troops made one unsuccessful attempt in 1863 to regain it. History Bushrod Johnson of the Confederate Corps of Engineers had approved the build site and supervised construction completed in early 1862. The site commanded a bend on the west side of the Cumberland River, It was plann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Gunboat Flotilla
The Mississippi River Squadron was the Union brown-water naval squadron that operated on the western rivers during the American Civil War. It was initially created as a part of the Union Army, although it was commanded by naval officers, and was then known as the Western Gunboat Flotilla and sometimes as the Mississippi Flotilla. It received its final designation when it was transferred to the Union Navy at the beginning of October 1862. History American Civil War The squadron was created on May 16, 1861, and was controlled by the Union Army until September 30, 1862. John Rodgers was the first commander of the squadron and was responsible for the construction and organization of the fleet. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote relieved Rodgers and encouraged the army commander in the west, Major General Henry W. Halleck, to authorize an expedition down the Tennessee River against Fort Henry. Operating in conjunction with Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the District of Cairo, Foote s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
