USS Lexington (1861)
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Lexington |
| Laid down: | 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 1861 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 July 1865 |
| Fate: | Sold, 17 August 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Steam Gunboat |
| Displacement: | 448 long tons (455 t) |
| Length: | 177 ft 7 in (54.13 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
| Speed: | 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) |
| Armament: |
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The third USS Lexington was a timberclad gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Lexington was built as a sidewheel steamer at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1861 and was purchased by the War Department and converted into a gunboat at Cincinnati, Ohio, under the direction of Commander John Rodgers.
The gunboat, operated by the navy, joined the army's Western Flotilla at Cairo, Illinois, 12 August 1861. On 22 August, she seized steamer W. B. Terry at Paducah, Kentucky, and on 4 September, with Tyler, she engaged Confederate gunboat Jackson and southern shore batteries at Hickman and Columbus, Kentucky. On 6 September, the two gunboats spearheaded General Ulysses S. Grant's drive to seize strategic Paducah and Smithland, Kentucky, at the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. In his first use of strength afloat, Grant countered a Confederate move into the state, helping preserve Kentucky for the Union and foreshadowing his skillful use of naval mobility and support during the coming campaigns which divided the Confederacy and won the entire Mississippi system for the Union.
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