USS Ibex (1863)

From SpottingWorld, the Hub for the SpottingWorld network...
Career (US) 100x35px
Ordered: as Ohio Valley
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: 1863
Acquired: 10 December 1864
Commissioned: 4 April 1865
Decommissioned: 5 August 1865
Struck: 1865 (est.)
Fate: sold, 17 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement: 235 tons
Length: 157 ft (48 m)
Beam: 33 ft (10 m)
Draught: 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m)
Propulsion: steam engine
side wheel-propelled
Speed: not known
Complement: not known
Armament: two 30-pounder Parrott rifles
two 12-pounder rifles
four 24-pounder howitzers
Armour: tinclad

USS Ibex (1863) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used as a gunboat by the Navy and she provided her services to ships in the blockade squadrons.

Ibex, a tinclad, side-wheel gunboat formerly called Ohio Valley, was built at Harmer, Ohio, in 1863 and was purchased by the Navy at Cincinnati, Ohio, from Theodore Johnson 10 December 1864; and commissioned at Mound City, Illinois, 4 April 1865, Lt. Comdr. R. L. May in command.

After fitting out as a gunboat at Mound City, Ibex was ordered to Memphis, Tennessee, for duty with the Mississippi Squadron's 8th District 29 April 1865. She served faithfully in the Mississippi River assisting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee in attending to many of the innumerable tasks entailed in closing the Mississippi Squadron.

Ibex decommissioned at Mound City 5 August and was sold at public auction to Thompson Dean 17 August 1865. She was redocumented Harry Dean 5 October 1865 and lost when she exploded at Gallipolis, Ohio, 3 January 1868.

References