History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Laid down | date unknown |
Launched | 1862 |
Acquired | 15 November 1862 |
Commissioned | 24 December 1862 |
Decommissioned | 11 August 1865 |
Stricken | 1865 (est.) |
Fate | Sold, 17 August 1865 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 236 tons |
Length | 155 ft 1 in (47.27 m) |
Beam | 32 ft 2 in (9.80 m) |
Draught | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 6 knots |
Complement | not known |
Armament | six 24-pounder guns |
USS Silver Lake 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.
Silver Lake, a wooden stern-wheel steamer built in 1862 at California, Pennsylvania, was purchased by the Navy on 15 November 1862 at Cincinnati, Ohio, for service in the Mississippi Squadron and commissioned on 24 December 1862, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Robert K. Riley in command.
On 24 January 1863, Silver Lake and USS Lexington were ordered to join three other ships in the Cumberland River to stop Confederate forces from crossing. The expedition, under the command of Lt. Cpmdr. LeRoy Fitch and consisting of Silver Lake, Lexington, USS Fairplay, USS St. Clair, USS Brilliant, and USS Alfred Robb, proceeded up the Cumberland River to support Union forces surrounded by Confederate units at Fort Donelson.
Arriving after dark on the evening of 3 February 1863, the Union ships caught the enemy by surprise. The Confederates besieging the fort had taken positions which exposed them to fire from the gunboats. Heavy casualties were inflicted. Fire was so well directed, that the Confederate force could not even carry off a captured caisson and retreated without firing a shot. The ships were then stationed in the area to prevent the return of the Southern forces.
Silver Lake, Lexington, and Robb shelled enemy forces from the town of Florence, Alabama, on 31 March 1863, destroying the cotton works.
Still under the command of Lt. Comdr. Fitch, Silver Lake, Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, and Springfield destroyed the city of Palmyra, Tennessee, on 3 April 1863 in retaliation for Confederate guerrilla forces firing upon a Union convoy.
On the evening of 2 December 1864, an expedition in which Silver Lake was included, surprised Southern batteries near Bell's Mills, Tennessee. On the two following days, the expedition silenced the batteries and recaptured three transports taken by the Confederates on the 2d.
On 6 December, Silver Lake, USS Moose, Fairplay, and the ironclad USS Neosho engaged enemy batteries near Bell's Mills. Seeing that the lighter armed vessels would be destroyed by enemy fire, Fitch ordered the gunboats to return to Nashville, Tennessee.
Silver Lake was decommissioned on 11 August 1865 at Mound City, Illinois, and sold at public auction to J. H. Kenniston on 17 August 1865. She was redocumented as Mary Hein and had her rig changed to sidewheel by 28 September 1865. Fire destroyed the ship in the Red River on 27 February 1866.
USS Tyler was originally a merchant ship named A. O. Tyler, a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. Constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, it was acquired by the United States Navy, 5 June 1861 for service in the American Civil War and converted into the gunboat USS Tyler on 5 June 1861. She was commissioned in September 1861. She was protected with thick wooden bulwarks.
The third USS Lexington was a timberclad gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Marmora was a sternwheel steamer that served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War. Marmora was 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.
USS Monarch was a United States Army sidewheel ram that saw service in the American Civil War as part of the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade. She operated on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River during 1862 and 1863.
USS General Bragg was a heavy (1,043-ton) steamer captured by Union Navy forces during the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a U.S. Navy gunboat and was assigned to enforce the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
Fairplay was a wooden riverine ship in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Curlew was a Union Navy stern-wheel steamer that saw service during the American Civil War. Built in 1862 in Pennsylvania as a civilian vessel, she was purchased by the Union Navy on December 17, 1862. Converted into a tinclad gunboat, she saw service from 1863 to 1865, often serving on the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Tennessee River. In May 1863, she was involved in a minor action against Confederate forces on the Mississippi River off of the shore of Arkansas. July saw Curlew take part in an expedition up the Red River of the South, the Tensas River, the Black River, and the Ouachita River that captured two steamers and destroyed two more and a sawmill. On May 24, 1864, she dueled with Pratt's Texas Battery while on the Mississippi River, and on November 4 of that same year, was near the action of the Battle of Johnsonville but was unable to join the fighting. Decommissioned on June 5, 1865, she was sold in mid-August and her further career is unknown.
USS General Pillow was a gunboat captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War and placed into service with the Union Navy. She served the Union cause from 1862 until the end of war in 1865. It was named for General Gideon Pillow.
USS General Putnam – also known as the USS William G. Putnam – was acquired by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War and outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. She also served as a tugboat and as a ship's tender when so required.
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 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 USS Monarch and captured.
USS Cricket was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Moose 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 to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Springfield was a steamship 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.
USS St. Clair was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Tawah was a 108-ton steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Exchange was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Alfred Robb was a stern wheel steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Argosy was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a supply ship and gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
The first USS Silver Cloud was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.