USS De Soto
Civil War Union Naval Ship

USS De Soto (1861-1868).
Originally the civilian steamship De Soto (1859)

De Soto , a 1675-ton (burden) wooden side-wheel steamship, was built at Brooklyn, New York in 1859. She was purchased by the Navy in August 1861, converted to a warship, and commissioned later in the year. De Soto joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron in December and in January 1862 captured the first of more than twenty vessels that would be credited to her account during two and a half years of enforcing the Federal blockade of the Confederacy's Gulf of Mexico coast. The steamer was decommissioned for repairs in June 1864 and did not return to active service until August 1865, by which time the Navy had resumed peacetime operations.

Thereafter De Soto cruised along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf and West Indies region. She was damaged by an earthquake on 18 November 1867, but was repaired and saw further Caribbean service in 1868. Decommissioned in September 1868, USS De Soto was sold later in that month. She returned to commercial employment, but was destroyed by fire in December 1870.

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, 1947, painted for use in his book "Early American Steamers"


Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack
The first ironclad ships to fight each other, the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack), were the unique products of American design genius


 
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American Civil War Naval Book Titles
Dual on the Roanoke CSS Albemarle
Duel on the Roanoke - The True Story of the CSS Albemarle
A 158-foot Confederate ironclad ship built in a cornfield 90 miles up North Carolina's Roanoke River, under the direction of an 18-year-old boy, and the deadly cat-and-mouse game between the two opposing captains.

The Civil War on Hatteras Island North Carolina
New light on the experiences of Civil War soldiers stationed on the Outer Banks. It follows the crucial maritime battles along the Outer Banks and the famous Burnsides Expedition. Aa fascinating history of how one of America's most treasured islands played a significant part in the Civil War

Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack
The first ironclad ships to fight each other, the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack), were the unique products of American design genius

Battle on the Bay:
The Civil War Struggle for Galveston

Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war, despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world.

Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Halls of Honor
The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War

Raise The Alabama
She was 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

The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one

Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles
The violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor

 

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress
US Naval Archives



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