CSS General Sterling Price (1862-1862)

CSS General Sterling Price a 633-ton side-wheel river steamer, was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 as the commercial towboat Laurent Millaudon . Taken over by the Confederacy and renamed General Sterling Price , she was converted in early 1862 to a "cottonclad" ram at New Orleans as a unit of the River Defense Fleet. In March 1862, she was sent up the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee, for completion. During April, May and June 1862 General Sterling Price served in the defenses of Memphis. She rammed and disabled the U.S. ironclad Cincinnati in the naval action off Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on 10 May and received serious damage in return. After repairs General Sterling Price took part in the battle off Memphis on 6 June, in which she was disabled and sunk in shallow water. She was salvaged by the U.S. forces and later became USS General Price .

Engraving published in Rear Admiral Henry Walke's "Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States ..."
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): General Earl Van Dorn , General Sterling Price , General Bragg , General Sumter and Little Rebel .
The Federal ironclads, in the center and left, are (from left to right): Mound City , Carondelet and Cincinnati . A Federal mortar boat is by the river bank in the lower right.