USS Champion (1863-1865, "Tinclad" # 24)USS Champion , a 115-ton side-wheel "Tinclad" river gunboat, was built in 1859 at Cincinnati, Ohio, as the civilian steamer Champion No. 4 . Purchased by the Navy in March 1863, she was converted to a gunboat and commissioned the following month. During 1863-65, Champion was active on patrol, convoy, towing and transportation duties on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. She decommissioned in July 1865 and was sold in November 1865. Until about 1868, she was again employed as the civilian Champion No. 4 . Lithograph by Middleton, Strobridge & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1864, after a drawing by Chas. A. Fisher. |
![]() Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy From Norfolk to Hampton Roads, from Roanoke Island to the nighttime battle on the river below New Orleans, Glory in the Name tells the story of the Confederate States Navy, and the brave men who carried forward against overwhelming odds |
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![]() Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama In July 1862, the Confederate captain Raphael Semmes received orders to report to Liverpool, where he would take command of a secret new British-built steam warship. His mission: to prey on Union commercial vessels and undermine the North's ability to continue the war |
![]() The Hunt for the Albemarle Anatomy of a Gunboat War The Confederate ironclad Albemarle was the key to the river wars in North Carolina. |
![]() Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter Personal view of the Civil War Navy. The monitor saw action in several significant naval assaults by the Union's Squadron. It took part in the failed Federal attack on Sumter in April 1863. The "Nahant" also participated in the capture of the Confederate Ram "Atlanta," and in the assault on Fort Wagner |
![]() Blockaders, Refugees, and Contrabands: Civil War on Florida'S Gulf Coast, 1861-1865 Coastal Florida had a refugee crisis as the war progressed. Escaped slaves ("contrabands") sought out the blockaders. Some joined the U.S. Navy. White men and their families sought to avoid conscription or vengeful neighbors/regulators and eventually sought refuge with the blockaders |
![]() 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
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