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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Tensas
ex
 CSS Tom Sugg (1861 - 1863)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Side-wheel Steamer (Tinclad No.39)
  • Built in 1860 at Cincinnati, OH.
  • Launched circa 1860
  • Delivered, date unknown
  • SS Tom Sugg operated as a merchant river boat in Arkansas on the White River carrying cotton and general cargo
  • Acquired by the Confederate navy for use as a gunboat, date unknown
  • Outfitted as a side-wheel gunboat
  • Commissioned, date unknown
  • CSS Tom Sugg transported arms and horses for Confederate troops near the White River
  • On 14 August 1863, USS Cricket ascended the Little Red River and captured CSS Tom Sugg and steamer Kaskaskia at Searcy's Landing, thus destroying Confederate river transportation in northern Arkansas and diminishing the flow of supplies to Southern troops east of the Mississippi
  • Purchased by the US Navy from the Illinois Prize Court, 29 September 1863
  • Commissioned USS Tensas, 1 January 1864, at Mound City, IL., Acting Master E. C. Van Pelt in command. Named for A river which rises in East Carrol Parish, La. as the Tenses Bayou, and winds its way south running parallel to the Mississippi River for 175 miles before joining the Ouachita at Jonesville and becoming the Black River.
  • USS Tensas served the rest of the war with the Mississippi River Squadron
  • Decommissioned, 7 August 1865, at Mound City, IL.
  • Sold at public auction, 17 August 1865, at Mound City, III., to E. B. Trinidad of New Iberia, La.
  • Renamed Teche, 23 October 1865
  • Final Disposition, wrecked in 1868 at Bayou Teche
    Specifications:
    Displacement 41 or 62 t.
    Length 90'
    Beam 22'5'
    Depth of Hull 3'7"
    Draft 4'
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    Tom Sugg - 2 guns
    Tensas - two 24-pdr howitzers
    Propulsion
    steam engine
    two side-wheels

    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Tensas
    098690801    		 504k USS Tensas, with the number “39” painted on her pilot house, at US Naval Station, Mound City, IL., during the Civil War.
    Courtesy of the Library of Congress. National Museum of the U.S. Navy. LC-DIG-PPMSCA-34044    		 Robert Hurst
    Tensas wreck
    098690802    		 208k USS Tensas, sits below four feet of mud in Bayou Teche just north of Franklin, Louisiana.
    from Acadiana Historical    		 Tommy Trapp
    USS Tensas / CSS Tom Sugg
    USS Tensas Dictionary of American Navy Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    CSS Tom Sugg Dictionary of American Navy Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    This page is created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Michael Junge
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    Last Updated 5 June 2023