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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Benton

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Stern-wheel Ironclad steamer:
  • Built in 1861 as Submarine No.7 by James B. Eads, as a catamaran snagboat at St. Louis, MO.
  • Converted to a gunboat at St. Louis, plated in front with 3" of iron backed by 30" of oak, sides and stern plated with 5/8" of iron
  • Commissioned, 24 February 1862, as USS Benton, LT. J. Bishop in command
  • During the Civil War USS Benton participated in the following engagements:
    Captures of Island Number Ten, Fort Pillow and Memphis in the Spring of 1862
    Action with the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas near Vicksburg, MS. in the Summer of 1862
    Yazoo River expedition in summer 1862
  • Transferred to US Navy control, 1 October 1862
    In September 1862 LCDR. William Gwin took command of the big ironclad Benton. On 27 December 1862, in a heated engagement with Confederate artillery on the Yazoo River, his ship was seriously damaged and Gwin mortally wounded. LCDR. William Gwin died from his wounds on 3 January 1863. In reporting his death to the Navy Department, Gwin's squadron commander, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, remarked: "The country has lost one of its bravest officers." Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress.
    Damaged by Confederate gunfire on the Yazoo River in December 1862
    Ran past Vicksburg, April 1863 and bombarded Grand Gulf, MS in May
    An attack on Fort De Russy, AR. in May
    The siege of Vicksburg. In March through May 1864
    The Red River expedition, in Louisiana in 1864
  • Decommissioned, 20 July 1865
  • Final Disposition, sold to D. Jacobs 29 November 1865 at Mound City for $3000 subsequently scrapped
    Specifications:
    Displacement 633 t.
    Length 202'
    Beam 72'
    Draft 9'
    Speed 5.5 kts
    Complement 176
    Armament
    two 9" smoothbores
    seven 32-pdr smoothbores
    seven 41-pdr rifles
    Propulsion steam
    one stern-wheel
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    St. Louis 114k "Bombardment and Capture of Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River, April 7, 1862."
    Colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives, New York, circa 1862. It depicts the bombardment of the Confederate fortifications on Island Number Ten by Federal gunboats and mortar boats. Ships seen include (from left to right):
    USS Mound City;
    USS Louisville;
    USS Pittsburgh;
    USS Carondelet;
    USS Benton;
    USS Cincinnati;
    USS Saint Louis;
    USS Conestoga.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # KN 9691    		 Robert Hurst
    St. Louis 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
    General Beauregard 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
    Benton 358k "Admiral Porter's Fleet Running the Rebel Blockade of the Mississippi at Vicksburg, April 16th 1863." Text under the print's title reads: "At half past ten P.M. the boats left their moorings & steamed down the river, the Benton, Admiral Porter, taking the lead -- as they approached the point opposite the town, a terrible concentrated fire of the center, upper and lower batteries, both water and bluff, were directed upon the channel, which here ran within one hundred yards of the shore. At the same moment innumerable floats of turpentine and other combustible materials were set ablaze. In the face of all this fire, the boats made their way with but little loss except the transport Henry Clay which was set on fire & sunk."
    Ships depicted are (from the front to the rear:
    USS Benton (flagship);
    USS Lafayette with
    USS General Price alongside;
    USS Louisville;
    USS Mound City;
    USS Pittsburgh;
    USS Carondelet; transports
    SS Silver Wave;
    SS Forest Queen;
    SS Henry Clay; and
    SS Tuscumbia.
    Currier & Ives, New York. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Beverley R. Robinson Collection.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 76557-KN (Color)    		 Robert Hurst
    Benton 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
    Benton
    098607314    		 313k Porter's flotilla below Vicksburg, Admiral Porter's flotilla of gunships and transports arrives below Vicksburg, 16 April 1863. General W. T. Sherman is rowing out to the flagship, USS Benton, in a yawl.
