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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 Milwaukee (1864-1865)
USS Milwaukee, name ship of class of four 1300-ton double-turret
ironclad river monitors, was built at Carondelet, Missouri, for
Civil War service in the Western Rivers area. Commissioned in
August 1864, she was sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans,
Lousisana, in October and assigned to the West Gulf Blockading
Squadron. Later in 1864, she went to Mobile Bay, Alabama, where
she spent the rest of her service career bombarding Confederate
positions, clearing mines and supporting operations to isolate
and capture the city of Mobile. On 28 March 1865, while engaged
in an attack on Spanish Fort on the Blakely River, Alabama, USS
Milwaukee struck a "torpedo" (as mines were then
called) and sank. Her wreck was raised and scrapped in 1868.
This page features all our views of USS Milwaukee.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 510
USS Milwaukee (1864-1865)
In the Mississippi River area, circa 1864-65.
Photographed by T. Lilienthal, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Courtesy of the Philibrick Collection, Kittery, Maine.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
![](../../images/h00001/h00510t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 46129
USS Milwaukee (1864-1865)
Photographed on the Western Rivers during the last year of the
Civil War.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 400 pixels |
![](../../images/h46000/h46129t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 60651
USS Milwaukee (1864-1865)
Probably photographed in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in early 1865.
Note awnings spread over her decks and anti-mine "torpedo
rake" deployed at her bow.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 440 pixels |
![](../../images/h60000/h60651t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 59155
"The Siege of Mobile--Wreck of the 'Osage' and the Monitor
'Milwaukee.'"
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 29 April
1865, depicting USS Osage striking a mine and sinking
near Spanish Fort on 29 March 1865.
The wreck of USS Milwaukee, which had been sunk by a mine
on the previous day, is in the center middle distance. The twin-turret
monitors at right are two of the following: USS Winnebago,
USS Chickasaw and USS Kickapoo. Ships in the right
distance are "Double-Ender" and "Tinclad"
gunboats also engaged in attacking the Confederate-held Spanish
Fort.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 145KB; 740 x 425 pixels |
![](../../images/h59000/h59155t.jpg) |
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22 August 2000