USS Coeur de Lion, an 110-ton (burden) side-wheel gunboat, was built in 1853 at Coxsakie, New York, as a civilian steamer. Later becoming a U.S. Light House Tender, she was loaned to the Navy soon after the outbreak of the Civil War and began her commissioned Navy service in early October 1861. Coeur de Lion was active thereafter on the rivers tributary to Chesapeake Bay. In November 1861 she towed the barge George Washington Parke Custis during Thaddeus Lowe's observation balloon operations over the Potomac River. During 1862-1864 Coeur de Lion captured or destroyed several would-be blockade running schooners and participated in a number of engagements with Confederate forces. Returned to the Lighthouse Board in June 1865, Coeur de Lion was sold in 1867. As the commercial steamer Alice she lasted until about 1873, when she was removed from shipping registers.
This page features the only view we have concerning USS Coeur de Lion (1861-1865).
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 21 December 2003