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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Cairo

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal

Cairo Class Iron-clad River Gunboat :

Built in 1861 by James Eads and Co., Mound City, ILL. for the US Army

Commissioned as an Army ship, 25 January 1862, LT. James M. Prichett USN in command

USS Cairo operated with the Army's Western Gunboat Fleet, Flag Officer A. H. Foote USN in command on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers

Transferred to the Navy, 1 October 1862

USS Cairo was active at Clarksville and Nashville, Fort Pillow TN. and Memphis, TN.

USS Cairo struck a torpedo and sank while clearing mines on the Yazoo River, 12 December 1862, in preparation for an attack on Haines Bluff, MS.

Specifications:
Displacement 512 t.
Length 175'
Beam 51' 2"
Draft 6'
Speed 8 kts
Complement 251

Armament

four 42-pdrs

three 8" smoothbore

six 32-pdr smoothbore

Propulsion steam

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
098606427	192k	Rare photographs in the National Archives show Eads ironclads under construction in the Carondelet, Missouri shipyard near St. Louis. Timbering is well along and the five boilers are in place on one of the vessels. A picture of *Cairo* would be nearly identical. From page 51 of "Hardluck Ironclad" by Edwin C. Bearss, Louisiana State University Press	Tommy Trapp
098606428	79k	Front cover of "Hardluck Ironclad" by Edwin C. Bearss, Louisiana State University Press	Tommy Trapp
098606429	107k	Back cover of "Hardluck Ironclad" by Edwin C. Bearss, Louisiana State University Press	Tommy Trapp
	109k	USS Cairo in the Mississippi River area during 1862, with a boat alongside her port bow, crewmen on deck and other river steamers in the background. US Navy photo # NH 61568 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command	Aryeh Wetherhorn
	248k	Illustration of USS Cairo under way. From "The History of the Confederate States Navy" by J. Thomas Scharf	Tommy Trampp
	80k	"Commodore Foote's Gun-boat Flotilla on the Mississippi". Line engraving after a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published in Harper's Weekly, 1862. Ships are identified below the image as (from left to right): USS Mound City, USS Essex, USS Cairo, USS Saint Louis, USS Louisville, *USS Benton,* USS Pittsburgh. and USS Lexington. US Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo #: NH 59002	Robert Hurst
	126k	"Brilliant Naval Victory on the Mississippi River, Near Fort Wright, May 10th 1862." Brilliant Naval Victory on the Mississippi River, Near Fort Wright, May 10th 1862 by the Union Flotilla of 6 Gunboats, commanded by Com. C.H. Davis, and the Rebel fleet of 8 Iron-clads, under Hollins. The action lasted one hour. Two of the Rebel gunboats were blown up and one sunk, when the remainder retired precipitately under the guns of the fort. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York, providing a curious (and quite inaccurate) view of the action off Fort Pillow in which the Confederate River Defense Fleet, under Captain James E. Montgomery, attacked Federal gunboats. The print identifies the following ships (from left to right): CSS Mallory (non-existent vessel), shown sinking); CSS Louisiana (an ironclad that had already been destroyed by this time); USS Cincinnati; USS Benton; USS Cairo; USS Carondelet; USS Saint Louis; and USS Conestoga. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 42365. Collection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 1936	Robert Hurst
	177k	"The Great Naval Battle before Memphis, June 6, 1862". Engraving after a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published in "Harper's Weekly", depicting the action between the Confederate River Defense Fleet and Federal warships off Memphis, Tennessee. In the foreground, the print depicts the Confederate ships (from left to right): CSS General M. Jeff Thompson (shown sinking); CSS Little Rebel (shown burning); CSS General Sterling Price; CSS General Beauregard (shown being jammed by the Ellet Ram USS Monarch; CSS General Bragg (shown aground) and CSS Colonel Lovell (shown sinking). In the background are the Federal warships (from left to right): USS Queen of the West; USS Cairo; USS Carondelet; USS Louisville; USS Saint Louis; a tug; and USS Benton. The city of Memphis is in the right distance, with a wharf boat by the shore. Harpers Weekly, 28 June 1862. Sons of the South - Memphis Naval Battle US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 58891	Robert Hurst
	630k	Oil on canvas of USS Cairo and her flotilla of 3 escort ships were on patrol of the Yazoo River looking for Mines. When at 11:55 am, the Captain heard small arms firing up ahead and ordered his ship out into the main stream. Just as her paddle wheel bit into the water, two explosions rocked the ship in forward bow. In 12 minutes the 550 ton Ironclad sank to the bottom of the muddy river with no loss of life on 12 December 1862. The gunboat *Cairo* was nicknamed the “HARD LUCK IRONCLAD” after her first engagement with the enemy in early 1862. When after only 30 minutes into the fight was damaged and had to withdraw. Painting from the USS Cairo Museum at Vicksburg National Military Park.	Bill Gonyo
