USS Carondelet (1861)

USS "Carondelet" (1861) was a City class ironclad gunboat constructed for the Union Navy by James B. Eads during the American Civil War.

Because of her shallow draft and her combination of heavy guns and a howitzer, she was suited for riverside bombardment and assigned to the Mississippi River area where she operated against forces of the Confederate States of America.

Built in Missouri in 1861

USS "Carondelet", an ironclad river gunboat, was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co., St. Louis, Missouri, under contract to the United States Department of War. "Carondelet" was commissioned January 15, 1862, at Cairo, Illinois, naval Captain Henry A. Walke in command, and reported to Western Flotilla (Army), commanded by naval Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote.

Civil War service

Union Army service

Between January and October 1862, "Carondelet" operated almost constantly on river patrol and in the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February; the passing of Island No. 10 and the attack on and spiking of the shore batteries below New Madrid, Missouri, in April; the lengthy series of operations against Plum Point Bend, Fort Pillow, and Memphis, Tennessee, from April through June, and the engagement with "CSS "Arkansas"" on July 15, during which "Carondelet" was heavily damaged and suffered 35 casualties.

Union Navy service

Transferred to United States Department of the Navy control with the other ships of her flotilla on October 1, 1862, "Carondelet" continued the rapid pace of her operations, taking part in the unsuccessful Steele's Bayou Expedition in March 1863.

One of those to pass the Vicksburg and Warrenton, Missouri batteries in April 1863, "Carondelet" took part on April 29 in the five and one-half hour engagement with the batteries at Grand Gulf. She remained on duty off Vicksburg, hurling fire at the city in its long siege from May to July. Without her and her sisters and other naval forces, the great operations on the rivers would not have been possible and the United States victory might not have been won.

From March 7 to May 15, 1864, she sailed with the Red River Expedition, and during operations in support of Union Army movements ashore, took part in the Bell's Mill engagement (part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign) of December 1864. For the remainder of the war, "Carondelet" patrolled in the Cumberland River.

Post-war decommissioning and sale

She was decommissioned at Mound City on June 20, 1865, and sold there on November 29, 1865.

Subsequent career and sinking

In 1873, shortly before she was to be scrapped, a flood swept the "Carondelet" from her moorings in Gallipolis, Ohio. She then drifted approximately 130 miles down the Ohio River, where she grounded near Manchester, Ohio. Her ultimate fate remained unknown until a May 1982 search operation by the National Underwater and Marine Agency pinpointed the location of the wreckage, two days after a dredge passed directly over the wreckage, demolishing most of the wrecked vessel. [cite web
last = Cussler
first = Clive
authorlink = Clive Cussler
coauthors =
title = USS Carondelet: The hunt for the famous Union ironclad river gunboat, Carondelet in the Ohio River
work =
publisher = National Underwater and Marine Agency
month = May | year = 1982
url = http://www.numa.net/expeditions/carondelet.html
format = HTML
doi =
accessmonthday=10 October | accessyear=2006]

DANFS [cite book
title = Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
publisher = Naval History Division
year = 1963
url = http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/]

References

See also

* Union Navy
* American Civil War
* Confederate States Navy

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-c/carndt.htm USS Carondelet (1862-1865)]
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c4/carondelet-i.htm USS Carondelet]