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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Choctaw (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Ironclad Ram:
  • Built in 1853 as a commercial sidewheel steamer at New Albany, IN.
  • Purchased by the War Department in 1862, and converted to an iron-clad ram
  • Transferred to the Navy, 1 October 1862
  • Commissioned at St. Louis, MO. USS Choctaw, 23 March 1863, LCDR. F. M. Ramsay in command
  • During the Civil War USS Choctaw participated in the following actions while assigned to the Mississippi Squadron from 23 April 1863 to the end of the war
    Attack's at Haine's Bluff, 18 to 23 May 1863
    The action at Millkin's Bend, LA., 6 and 7 June 1863
    Operations leading to the capture of Fort DeRussy, between 7 March and 16 May 1864
  • Decommissioned, 20 July 1865, at Algiers, LA.
  • Final Disposition, sold at New Orleans, 28 March 1866, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,004 t.
    Length 245'
    Beam 37'
    Draft 8'
    Speed 2 kts
    Armor unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament unknown
    Propulsion steam
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Choctaw 40k USS Choctaw and USS Benton on the Western Rivers, circa August 1863. circa mid-July mid-August 1863.
    "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper", 22 August 1863.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Choctaw 122k "The Western Iron-clad Gun-boat Ram 'Lafayette.'"
    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1863. It actually depicts USS Choctaw, not USS Lafayette.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command # NH 58714    		 Robert Hurst
    Choctaw 176k "A Gun-boat and Mortar-boat"
    Line engraving from a 19th Century publication. It depicts the river ironclad USS Choctaw, at right, with a mortar schooner.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command # NH 42283    		 Robert Hurst
    Choctaw 99k USS Choctaw off Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863-65.
    US Navy photo # NH 55218 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Choctaw 136k USS Choctaw in the Western Rivers region during the Civil War, with her crew's laundry drying from a line rigged from the foremast to the bow.
    US Navy photo # NH 55215    		 US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Choctaw 70k USS Choctaw with a tug by her stern, in the Mississippi River area during 1863-65.
    US Navy photo # NH 55216    		 US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Choctaw 124k USS Choctaw crewmen on deck amidships, in 1863-65. This view looks forward from in front of the pilothouse, with the starboard smokestack in the left center background. The name "Choctaw" is visible on the cap ribbons of some of these men. Photo from the collection of RADM Ammen C. Farenholt, USN(MC), 1935.
    US Navy photo # NH 55577    		 Bill Gonyo
    Choctaw
    098608208    		 186k Water color painting of USS Choctaw by ENS. D. M. N. Stouffer, circa. 1864-65
    US Library of Congress, Watercolors of Civil War ironclads by Ens. D. M. N. Stouffer, ca. 1864-65.    		 Robert Hurst
    Choctaw
    098608209    		 66k Model of the ironclad ram USS Choctaw, 14 September 2010, location unknown.
    Photo by Chris Light    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Choctaw (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 3 December 2021