USSCarondelet
History
United States
Namesake	Carondelet, St. Louis[1]
Laid down	August, 1861
Launched	October, 1861, atSt. Louis, Missouri
Commissioned	15 January 1862 atCairo, Illinois
Decommissioned	20 June 1865 atMound City, Illinois
Stricken	1865 (est.), sold, 29 November 1865
Fate	Sunk inOhio River, 1873, severely damaged during dredging, 1982
General characteristics
Class & type	City-class ironcladgunboat
Displacement	512 tons
Length	175 ft (53 m)
Beam	51 ft 2 in (15.60 m)
Draft	6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine
Speed	4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph)
Complement	251 officers and enlisted
Armament	(seesection below)
Armor	Casemate:2.5 in (64 mm) Pilothouse: 1.25 in (32 mm)

USSCarondelet (/kəˈrɒndəlɛt/kə-RON-də-let) (1861) was aCity-classironcladgunboat constructed for theWar Department byJames B. Eads during theAmerican Civil War. It was named for the town where it was built,Carondelet, Missouri.

Carondelet was designed for service on the western rivers, with a combination of shallow draft and variety of heavy guns (and a lighthowitzer), she was suited for riverside bombardment and ship-to-ship combat againstConfederate gunboats.

USSCarondelet, anironclad rivergunboat, was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co.,St. Louis, Missouri, at theUnion Iron Works, in Carondelet, Missouri under contract to theUnited States Department of War.Carondelet was commissioned on 15 January 1862, atCairo, Illinois, U.S. NavyCommanderHenry A. Walke in command, and reported to Army'sWestern Gunboat Flotilla,^[2] commanded by U.S. Navy Flag OfficerAndrew Hull Foote.

Between January and October 1862,Carondelet operated almost constantly on river patrol and in the capture ofFort Henry andFort Donelson in February; the passing ofIsland No. 10 and the attack on and spiking of the shore batteries belowNew Madrid, Missouri, in April; the lengthy series of operations againstPlum Point Bend,Fort Pillow, andMemphis, Tennessee, from April through June, and the engagement withCSS Arkansas on 15 July, during whichCarondelet was heavily damaged and suffered 35 casualties.^[3]

Transferred toNavy control with the other ships of her flotilla on 1 October 1862,Carondelet continued the rapid pace of her operations, taking part in the unsuccessfulSteele's Bayou Expedition in March 1863.

One of those to pass theVicksburg andWarrenton, Mississippi batteries in April 1863,Carondelet took part on 29 April in the five-and-a-half-hour engagement with the batteries atGrand Gulf. She remained on duty off Vicksburg, bombarding the city in its longsiege from May to July. Without her and her sisters and other naval forces, the great operations on the rivers would not have been possible and the Federal victory might not have been won.^{[citation needed]}

From 7 March to 15 May 1864, she sailed with theRed River Expedition, and during operations in support ofUnion Army movements ashore, took part in theBell's Mill engagement (part of theFranklin-Nashville Campaign) of December 1864. For the remainder of the war,Carondelet patrolled in theCumberland River.

Carondelet had several commanding officers over the duration of her service.^[4]

During the Civil War four ofCarondelet's crew members were awarded theMedal of Honor: Signal QuartermasterMatthew Arther for actions at the Battles ofFort Henry andFort Donelson, February 1862; SeamanJohn Henry Dorman for actions in various engagements; FiremanMichael Huskey, for actions during Steele's Bayou Expedition, March 1863; and CoxswainJohn G. Morrison, for actions in the engagement with CSSArkansas, 15 July 1862.^[5][6]

She was decommissioned atMound City, Illinois, on 20 June 1865, and sold there on 29 November 1865.

In 1873, shortly before she was to be scrapped, a flood sweptCarondelet from her moorings inGallipolis, Ohio. She then drifted approximately 130 miles down theOhio River, where she grounded nearManchester, Ohio. Her ultimate fate remained unknown until a May 1982 search operation byClive Cussler'sNational Underwater and Marine Agency pinpointed the location of the wreckage, just two days after adredge passed directly over the wreckage, demolishing most of the wrecked vessel.^[7]

Like many of the Mississippi theatre ironclads, USSCarondelet had its armament changed multiple times over life of the vessel. To expedite the entrance ofCarondelet into service, she and the otherCity-class gunboats were fitted with whatever weapons were available; then had their weapons upgraded as new pieces became available. Though the 8 in (200 mm)Dahlgren smoothbore cannons were fairly modern most of the other original armaments were antiquated; such as the 32-pounders, or modified; such as the 42-pounder "rifles" which were in fact, old smoothbores that had been gouged out to give them rifling. These 42-pounder weapons were of particular concern to military commanders because they were structurally weaker and more prone to exploding than purpose-built rifled cannons. Additionally, the close confines of riverine combat greatly increased the threat of boarding parties. The 12-pounderhowitzer was equipped to address that concern and was not used in regular combat.^[4]

• Union Navy
• Anaconda Plan
• Mississippi Squadron

 This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Coombe, Jack,Thunder Along the Mississippi: The River Battles That Split The Confederacy (Book Sales Inc. 2005)
• Cussler, Clive and Craig Dirgo,The Sea Hunters (Simon & Schuster 1996)
• Smith, Myron J. (2010).The USS Carondelet: A Civil War Ironclad on Western Waters. McFarland.ISBN 978-0-7864-5609-3.
• Smith, Myron J.,Tinclads in the Civil War: Union light-Draught Gunboat Operations on Western Waters, 1862–1865 (McFarland 2009)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCarondelet (ship, 1861).

• Pictures of USSCarondelet (1862–1865)
• Bombardment of Fort Henry (Feb. 2-6, 1862)
• Building the City Class Ironclads Documentary

38°41′13″N83°34′39″W / 38.687049°N 83.577544°W /38.687049; -83.577544

• Ships built in St. Louis
• Steamships of the United States Navy
• Gunboats of the United States Navy
• American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States
• Shipwrecks of the Ohio River
• Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
• 1861 ships
• Ships of the Union navy
• Maritime incidents in May 1864

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