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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Mound City

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Cairo Class Iron-clad River Gunboat :
  • Laid down, 7 August 1861, as the Ironclad screw steamer Mound City at St. Louis, MO., by James B. Eads
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Commissioned, USS Mound City, CDR. Augustus H. Kilty in command
  • During the Civil War USS Mound City participated in the following actions:
    March 1862, Island No. 10, New Madrid, Fort Pillow, Plum Point Bend and St Charles, AR.
    August 1862 the White River expedition and the Yazoo River expedition
    October 1862 through March 1863 Assault on Vicksburg,
    March 1863 Yazoo Pass Expedition
    10 May 1863 Warrenton, MS., 18 June Cole’s Creek, and 7 August Lake Providence, GA.
    January 1864 the Red River Expedition 16 March through 22 May 1864
    May 1865 the Black River expedition
  • USS Mound City was decommissioned and sold at public auction, 9 November 1865
  • Final Disposition, broken up in 1866
    Specifications:
    Displacement 512 t.
    Length 175'
    Beam 51' 2"
    Draft 6'
    Speed 9 mph
    Complement 175
    Armament
    five 32-pdrs smooth bore guns
    three 9" gun smooth bore guns
    one 30-pdr guns
    one 12-pdr gun
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    St. Louis 114k "Bombardment and Capture of Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River, April 7, 1862."
    Colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives, New York, circa 1862. It depicts the bombardment of the Confederate fortifications on Island Number Ten by Federal gunboats and mortar boats. Ships seen include (from left to right):
    USS Mound City;
    USS Louisville;
    USS Pittsburgh;
    USS Carondelet;
    USS Benton;
    USS Cincinnati;
    USS Saint Louis;
    USS Conestoga.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # KN 9691    		 Robert Hurst
    General Earn Van Dorn 373k "Battle of Fort Pillow, First 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 right, include (from left to right):
    CSS General Earl Van Dorn,
    CSS General Sterling Price,
    CSS General Bragg,
    CSS General Sumter and
    CSS Little Rebel. The Federal ironclads, in the center and left, are (from left to right):
    USS Mound City,
    USS Carondelet and
    USS Cincinnati. A Federal mortar boat is by the river bank in the lower right.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 2049    		 Tommy Trampp
    Mount City 122k "Battle at St. Charles, White River, Arkansas--Explosion of the USS Mound City".
    Line engraving after a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published in Harper's Weekly, 1862. This action between Federal gunboats and Confederate shore batteries took place on 17 June 1862. USS Mound City was disabled by a shot that penetrated her steam drum, causing heavy casualties among her crew. Other U.S. ships present were the ironclad USS Saint Louis (seen in the right foreground) and "timberclads" USS Lexington and USS Conestoga. The gunboat in left center is also a "timberclads".
    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo #NH 59057.    		 Robert Hurst
    Baron de Kalb 101k "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, USS Cincinnati and USS Mound City. Boats are tied astern of Baron de Kalb and Cincinnati. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Photo #: NH 56663-A. Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1981. Robert Hurst
    Benton 358k "Admiral Porter's Fleet Running the Rebel Blockade of the Mississippi at Vicksburg, April 16th 1863." Text under the print's title reads: "At half past ten P.M. the boats left their moorings & steamed down the river, the Benton, Admiral Porter, taking the lead -- as they approached the point opposite the town, a terrible concentrated fire of the center, upper and lower batteries, both water and bluff, were directed upon the channel, which here ran within one hundred yards of the shore. At the same moment innumerable floats of turpentine and other combustible materials were set ablaze. In the face of all this fire, the boats made their way with but little loss except the transport Henry Clay which was set on fire & sunk."
    Ships depicted are (from the front to the rear:
    USS Benton (flagship);
    USS Lafayette with
    USS General Price alongside;
    USS Louisville;
    USS Mound City;
    USS Pittsburgh;
    USS Carondelet; transports
    SS Silver Wave;
    SS Forest Queen;
    SS Henry Clay; and
    SS Tuscumbia.
    Currier & Ives, New York. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Beverley R. Robinson Collection.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 76557-KN (Color)    		 Robert Hurst
    Benton 80k "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):
    USS Mound City,
    USS Essex,
    USS Cairo,
    USS Saint Louis,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Benton,
    USS Pittsburgh. and
    USS Lexington.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo #: NH 59002
    		Robert Hurst
    Choctaw 48k "Attack on Grand Gulf," 29 April 1863, from Harper's Weekly.
    The attack by USS Benton,
    USS Lafayette,
    USS Tuscumbia,
    USS Carondelet,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Mound City, and
    USS Pittsburgh.
    		 Tommy Trampp
    Battle of Grand Gulf
    098677402    		 192k Battle of Grand Gulf, Second Position. The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. During Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg campaign, Union Army forces had failed in attempts to bypass the strategic city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant decided move his army south, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on Vicksburg. Seven Union Navy ironclad warships commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded Confederate fortifications at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, in preparation for a crossing of the river. Union fire was able to silence one of the two Confederate fortifications at Grand Gulf, but the position was still strong enough that Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere.
    USS Benton, mislabeled as Trenton
    USS Lafayette,
    USS Tuscumbia,
    USS Carondelet,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Mound City, and
    USS Pittsburgh.
    From p. 592 of the 1887 book 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers, based upon ̉the Century War Series"', volume 3. Uploaded by the British Library to Flickr    		 Tommy Trampp
    Mound City 88k USS Mound City on the Western Rivers, circa 1864-65. Note pilothouse constructed atop her armored conning tower, deckhouse constructed forward of her paddle box, and light-colored five-pointed stars mounted on the fronts of her smokestacks.
    US Navy photo # NH 72806 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Mound City 87k USS Mound City on the Western Rivers, 1864. Note rowing boats in the foreground. That at left has a fancy-edged awning.
    US Navy photo # NH 45791 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn
    USS Mound City
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR. Kilty, Augustus H.1861 - August 1862
    02LCDR. William GwinAugust 1862 - September 1862
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Pook's Turtles by Aryeh Wetherhorn
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    Last Updated 15 June 2023