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 First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately north of the city of Memphis, Tennessee on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Confederate forces, and marked the virtual eradication of a Confederate naval presence on the river. Despite the lopsided outcome, the Union Army failed to grasp its strategic significance. Its primary historical importance is that it was the last time civilians with no prior military experience were permitted to command ships in combat. As such, it is a milestone in the development of professionalism in the United States Navy.
The USS Queen of the West was a sidewheel steamer ram ship and the flagship of the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade. It was built at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854. It served as a commercial steamer until purchased by Colonel Charles Ellet Jr. in 1862 and converted for use as a ram ship. The ship operated in conjunction with the Mississippi River Squadron during the Union brown-water navy battle against the Confederate River Defense Fleet for control of the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the American Civil War.
Charles Rivers Ellet was a 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 of the ram fleet as part of the Mississippi Marine Brigade under his uncle Alfred W. Ellet. He commanded the ram ships USS Queen of the West, USS Switzerland, USS Lancaster and USS Monarch during the brown-water navy battle for control of the Mississippi River and its tributaries as part of the Vicksburg Campaign from 1862 to 1863.
Alfred Washington Ellet was a brigadier general in the Union Army who commanded the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade during the American Civil War.
Charles Ellet Jr. was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He designed and supervised construction of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, from 1849 to 1851. He conducted the first Federal survey of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as part of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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 First 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.
US Ram Switzerland was a paddle steamer ram operated by the US Army during the American Civil War as part of the U.S. Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade.
USS Lancaster was a sidewheel civilian steamer tow boat built in 1855 at Cincinnati. It was originally named Lancaster Number 3 then Kosciusko. In March through May 1862, she was purchased and converted to a ram by Colonel Charles Ellet Jr. to serve during the American Civil War as part of the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade.
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.
CSS Colonel Lovell was a cotton-clad ram ship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War
USS Indianola was a casemate ironclad that served as a river gunboat for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. A side-wheel steamer also equipped with two screw propellers, Indianola was built in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1862 by Joseph Brown before being taken by Union authorities while still incomplete, in response to a perceived Confederate threat to Cincinnati. After completion, the vessel briefly served on the Mississippi River and the Yazoo River before being sent downstream of Vicksburg, Mississippi in February 1863, to support the naval ram USS Queen of the West, which was operating against Confederate shipping.
Built in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1857, the steam ship Lioness was purchased by the War Department and converted to a ram ship for Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr.'s United States Ram Fleet. Commissioned in 1862, Lieutenant Warren D. Crandall in command, she joined the Union Mississippi River Squadron on the western rivers.
The first USS Mingo, a stern-wheel steamer built at California, Pennsylvania, in 1859 and used to tow coal barges, was purchased at Pittsburgh by Colonel Charles Ellet Jr. in April 1862 for usage in the U.S. Ram Fleet 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.
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 Confederate forces operating near the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet and operated in coordination with the Mississippi River Squadron during the Union brown-water navy battle against the Confederate River Defense Fleet and land based forces. The brigade was independent of the Union Army and Navy and reported directly to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. Despite the name, it was never part of the United States Marine Corps.
USS Dick Fulton was a 123-ton stern-wheel steamer used as an auxiliary vessel in the United States Ram Fleet during the American Civil War.
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 USS Monarch and captured.
USS Sumter was a 525-ton sidewheel paddle steamer captured by the Union Navy during the Union blockade of the American Civil War.
Black Terror was a fake warship used in the American Civil War to bluff Confederate forces into destroying the partially-salvaged remains of the ironclad USS Indianola. Union forces were advancing to control the Mississippi River and had made two attempts to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1862. Early the next year, the ram USS Queen of the West moved downriver to interfere with Confederate shipping on the Red River; Indianola was sent down a few days later. However, Queen of the West was disabled and captured after an encounter with Confederate field fortifications, and Indianola was severely damaged on February 24 after an attack by the repaired Queen of the West and CSS William H. Webb.
United States 
