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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Cairo (1862-1862)

USS Cairo, a 512-ton "City" class ironclad river gunboat built at Mound City, Illinois, was commissioned in January 1862 as part of the U.S. Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla. She began war operations in February, taking part in the occupations of Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee. In April and May 1862, Cairo was involved in the campaign to capture Fort Pillow and was present during the 10 May naval action there. She was also engaged with Confederate warships during the action off Memphis, Tennessee, on 6 June 1862.

Cairo continued her operations on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and was formally transferred to the Navy in October. On 12 December 1862, while engaged in mine clearance activities on the Yazoo River, Mississippi, Cairo was sunk by a Confederate mine (or "torpedo", as mines were then known). Her wreck was recovered in 1965, but was badly damaged during the salvage efforts. It has subsequently been partially restored and is on exhibit at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

This page features our only views of USS Cairo.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 61568

USS Cairo (1862)


Photographed in the Mississippi River area during 1862, with a boat alongside her port bow, crewmen on deck and other river steamers in the background.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59002

"Commodore Foote's Gun-boat Flotilla on the Mississippi"


Line engraving after a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862.
Ships are identified below the image as (from left to right): Mound City, Essex, Cairo, Saint Louis, Louisville, Benton, Pittsburg and Lexington.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 270 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42755

"Battle of Fort Pillow, 3rd Position"


Engraving published in Rear Admiral Henry Walke's "Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States ..." (1877), depicting the action between the Confederate River Defense Fleet and Federal ironclads near Fort Pillow, Tennessee, 10 May 1862.
Confederate ships, seen at left, include: Colonel Lovell, General Beauregard, General M. Jeff Thompson, General Bragg, General Sumter, Little Rebel and General Earl van Dorn.
The Federal ironclads, in the center and right, are: Carondelet, Cincinnati, Mound City, Benton, Saint Louis, Cairo and Pittsburg. A tug is seen in the right foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 435 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42365

"Brilliant Naval Victory on the Mississippi River, Near Fort Wright, May 10th 1862"

"By the Union Flotilla of 6 Gunboats, commanded by Com. C.H. Davis, and the Rebel fleet of 8 Iron-clads, under Hollins. The action lasted one hour. Two of the Rebel gunboats were blown up and one sunk, when the remainder retired precipitately under the guns of the fort."

Lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York, providing a curious (and quite inaccurate) view of the action off Fort Pillow in which the Confederate River Defense Fleet, under Captain James E. Montgomery, attacked Federal gunboats.
The print identifies the following ships (from left to right): CSS "Mallory" (a non-existent vessel, shown sinking); CSS Louisiana (an ironclad that had already been destroyed by this time); USS Cincinnati; USS Benton; USS Cairo; USS Carondelet; USS Saint Louis; and USS Conestoga.

Collection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 1936.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42367

"The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis."

"On the Morning of June 6th 1862, off Memphis, Ten."

Lithograph by Middleton, Strobridge & Co.
In the foreground, the print depicts the Confederate ships (from left to right): General M. Jeff Thompson (shown sinking); Little Rebel (shown burning); General Sterling Price; General Beauregard (shown being rammed by the Ellet Ram Monarch); General Bragg (shown aground) and Colonel Lovell (shown sinking).
In the background are the Federal warships (from left to right): Queen of the West; Cairo; Carondelet; Louisville; Saint Louis; a tug; and Benton.
The city of Memphis is in the right distance, with a wharf boat by the shore.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 2288

USS Cairo (1862)


Is sunk by a Confederate mine, in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, 12 December 1862.
19th Century engraving, from a sketch by Rear Admiral Henry A. Walke.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 211KB; 740 x 525 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 55172

USS Cairo (1862)


Sketch of the ship's wreck, entitled "Cairo Submerged", probably depicting the scene immediately after she was sunk by a Confederate mine in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, on 12 December 1862. Note men sitting on projecting timbers and swimming in the water nearby.

Courtesy of Mrs. A. Hopkins, 1927.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 575 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

9 April 2000