On 16 December 1862, David D. Porter, the Acting Rear-Admiral for the Commanding Mississippi Squadron, sent men to obtain steamers from A.M. Pennock, Fleet Captain and Commandant. The men Porter sent had been serving on the USS Cairo prior to its being sunk on December 12.

The Cairo was the first City class Ironclad gunboat, which was constructed by the Union Navy during the American Civil war. It had been clearing underwater mines from the Yazoo River in perpetration of the Unions attack on Haines Bluff, Mississippi. It was here that the Cairo struck an under water friction mine and began to sink. It took twelve minutes for the ship to be completely submerged and every member of the crew was able to make it off. The Cairo was the first armored warship to be sunk by an underwater mine.

The Cairo, built by James Eads and Company was a steam powered, paddle wheeled propelled gunboat. Her armament at the time of completion included three eight inch smoothbore cannon, six forty pounder rifles, six thirty two pounder rifles and one twelve pounder rifle.

The Cairo saw action in the occupation of Clarksville and Nashville Tennessee. It was used in an engagement against eight confederate gunboats in the rivers off of Memphis, Tennessee on 6 June 1862. During the battle, the seven union ships were able to sink five enemy gunboats, while two were ran ashore and one managed to escape. It was a victory for the Union because none of their ships were sunk.

After her death in the Yazoo River, the Cairo began to fade from memory. The Cairo’s watery grave covered her in a blanket of silt and sand in turn preserving the ship and many precious artifacts inside. She was rediscovered in the in 1965 by Edwin C. Bearss and his team of divers. Local support and enthusiasm grew and, in 1960, the State of Mississippi granted Warren County financial aid to help the effort to raise and salvage the gunboat. The boat was raised in three pieces in 1965 and towed to Vicksburg National Military Park, where it was restored and remains on display.

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Photo Credit: USS Cairo, 1962. From the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Meet the Author: Adam Zimmer

Adam Zimmer is a student at Schoolcraft College