US Ram ''Switzerland'' was a

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

operated by the US Army during the

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 th ...

as part of the U.S. Ram Fleet and the

Mississippi Marine Brigade The Mississippi Marine Brigade was a Union Army amphibious unit which included the United States Ram Fleet and operated from November 1862 to August 1864 during the American Civil War. The brigade was established to act swiftly against Confedera ...

Vicksburg Blockade Rams - Civil War 1863 - Switzerland and USS Lancaster in the rear

Service

A 413-ton side-wheel towboat, she was built at

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio, in 1854 and converted to a ram in March–May 1862 for Colonel

Charles Ellet, Jr. Charles Ellet Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He built the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension b ...

's U.S. Ram Fleet. She played a distant role in the 6 June 1862 naval action off

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and subsequently took part in operations in the

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the ...

and in the

Vicksburg Campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi Riv ...

. On 25 March 1863, while commanded by Colonel

Charles Rivers Ellet Charles Rivers Ellet (June 1, 1843October 29, 1863) was a Colonel (United States), colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served in the United States Ram Fleet under his father Charles Ellet, Jr. and as commanding officer o ...

, ''Switzerland'' joined the ram in an attempt to pass the Vicksburg fortress. Both ships were heavily hit by Confederate gunfire, with ''Lancaster'' being sunk. Despite her damage, ''Switzerland'' survived the trip and made a subsequent successful passage of the fortifications at

Grand Gulf, Mississippi Grand Gulf is a ghost town in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. History Grand Gulf was named for the large whirlpool, (or gulf), formed by the Mississippi River flowing against a large rocky bluff. La Salle and Zadok Cramer commente ...

, on 31 March. She took part in operations on the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and Atchafalaya rivers in May and June 1863. Later in the war, ''Switzerland'' was part of the

. She was sold in October 1865 and was employed as a merchant steamer under the same name until about 1870. ''Switzerland'' was never commissioned as a Navy vessel.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Switzerland 1854 ships American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States Paddle steamers Ships built in Cincinnati Ships of the United States Army United States Ram Fleet