USS Moose (1863)
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States
|
|
| Ordered: | as Florence Miller II |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1863 |
| Acquired: | 20 May 1863 |
| Commissioned: | 20 May 1863 |
| Decommissioned: | 12 April 1865 |
| Struck: | 1865 (est.) |
| Fate: | sold, 17 August 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 189 tons |
| Length: | 154 ft 8 in (47.14 m) |
| Beam: | 32 ft 2 in (9.80 m) |
| Draft: | 5 ft (1.5 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 6 knots |
| Complement: | not known |
| Armament: | six 24-pounder guns |
USS Moose (1863) was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
Moose, a wooden sternwheel steam gunboat built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863 as Florence Miller II, was purchased at Cincinnati 20 May 1863, and commissioned immediately, Comdr. LeRoy Fitch in command.
Assigned to the Mississippi Squadron, the new gunboat departed Cincinnati 2 July 1863 to patrol the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, upstream. Morgan’s Raiders had captured Union ships John T. McComb and Alice Dean 7 July; Moose and USS Victory responded to the Confederate threat, arriving Brandenburg, Kentucky, 9 July.
Moose caught up with a guerrilla band at Twelve Mile Island 11 July; of the 1,500 Confederate troops trying to reinforce Morgan’s party, 45 crossed the Ohio River, 39 were held on the island and taken prisoner, some were drowned, and the rest driven back.
On 19 July, Moose and Allegheny Belle shelled Confederates on Buffington Island, and captured abandoned artillery. Continuing to patrol the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers during the summer, Moose had convoy duty on the Cumberland in October, and joined USS Fairplay, USS Springfield, USS Silver Lake, and Victory 8 November in defeating Confederate guerrillas attempting to cross the Ohio River. Returning from Harpeth Shoals and escorting 10 transports to Nashville, Tennessee, Moose lay below Dover 9 November planning the destruction of a guerrilla camp near Palmyra, a mission carried out with Victory in December.
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Wikipedia