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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Tuscumbia (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Side-wheel Gunboat:
  • Built in 1862 at New Albany, Indiana.
  • Launched 2 December 1862
  • Commissioned USS Tuscumbia, 12 March 1863, at Cairo, IL., LCDR. James W. Shirk in command
  • During the Civil War USS Tuscumbia participated in the following actions / expeditions and campaigns:
    Assisted in the recapture of Fort Heiman, on the Tennessee River, 12 to 14 March 1863
    Supported amphibious operations against Vicksburg
    Attack on the Confederate works at Grand Gulf, 29 April 1863, suffering five casualties and put out of action, taking 81 hits
    Fired upon Vicksburg batteries, 19 to 22 May 1863
    Laid up at Memphis, TN. in November 1863
    Reactived in May 1864, assigned to patrol duty from Cairo, IL, to the head of the Tennessee River.
    Inactivated in February 1865 at Mound City, IL.
  • Sold at auction at Mound City to W. H. Adams, 29 November 1865
  • Final Disposition: After sale, she was stripped of iron plating, etc. and was beached near the mouth of the Cache River where she lay until October 1870 when the woodwork was burned to clear the river.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 915 t.
    Length 175'
    Beam 72'5"
    Draft 8'1"
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    three 11" Dahlgren smoothbores
    two 9" Dahlgren smoothbores
    Propulsion
    steam engine(s)
    two side-wheels
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Tuscumbia 71k USS Tuscumbia in mid-stream on the Western Rivers, circa 1863.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 49800.    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Tuscumbia 62k USS Tuscumbia moored to the shore on the Western Rivers, circa 1863.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 49998.    		 Aryeh Wetherhorn
    Tuscumbia 123k USS Tuscumbia tied up with other ships, on the Western Rivers, circa 1863. USS Linden ("Tinclad" # 10) is moored outboard of Tuscumbia. Two mortar boats, one with a 13-inch mortar on board, are inboard. Note damage to the rear of Tuscumbia's starboard paddle box.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 55214.    		 US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Choctaw 48k "Attack on Grand Gulf," 29 April 1863, from Harper's Weekly.
    The attack by 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
    USS Tuscumbia (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 15 June 2023