USS General Price , a 633-ton side-wheel river steamer, was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 as the commercial towboat Laurent Millaudon . She served the Confederacy as the ram CSS General Sterling Price in 1861-62 and was sunk on 6 June 1862 during the Battle of Memphis, Tennessee. Raised and repaired by Federal forces, she was commissioned for U.S. Navy service in March 1863 as USS General Price , though her old name also continued to be used.

General Price was involved in the Vicksburg campaign in March and April 1863, and took part in the Mississippi Squadron's run past the Confederate fortress city on 17 April. During the rest of the Civil War, she operated against Grand Gulf and Vicksburg, in the Red and Black Rivers and elsewhere in the lower Mississippi River area. On 8 March 1864, General Price accidently rammed and sank USS Conestoga . She took part in the Red River Expedition during the next month. Decommissioned in July 1865, USS General Price was sold the following October.

Off Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 18 January 1864
with USS Lexington in the left background.

Off Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 18 January 1864

Photographed while tied up at a Western Rivers settlement

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The H. L. Hunley
The Secret Hope of the Confederacy
On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. Not until World War I "half a century later” would a submarine again accomplish such a feat. But also perishing that moonlit night, vanishing beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina, was the Hunley and her entire crew of eight





Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65
The blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy

American Civil War Marines 1861-65
Marines wearing blue and grey fought in many dramatic actions afloat and ashore – ship-to-ship engagements, cutting-out expeditions, and coastal landings. This book offers a comprehensive summary of all such battles, illustrated with rare early photographs

Union River Ironclad 1861-65
At the start of the American Civil War, neither side had warships on the Mississippi River. In what would prove the vital naval campaign of the war, both sides fought for control of the river. While the Confederates relied on field fortifications and small gunboats, the Union built a series of revolutionary river ironclads

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Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine
For more than a century the fate of the Hunley remained one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Civil War. Then, on August 8, 2000, with thousands of spectators crowding Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was raised from the bottom of the sea and towed ashore.

The Story of the H.L. Hunley
During the Civil War, Union forces blockade the port of Charleston so the Confederate army seeks a way to attrack the Yankee Ships. George Dixon is part of the group of men given the task of creating and building the "fish boat," a submarine. The H.L. Hunley ultimately sets out on its mission to sink Yankee ships, but fails to return, its whereabouts unknown.

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 Journal
The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.