USS Osage (1863)
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| Career | 100x35px |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Osage |
| Builder: | Union Iron Works, Carondelet, Missouri |
| Laid down: | 1862 |
| Launched: | 13 January 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 10 July 1863 |
| Fate: |
Sunk by mine, 29 March 1865 Raised and sold, 22 November 1867 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | River monitor |
| Displacement: | 523 long tons (531 t) |
| Length: | 180 ft (55 m) |
| Beam: | 45 ft (14 m) |
| Draft: | 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine / Paddlewheel |
| Speed: | 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph) |
| Complement: | 100 |
| Armament: | 2 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns |
The first USS Osage was a single-turreted Neosho-class river monitor named after the American Indian tribe living in the Missouri area (at that time).
Osage was launched 13 January 1863 by James Buchanan Eads at his Union Iron Works, Carondelet, Missouri, and commissioned at Cairo, Illinois on 10 July 1863, Acting Volunteer Lt. Joseph Pitty Couthouy in command.
Osage and her sister-ship Neosho were the first of Eads' river warships to employ the "turtleback" design which became his hallmark and were the only monitors to be propelled by stern wheels.[1] Their shallow draft made them extremely useful in the riverine warfare to come.
Service history
She sailed from Cairo for patrol duty in the Red River, and participated in the expedition up the Black, Ouachita, and Washita Rivers, 29 February to 5 March 1864. She also participated in the expedition up the Red River to Alexandria, Louisiana, 12 March to 22 May and assisted in the capture of Fort DeRussy on 14 March.
Transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron on 1 February 1865, Osage participated in the attack on Spanish Fort, Alabama, near Mobile on 28 March 1865. The next day she was sunk by a torpedo in the Blakely River. Her hulk was raised and sold at auction at New Orleans on 22 November 1867.
References
- ↑ Joiner, Gary (2007). Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: The Mississippi Squadron (American Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield)). Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 92. ISBN 0-7425-5098-2.
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
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