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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 Cincinnati (1862-1866)

USS Cincinnati, a 512-ton Cairo class ironclad river gunboat, was built at Mound City, Illinois, for the U.S. Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla. Commissioned in January 1862, early in the following month she took part in the capture of Fort Henry, Tennessee. During March and April 1862, Cincinnati participated in the successful seige of the fortress at Island Number Ten. On 10 May, in an action near Fort Pillow, she was rammed by ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and sank in shallow water.

Raised and repaired, Cincinnati was transferred to the Navy in October 1862 and engaged in operations on the Yazoo River during the latter part of that year. In January 1863, she took part in the White River campaign, including the capture of Fort Hindman, Arkansas. Further activities on the Yazoo were followed by combat at Vickburg, where she was heavily hit by enemy shore batteries and sunk on 27 May 1863. Cincinnati was again raised, repaired and returned to service, spending most of the rest of the Civil War patrolling on the Mississippi and nearby rivers. In February 1865, she was sent to operate in the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay areas. USS Cincinnati was decommissioned in August 1865. Sold in March 1866, she sank later in that year.

This page features views of USS Cincinnati and provides links to pictures of her actions.

For additional images, related to USS Cincinnati's Civil War actions, see:

  • USS Cincinnati -- Actions and Activities.

    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 63211

    USS Cincinnati (1862-1865)


    Photographed on the Western Rivers in 1862-63.
    Note laundry drying on lines rigged from her mainmast, and awnings spread over her upper deck.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 58761

    USS Cincinnati (1862-1865)


    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 20 June 1863, soon after she was sunk off Vicksburg, Mississippi, by Confederate gunfire.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 490 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 56663

    "City" Class ironclad gunboats


    Off Cairo, Illinois, in 1863, with barges moored in the foreground.
    These ships are (from left to right):
    USS Baron de Kalb (1862-1863);
    USS Cincinnati (1862-1865) and
    USS Mound City (1862-1865).
    Boats are tied astern of Baron de Kalb and Cincinnati.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 475 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 56663-A

    "City" Class ironclad gunboats


    Off Cairo, Illinois, in 1863, with barges moored in the foreground.
    These ships are (from left to right):
    USS Baron de Kalb (1862-1863);
    USS Cincinnati (1862-1865) and
    USS Mound City (1862-1865).
    Boats are tied astern of Baron de Kalb and Cincinnati.

    Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1981.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 475 pixels

    Note:
    This image shows somewhat more on the right side and somewhat less on the left side than Photo # NH 56663. Ship images are also not quite as sharp, though trees in the distance are much more distinct.

     
    Photo #: NH 998

    USS Cincinnati (1862-1865)


    Sketch of the ship during the later part of the Civil War, with a long deckhouse fitted above her casemate.

    Courtesy of the Philibrick Collection, Kittery, Maine.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 162KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     

    For additional images, related to USS Cincinnati's Civil War actions, see:

  • USS Cincinnati -- Actions and Activities.


    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.

    4 March 2000