CSS Queen of the West
Civil War Confederate Naval Ship

C.S. Ram Queen of the West (1863-1863)

On 14 February 1863, the U.S. Ram Queen of the West was sunk off Fort de Russy, on the Red River, Louisiana. Raised and repaired, she was quickly placed in service by the Confederate Army under her old name. On 24 February 1862, she joined CSS Webb in forcing aground and capturing the Federal ironclad USS Indianola near the mouth of the Red River. Queen of the West was later sent to the Atchafalaya River area of Louisiana. On 14 April 1863, while in Grand Lake, she was attacked by three U.S. Navy gunboats. Hit by a shell fired at long range, Queen of the West was set afire and destroyed.

U.S. Ram Queen of the West (1862-1863)

Queen of the West , a 406-ton side-wheel towboat built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1854, was converted to a ram in 1862 for Colonel Charles Ellet's U.S. Ram Fleet. As Ellet's flagship, she played a prominent role in the 6 June 1862 Battle of Memphis, which largely cleared the Mississippi of Confederate naval forces. On 15 and 22 June, Queen of the West twice engaged the ironclad CSS Arkansas .

During the rest of 1862 and into 1863, she was involved in operations around Vicksburg, Mississippi, including an expedition up the Yazoo river in November and December. On 2 February 1863, under the command of Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet , Queen of the West attacked the Confederate steamer City of Vicksburg under the guns of the Vicksburg fortress. Though damaged, she then moved down the river. For nearly two weeks, she operated independently on the Mississippi and its tributaries, where she captured four Confederate steamers. On 14 February, while seeking another prize on the Black River, Queen of the West ran aground near an enemy shore battery and was captured. Repaired, she became the Confederate warship Queen of the West .

The Loss of the Queen of the West
Line engraving after a sketch by Mr. McCullagh, published in "Harper's Weekly", 21 March 1863, depicting the capture of the U.S. Ram Queen of the West while she was operating on the Red River, Louisiana, 14 February 1863.


Bache's Quaker' Driving the Queen of the West, and Causing the Rebels to Blow Up the 'Indianola
Line engraving after a sketch by Theodore R. Davis, published in "Harper's Weekly", 1863, depicting the 25 February 1863 operation in which a dummy ironclad (left) was floated down the Mississippi River by the U.S. Navy, causing the Confederates to destroy the captured ironclad USS Indianola . CSS Queen of the West is depicted at the right.

Destruction of the Queen of the West by Union Gun-Boats
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1863, depicting CSS Queen of the West being destroyed in Grand Lake, Louisiana, during an attack by USS Estrella (extreme left), Calhoun (extreme right) and Arizona (second from right), 14 April 1863.

"The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis."
"On the Morning of June 6th 1862, off Memphis, Tennessee"
Lithograph by Middleton, Strobridge & Co.
In the foreground, the print depicts the Confederate ships (from left to right): General M. Jeff Thompson (shown sinking); Little Rebel (shown burning); General Sterling Price ; General Beauregard (shown being rammed by the Ellet Ram Monarch ); General Bragg (shown aground) and Colonel Lovell (shown sinking).
In the background are the Federal warships (from left to right): Queen of the West ; Cairo ; Carondelet ; Louisville ; Saint Louis ; a tug; and Benton .
The city of Memphis is in the right distance, with a wharf boat by the shore.



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DVD DVD Book Book

Quest for the Monitor
The first group of non-governmental divers to dive the Monitor. All diving operations were conducted under the close supervision of NOAA.This was beautifully photographed by veteran lensman Ric O'Donnell and narrated and written by Jackie Stone. The video shows a lot of action both on the deck of the dive boat as well as wonderfully clear underwater views of the Monitor
Raise the Alabama
Known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France, where the Alabama had gone for repairs.RAISE THE ALABAMA! descends into the murky depths of the English Channel with the marine archeology team led by the renowned Gordon Watts. 200 feet beneath these foreign waters, the legendary Confederate ship is surrendering her secrets, despite weather conditions that make it safe to dive only a few days a year. The program also documents the Alabama's extraordinary career, from her construction in Liverpool to the surprise attacks that made her the scourge of Union shipping and the valiant, 90-minute battle with the Kearsarge
War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor
David Mindell has combined a sensitive and incisive reading of the documentary evidence with insightful historical analysis to illuminate not only his central theme, the experience of battle in an emerging machine age, but also the process of invention, negotiation, and politics that brought the Monitor into existence and the quite different process of narration, memory, and imagination that invested the ship and its exploits so heavily with symbolic meaning.
Life in Mr. Lincoln's Navy
Ringle is among the first to examine the many aspects of sailors' lives during the American Civil War. He examines topics such as the recruiting efforts of the U.S. Navy, compensation and promotion, training, entertainment, and disease to name but a few. The extensive research and sheer fact that this is one of the first books to examine this aspect of CW naval history makes it a must for any American naval library



American Military Gear Recruiter and History
United States Marines gear history and support of Semper Fi Fund

 

The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars (1700-2004)
War has always been part of the American experience. From the time the first colonists set foot upon North America's shores, they were in conflict with the Native inhabitants. One hundred years later the colonies suddenly found themselves an extension of the conflicts in Europe. Less than a century later, the Revolutionary War freed the fledgling United States from its British overlords and European entanglements. Born and nurtured in war, America grew in strength and power until at the beginning of the 21st century it was the foremost military power in the world.

 

Sources:
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US Naval Archives