 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States | |
| Launched | 1862 |
| Acquired | 13 August 1862 |
| Commissioned | 24 September 1862 |
| Decommissioned | 12 July 1865 |
| Fate | Sold, 17 August 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 203 tons |
| Length | 156 ft (48 m) |
| Beam | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draft | 2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Armament |
|
USS St. Clair 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.
St. Clair, a wooden, stern-wheel, river steamer built in 1862 at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, was purchased on 13 August that year by the Navy Department from R. D. Cochran et al., at St. Louis, Missouri. She was fitted out by Edward Hartt and commissioned on 24 September 1862 at Carondelet, Missouri, Act. Vol. Lt. J. S. Hurd in command. The next day, she sailed in company with Brilliant for Cairo, Illinois. For many months previous, Flag Officer Foote and Commodore C. H. Davis had commanded the victorious Western Flotilla for the U.S. War Department, gaining control of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, to Memphis, Tennessee.
On 1 October 1862, the Western Flotilla was transferred to the Navy Department, as the Mississippi Squadron, and was placed under the command of Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter on the 15th. Davis, who had relieved Foote when the latter was incapacitated by wounds, was now appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation. Porter began to augment the gunboat squadron with many shallow-draft vessels, including St. Clair, and to expand Union operations on the western rivers. The squadron assembled at Cairo, from which they were dispatched to and stationed along the Mississippi, Cumberland, Tennessee, and upper Ohio Rivers. The objectives of the Mississippi Squadron were to cooperate with and support Generals William Rosecrans, Ambrose Burnside, Ulysses S. Grant, and others in combating guerrillas along the river banks; to stop the transport of arms and munitions from Mississippi to Arkansas; to punish rebel supporters living in and around the river communities; and to escort Federal troop and supply transports on the waterways. To these ends, St. Clair and her sister gunboats were successful throughout the war.
St. Clair was sent up the Ohio River on 23 October 1862 to assess rebel inhabitants of Caseyville, Kentucky, for robbery of the transport, Hazel Dell, and to close the ferries and curtail cross-river communications. She was ordered to effect reprisals against those persons known to shelter and supply guerrillas by confiscating goods and destroying property as a lesson to others. Failing to receive an indemnity of 35,000 dollars from the townspeople, St. Clair's crew arrested those who could not prove loyalty and held them on board to turn them over to the Union Army. Among those arrested were an official named William Pemberton and a notorious sutler, J. M. Scantlin, who dealt in gunpowder with the Confederates. Operating with Fairplay and Brilliant, St. Clair then engaged in providing protection for loyal citizens. During December, she operated in the Green, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers to restrict commerce.
In January 1863, St. Clair provided convoy protection on the Cumberland to Nashville, Tennessee, to support General William Rosecrans. In February, she participated in the relief of Fort Donelson. On 3 February, while convoying Army troop transports with Fairplay, Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, and Silver Lake, St. Clair engaged in a three-hour duel with rebels who were attacking Union troops under Col. Harding near Dover, Tennessee. Driving the enemy from their positions, the gunboats followed their retreat up the river, shelling the woods. Though firing at supposed positions and blinded by the wooded river banks, it was later found that the rebels were never able to avoid the shelling and suffered several hundred casualties. Through March, she continued convoy operations. On 3 April, at Palmyra, Tennessee, while in convoy, St. Clair was fired on by Confederate batteries and disabled when accurate shots crippled her machinery. She was safely towed away by Fairplay and later repaired at Cairo. The following day, her sister gunboats returned to Palmyra and burned the town in retaliation.
On 19 June, St. Clair was designated as Gunboat No. 19. Following repair, she departed Cairo late in June to resume escort duty for convoys bringing supplies to forces besieging Vicksburg. After the fall of that strong Confederate river fortress, the Mississippi Squadron and the Western Gulf Squadron were able to control the entire Mississippi River, though not on all of its tributaries. St. Clair was sent south in mid-September to operate between Donaldsonville, Louisiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana, in support of Union Army operations. On 17 February 1864, St. Clair was on the Mississippi River above New Orleans when a strong wind drove the U.S. 218-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Hope into her. Hope sank as a result of the collision. [1]
Early in 1864, plans were laid down for a joint Army-Navy operation on the Red River with the prime purpose of restoring Federal control in Texas. Admiral Porter's Mississippi Squadron was to convey General William Tecumseh Sherman's forces up the river to Alexandria, Louisiana, timed with the movement of forces under General Nathaniel P. Banks and General Steele between there and Shreveport, Louisiana. The operation was to be carried out during expected high water conditions in mid-March. The major portion of Porter's fleet entered the mouth on 12 March and moved up the river. Unexpected strength in the Confederate ranks, unusual low water conditions for the year, and difficulty in coordinating movement of separate large forces overland brought about failure, to some extent, for the campaign. A portion of the fleet, some 14 vessels, became entrapped in the upper river as the Army was withdrawing from actions at Sabine Crossroads and Pleasant Hill. Only the determination of Admiral Porter and the resourcefulness of the Army engineers saved the fleet.