    "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers, based upon 'the Century War Series', 1887 volume 3. p.521" From the Mechanical Curator collection, a set of over 1 million images scanned from out-of-copyright books and released to Flickr Commons by the British Library.     		Robert Hurst
    Benton 48k "Attack on Grand Gulf," 29 April 1863, from Harper's Weekly.
    USS Benton,
    USS Lafayette,
    USS Tuscumbia,
    USS Carondelet,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Mound City, and
    USS Pittsburgh.
    		 Tommy Trampp
    Benton 155k "Battle of Grand Gulf, First position, R. Ad. D.D. Porter Commanding". Engraving published in Rear Admiral Henry Walke's Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States ... (1877), depicting U.S. Navy ironclads engaging Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, 29 April 1863. US ships present, as identified on the print, are (from left-center to right):
    USS Benton,
    USS Tuscumbia,
    USS Pittsburgh,
    USS Lafayette,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Baron de Kalb, (Identified in the engraving as St. Louis) and
    USS Carondelet,.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 1852    		 Robert Hurst
    Battle of Grand Gulf
    098677402    		 192k Battle of Grand Gulf, Second Position. The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. During Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg campaign, Union Army forces had failed in attempts to bypass the strategic city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant decided move his army south, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on Vicksburg. Seven Union Navy ironclad warships commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded Confederate fortifications at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, in preparation for a crossing of the river. Union fire was able to silence one of the two Confederate fortifications at Grand Gulf, but the position was still strong enough that Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere.
    USS Benton, mislabeled as Trenton
    USS Lafayette,
    USS Tuscumbia,
    USS Carondelet,
    USS Louisville,
    USS Mound City, and
    USS Pittsburgh.
    From p. 592 of the 1887 book 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers, based upon “the Century War Series"', volume 3. Uploaded by the British Library to Flickr    		 Tommy Trampp
    Choctaw 40k USS Choctaw and USS Benton on the Western Rivers, circa 1863.
    "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper", 22 August 1863.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Benton
    NH 56664    		 88k USS Benton off Natchez, Mississippi, in July 1864, with a tugboat alongside on her starboard quarter..
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photos # NH 56664 and NH 56665    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn and
    Robert Hurst
    Benton
    NH 56665    		 11k
    Benton 63k Wash drawing by F. Muller, circa 1900, depicting USS Benton on the Western Rivers during the Civil War. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
    US Navy photo # NH 55828 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command     		Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Benton 96k Wash drawing by R.G. Skerrett, 1900, depicting USS Benton off Natchez, MS., in July 1864. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
    US Navy photo # NH 75623 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command     		Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Benton 99k Inboard and outboard drawings prepared at the time USS Benton was converted for Civil War emplacement. "The Iron Clad Gunboat Benton designed and constructed by Jas. B. Eads, St. Louis, Mo. By order of Maj. Genl. J.C. Fremont, U.S.A.. Commanding Western Department -- Sept. 1861." Courtesy of Lieutenant Commander Lyle W. Eads, USN (Retired).
    US Navy photo # NH 68439 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command     		Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Benton
    098607313    		 122k USS Benton at Vicksburg,MS. probably in 1864.
    University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Library    		 John Spivey
    There is no DANFS history for USS Benton at NavSource
    Commanding Officers
    01LT. Bishop, Joshua24 February 1862 - 15 May 1862
    02LT. Phelps, Seth Ledyard11 May 1862 - 15 September 1862Photo as Midshipman c.1841
    03LCDR. Gwin, William15 September 1862 - 3 January 1863KIA
    04Acting Master Lord, George P.3 January 1863 - February 1863 
    05LCDR. Greer, James Augustine, ADM.February 1863 - September 1864Photo as Admiral
    06LCDR. May, Robert L.September 1864 - 7 November 1864 
    07LCDR. McCauley, Edward Yorke7 November 1864 - 20 July 1865 
    Courtesy Bill Gonyo and Robert Hurst
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Pook's Turtles by Aryeh Wetherhorn
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    Last Updated 13 June 2023