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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 Fort Hindman (1863-1865, "Tinclad" # 13).
Formerly named James Thompson and Manitou.

USS Fort Hindman, a 286-ton side-wheel "tinclad" river gunboat, was built in 1862 at Jeffersonville, Indiana, as a civilian steamer. Purchased by the Navy in March 1863, she commissioned the following month as USS James Thompson. She was twice renamed, becoming USS Manitou in June 1863 and USS Fort Hindman in November 1863. In July 1863, she participated in an expedition up the Little Red River which captured the Confederate steamer Louisville (later USS Ouachita). Fort Hindman engaged enemy artillery in early March 1864, during operations on Louisiana's Black and Ouachita Rivers. During the next few months, she was part of the Red River expedition, then patrolled in the lower Mississippi River area for most of the remainder of the Civil War. USS Fort Hindman was sold in August 1865. As a merchant steamer, she was renamed James Thompson and remained in use until about 1874.

This page features our only views related to USS Fort Hindman (1863-1865, Tinclad # 13), formerly named James Thompson and Manitou.

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 61569

USS Fort Hindman (1863-1865)


Photographed during her Civil War service on the Western Rivers.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 555 pixels

 

The following images depict crewmen of USS Fort Hindman who were awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism:

Photo #: NH 79922

James K.L. Duncan, Ordinary Seaman, USN


Artwork by Bacon, published in "Deeds of Valor", Volume II, page 54, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907.
It depicts Ordinary Seaman Duncan throwing a burning cartridge overboard on USS Fort Hindman, after it was set afire by an exploding shell. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in this incident, which took place during an engagement with an enemy battery near Harrisonburg, Louisiana, on 2 March 1864.
James K.L. Duncan was born at Frankfort, PA, in 1845.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 153KB; 740 x 575 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 79921

Hugh Molloy, Ordinary Seaman, USN


Post-Civil War photograph, published in "Deeds of Valor", Volume II, page 63, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907.
Ordinary Seaman Molloy was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in serving a gun from an exposed position on the forecastle of USS Fort Hindman during an engagement with an enemy battery near Harrisonburg, Louisiana, on 2 March 1864.
Note: The birth date given on this image differs from that published in the book "Medal of Honor -- The Navy", which gives Molloy's date of birth as 1832.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 146KB; 570 x 765 pixels

 


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


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23 November 1999