As they were constructing dams to raise the river to float the boats over the rocks and falls, St. Clair was ordered from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Alexandria to bolster defenses. On 21 April, she engaged rebels below Alexandria, and from 25 April to 3 May protected barges between Fort De Russy and Alexandria while silencing gun positions at Dunn's Bayou and Wilson's Bend. Admiral Porter now had his fleet reassembled at Alexandria and strengthened with the addition of three ironclads and a part of Farragut's detached squadron. General Banks arrived on 7 May, and they began to clear out the Red River and its tributary, the Black. St. Clair escorted the transports back to the Mississippi River and engaged rebel troops at Eunice's Bluff on the 15th. The transports safely reached Simmesport, Louisiana, at the mouth on the 21st, and St. Clair proceeded to Baton Rouge.
The Yazoo River now became for a short time the focal point of Porter's squadron operations, while St. Clair continued patrol and convoy duty in the lower Mississippi until August when she steamed to Mound City, Illinois, for repairs. St. Clair spent the remainder of the year at Mound City. In January 1865, she escorted convoys on the Tennessee River and carried dispatches between General Thomas's headquarters and Johnsonville, Tennessee. She remained in the Tennessee River until May and was reassigned to the 3d Division of the Mississippi Squadron to operate between Grand Gulf and New Orleans. In July, she returned to Mound City where she was decommissioned on the 12th and dismantled. On 17 August 1865, St. Clair was sold at public auction to J. H. Stearn at Mound City. She was redocumented on 27 September 1865 and operated in merchant service until abandoned in 1869.
The third USS Lexington was a timberclad gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
The first USS Lafayette was a side wheel steamer, converted to an ironclad ram, in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Laurent Millaudon was a wooden side-wheel river steamboat launched at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 operating in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, and captained by W. S. Whann. At the beginning of the American Civil War she was taken into service by the Confederate Navy as CSS General Sterling Price. On 6 June 1862, she was sunk at the Battle of Memphis. She was raised and repaired by the Union army, and on 16 June 1862 was moved into Union service as USS General Price and served until the end of the war.
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 Mound City was a City-class ironclad gunboat built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the American Civil War. Originally commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, she remained in that service until October 1862. Then the flotilla was transferred to the Navy and she became part of the Mississippi River Squadron, where she remained until the end of the war.
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.
USS Covington was an ironclad gunboat purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was assigned as a simple gunboat with powerful rifled guns to intercept blockade runners attempting to run the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.
Fairplay was a wooden riverine ship in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Seth Ledyard Phelps was an American naval officer, and in later life, a politician and diplomat. Phelps received his first commission in United States Navy as a midshipman aboard the famous USS Independence. He served patrolling the coast of West Africa guarding against slavers. During the Mexican–American War he served on gunboats, giving support to Winfield Scott's army, and later served in the Mediterranean and Caribbean squadrons.
USS Gazelle was a side-wheel steamer acquired by the Union Navy for duty with the Mississippi River Squadron.
USS Ivy was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Linden was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
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 Rattler was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Cricket was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
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 Hastings 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.
USS Juliet was a steamer acquired 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 waterways.
USS Kenwood was a steamer acquired 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 waterways.
The Battle of Lucas Bend took place on January 11, 1862 near Lucas Bend, four miles north of Columbus on Mississippi River in Kentucky as it lay at the time of the American Civil War. In the network of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio rivers, the Union river gunboats under Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote and General Ulysses S. Grant sought to infiltrate and attack the Confederate positions in Tennessee. On the day of the battle, the Union ironclads Essex and St Louis, transporting troops down the Mississippi in fog, engaged the Confederate cotton clad warships General Polk, Ivy and Jackson and the gun platform New Orleans at a curve known as Lucas Bend in Kentucky. The Essex, under Commander William D. Porter, and the St Louis forced the Confederate ships to fall back after an hour of skirmishing during which the Union commander was wounded. They retreated to the safety of a nearby Confederate battery at Columbus, where the Union vessels could not follow.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.