	216k	19th century engraving from a sketch by RADM Henry A. Walke USN of USS Cairo sunk by a Confederate mine, in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, 12 December 1862. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo #: NH 2288.	Robert Hurst
	90k	Sketch of the wreckage of USS Cairo, entitled "Cairo Submerged", probably depicting the scene immediately after she was sunk by a Confederate mine in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, 12 December 1862. Note men sitting on projecting timbers and swimming in the water nearby. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo #: NH 55172, courtesy of Mrs. A Hopkins, 1927.	Robert Hurst
	106k	Cranes raising USS Cairo from the bottom of the Yazoo River, 1966. *USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum*, photo by Ken Parks.	Robert Hurst
	279k	USS Cairo salvage operations, 1961-1965, in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, where she was sunk by a Confederate mine on 12 December 1862. The mid-section of *Cairo, sitting on US Army barge BG-6381, was lifted separately when it was severed from the bow during salvage operations, August-December 1964. This section contained the gunboat's boilers. Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo # NH 55191*, courtesy of the "Vicksburg Evening Post."	Mike Green
	490k	The battered hulk of the USS Cairo in front of the entrance to the USS Cairo Museum at the Vicksburg National Military Park. Photo from "Hardluck Ironclad" by Edwin C. Bearss, 1966	Tommy Trampp
	210k	An undated image of USS Cairo on display at the Vicksburg National Military Park. Photo courtesy of James P. Delgado. Photo from "Lost Warships: An Archaeological Tour of War at Sea" by James P. Delgado.	Robert Hurst
	460k	an undated close-up view of the damaged area of USS Cairo with one of her guns. Photo courtesy of James P. Delgado. Photo from "Lost Warships: An Archaeological Tour of War at Sea" by James P. Delgado.	Robert Hurst
	491k	By studying contemporary documents and maps, Edwin C. Bearss, Historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, was able to plot the approximate site of the wreck of USS Cairo. With the help of a pocket compass and iron bar probes, Bearss and two companions, Don Jacks and Warren Grabau, set out to discover the grave of the *Cairo* in 1956. The three searchers were reasonably convinced they had found the *Cairo*, but three years lapsed before divers brought up armored port covers to positively confirm the find. A heavy accumulation of silt, swift current, and the ever-muddy river deterred the divers as they explored the gunboat. Local enthusiasm and interest began to grow in 1960 with the recovery of the pilothouse, an 8-inch smoothbore cannon, its white oak carriage and other artifacts well preserved by the Yazoo mud. With financial support from the State of Mississippi, the Warren County Board of Supervisors and funds raised locally, efforts to salvage the gunboat began in earnest. Hopes of lifting the ironclad and her cargo of artifacts in
098606421	279k	Salvage operations, 1961-1965, in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, where USS Cairo was sunk by a Confederate mine on 12 December 1862. Bow of USS Cairo resting on lifting barge (U.S. Army BG-6381) after being raised from the Yazoo River near Vicksburg, Mississippi, during salvage operations conducted between August and December 1964. Description: Courtesy of the "Vicksburg Evening Post." Catalog #: NH 55192 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command Original Creator: After this Year: 1960 Before this Year: 1969 Original Medium: BW Photo
098606422	378k	Salvage operations, 1961-1965, in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, where USS Cairo was sunk by a Confederate mine on 12 December 1862. 32-pound gun raised in salvage operations, about 1961. Description: Courtesy of the "Vicksburg Evening Post." Catalog #: NH 55189 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command Original Creator: After this Year: 1960 Before this Year: 1969 Original Medium: BW Photo
098606423	397k	Reassembled remains of the USS Cairo at Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi by Carol M. Highsmith, photographer
098606424	355k	Reassembled remains of the USS Cairo at Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi by Carol M. Highsmith, photographer
098606425	369k	Reassembled remains of the USS Cairo at Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi by Carol M. Highsmith, photographer
098606426	279k	George R. Yost 1st Class Boy. George Yost was only 14 when he served aboard the USS Cairo, yet he had the foresight to keep a journal of daily activities of the Union Gunboat. YostÕs journal survived *Cairo*'s sinking and helps others understand life aboard the ship.